Bath time terrors Post Reply

[mummimimi]

My lovely 20 month old son has very suddenly developed a massive aversion to bath time. He has always loved bath time but on Monday night, he screamed blue murder when it was time to get in. I've never heard him so distressed; it was impossible to tell whether it was pain or fear. Over the past couple of nights we've tried getting in with him, buying fun new toys and offering prizes but to no avail. He just screams with tears pouring down his face begging to go upstairs and put his pyjamas on.
I just feel so sorry for him and have no idea where this fear has come from: he hasn't slipped or had any accidents.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas as to what to try next?
Any advice very gratefully received!

[twice_as_nice]

My daughter did exactly the same thing at the same age. We never worked out why.

We did same things as you (getting in with her / new toys etc) which didn't really work. In the end we just lay off trying for a few days and then tried again and she was ok

Good luck

[carissab]

Do you have a shower head? Sometimes when Bath's become scary for whatever reasons, hoping in the shower wih mummy or daddy is a great alternative. Obviously not something you want to continue forever doing, but lets you get the job done while the fears subside. The other option is hoping in the bath first and seeing if that helps, seeing you happy and safe in there might ease the fear and want to join in the fun.

Also look at how often you bath as nightly bathing can come a bit boring. I only ever bathed my boys 2 times a week during the week, and a shower on a weekend. If not old enough to stand up we would hold them and wash them. As babies they loved this and gives great bonding time.

[cosmopolitanmum]

same thing happened to us. i would also say dont force it. try cleaning him with a wet flannel if he refuses to take the bath. we ended up bathing my little one in an ikea storage crate for almost a month! i think she found it less intimidating than the big bath. also we did it downstairs so it seemed more like paddling pool fun. we also filled it with toys and took her time to actually get in. eventually we got her back in the bath and i am sure you will too! Good luck!

[kiwimummy]

Ours did the same around the same age. We got her old baby bath out of storage and bathed her in that for a while (which did get a bit ridiculous).

Also we found sharing the bath with another child helped a lot - we only needed to do that once with her cousin, and she was fine after that.

[mummimimi]

Thank you all for your advice: he'll be in the paddling pool tonight!

[Karin1979]

Good luck, I'll use some of that advice too .. Thank you from me too

[tamara]

Hi
We had EXACTLY this at the same age.

Turned out he'd had an ear infection and so probably had found the water painful

Took a while but he did get over it!

T

[daddy72]

My daughter suddenly started to do this a while ago. I think it was down to me pulling the plug and the gurgling plughole scaring her. She's over it now but is still vary wary - If her toys float towards that plug area she give me a big "oh-oooohhhh" and won't go near them.

[bamse]

This also happened to my son around the same age. It lasted a couple of weeks. I ended up not bathing him for about a week & then he was back to normal again!