Afraid of Taking a Bath !!!!

Marda is totally right on. Your son may not have realized something "bad" happened but now is afraid something shocking may happen (poop or the aftermath). Just skip the bath for a couple days and then allow him to stand in the bathtub for a while just so you can wash him off. My son went through a fear of bathtubs after we remodeled our baths. After a few weeks of letting him stand I made him sit and them gave him his favorite treats. No issues ever after that.

If you became upset when he pooped in the water, I suggest that he's afraid he'll do it again and upset you. I suggest that pooping in the water happens more often than we realize because bath time relaxes baby and the poop just comes out. Your son is unable to control it.

I also suggest that it's not a big deal. Poop is clean until it's exposed to air which allows bacteria to grown. I just scoop it out and continue with the bath without saying anything.

I think you're on the right tract to just not have baths for a couple or more days and thus give him time to forget about it. If you did get upset it might help for you to tell him you're not upset with him; that you were surprised and worried but that you now know it's OK and won't get upset again.

I suggest that even if you weren't upset, that the sudden stopping of fun, draining the tub and quickly trying to turn on the shower was upsetting to him. He didn't understand and assumed something bad happened.

Hi!

You post totally reminded me of my God-daughter! (and made me LOL at the memory) When she was almost 2, I had her in the tub so she would be ready when her parents picked her up. All of a sudden, she pooped!! As soon as she saw it, she JUMPED and I do me JUMPED out of the tub ASAP! She was TERRIFIED and wanted NOTHING to do with the tub after that for quite sometime. We had to give her showers and show her that nothing was in the tub. She's seven now and takes showers/ baths just fine, but still doesn't like anything in the tub. (except toys...) even a hair! (which is funny cuz she has TONS of beautiful hair.) My advice, just keep reassuring him that the tub is fine and make sure no little "extras" (i.e hair) are in the tub, and he'll come around.

Blessings!! :-)

My son did the same exact thing at about the same age. I didn't freak when he did it, but he did. I think was more the foreign object in the water that scared him. After that he was scared of every little speck of dirt and piece of lint in the tub water. He has always hated the shower head so that wasn't option for us. I still continued to give him a bath and told him that he could either take a bath or a shower. He would stand in the bath and i would give him a washcloth bath. That lasted for about 2 weeks and one night he just decided that he wanted to play in the the bath again so he sat down in the tub water. Like most phases - this too shall pass. Hang in there:-)

This happened to my child as well. Hopefully the other advice you received will work, and your son will be fine after a couple of days without a bath. That didn't happen for me. What finally worked for me was putting my daughter in a swim diaper -- then she didn't feel the "danger" of pooping in the tub, and she could just relax. After about a couple of weeks with the swim diaper, she enjoyed the bath again, and didn't need the diaper any more. Just something that worked for me. Good luck!