Scared of Bath???

Howdy all.

DS who is 13mo has decided he is now scared of the bath. I'm not sure why this has started.
I generally do 90% of the bathing (bit of father / son time) and he has shown no signs of being scared in the past.
We did make a little change where we got rid of the non-slip rubber bath mat and put in come non-slip stickers. Then last night as soon as i put him in the bath he started crying. He didn't try and get out or anything, just sat there crying....
So we put the rubber bath mat back in thinking he didn't like the brightly coloured stickers, and tonight he did the same thing.

I even had the bath empty of water, and i sat in the bath to show him all was good, but he still started to cry as soon as i started to lift him in.

Has anyone else come across this problem? DW thinks he may know that bath time means bed time soon after....:help:

Thanks in advance.
Mick

Have you tried distracting him in the bath with bubbles or some bath toys? Often Maddy screams blue muder (she hates being naked) but the moment she sits in amongst bubbles, its all ok?

Does he have nappy rash at all? Perhaps if he does, its a little sore when it gets wet?

Also, have you tried taking a bath with him? Maybe that'll allay his fears a bit?

Good luck! :)

My son Aidyn has periodically had irrational fears about bath/shower time.
I agree that its best to make it as fun as possible with bubbles, or by hopping in the bath with them.

When Aidyn went through those periods of bath/shower fear they would last anywhere from 1 week - 1 month.
Goodluck, and I hope your DS is enjoying his bath again soon!

Well I dont know what we did, but DS is back to enjoying his bath. He has a bit of a grizzle as his feet touch the water, but soon starts splashing about.

Bath time has always been fun, (the amount of water on the floor proves that) and the only thing that we can think that he went off baths for a couple of days was the draining of the water.....???

Thanks

Mick

Yes we now wait till our son is out of the bathroom area before draining the bath. We had a period of this as well and seriously you would have thought we were killing him or soemthing, the screams were curdling. He still a bit funny to go in but at least he isn't doing the blood curdles getting in, being in and getting out. We also use lots and lots of bubbles lol.

Love

*bump*

Matilda is going through this at the moment. Matilda will NOT get into the bath at all. I have decided its the drain because she'll have a shower with us fine, but if we shower in the bath she won't let us plug the hole. It becomes terrorising screams & we decided we wouldn't fight that battle atm. (too many others to fight ;) ) She has bubbles & gets to choose the toys going in and is happy to do that, but the minute we put her in its the end of the world. I've been in the bath to receive her & it doesn't change it.

Anyone else going through this again or for the first time?

We've just been through this recently and it lasted about a week. We still don't know what caused it to be honest! We found that taking Jacob's little baby doll into the bath and making a fuss over washing her hair, cleaning her teeth and that kind of thing did the trick!!!

We were just given a bath kit for dolls...so we may start bathing her dolls more & talking about having fun in the bath... may need to get a baby doll we can take into the bath too. Good idea Mel!

Aidyn went through this phase as well for at least 3 weeks just recently. But thankfully has been fine about it again for about a week now which is good. Its pretty traumatic for him, as we dont have a bathtub, so he HAS to have a shower, which means most of the time we have to force him to have one whilst he is screaming and crying about it :( During those times if he's not really dirty I would skip showering him every 2nd night and just sponge him down... I just couldnt handle the stress. I have no idea what causes it, and no idea what makes him ok with it all again suddenly...??? :dunno:

yup lani is going through this right now lol, she just won't sit down in the bath she stands there holding onto the bath screaming and saying no. she has a bath with her brother and he tries to help by playing with her etc but to no avail. i try not to let her get the better of me on this one, cause she really does need a bath every night (my little girl loves mud lol) so i make sure she sits down, once shes down she is fine and stops crying and says hooray - she doesn't like the shower yet so i don't even go there. i seem to remember ds going through something similar around the same age. i am just perservering tho.

christy that dolls bath stuff sounds good - what is it, where can i get it, how much lol - lots of questions but this may be a good pressie for her for her birthday.

my poor ds complains that with all this screaming she is giving him a headache lol.

I've just PM'd you a link to something that is like it with heaps more accessories, we just have the stand thing...