Afraid of the Bath

When my first daughter went through this, we brought (blowing) bubbles to the tub, I blew bubbles over her head and when she saw them, I said, "Magic".... she loved to pop the bubbles as they fell down and she forgot about being scared at bathtime because she would remind me we needed to get the bubbles. Also, using them in the tub, no clean up, just be careful not to get them in the little ones eyes.

Hi M.-

For some reason my 21 month old daughter did the same thing. I brought out the crayons you use in the tub and she was back to herself.

Good luck
J.

Maybe try bathing him in the kitchen sink for a while until whatever is going on with him passes. I remember my kids doing this too. I always figured it was because they were extra tired or there was something going on in the house that they didn't want to miss out on! My 3 year old still occasionally wants to bath in the sink, especially if her brothers are playing games or watching a good movie. That way she doesn't miss a thing!

Good Luck!

This seems to be a frequent question that I hear from moms and it happened to us too. Maybe there was a time when the water scared them or maybe the water got in their eyes and hurt. I don't know, but we dealt with it too. We actually had to take a bath with our daughter a couple of times to get her calm once again in the bath. That seemed to help. OH - I think the trigger in our case was we put her in the bath tub before we filled it up with water and she saw the water coming into the tub and I think that scared her. Good luck!

He might be afraid of the tub now for some reason. What i would do is give him a bath in the kitchen sink. I know he may be alittle big for this but for some reason he sees this very big tub as a threat to him. Try this and see how it goes. Good Luck

Oh no, I didn't know there was a phase like this. My daughter hasn't hit that yet. However, my daughter loves to shower with me. Maybe you could try that until he's over this fear.

Have you tried a bath in the kitchen sink? My boys loved that - the 24 mo. old still fits, and we do it every once in a while for fun. Just an idea....
Good luck!
C.

Try "bird baths" instead. Fill up the sink, have him sit on the edge. Just wash with a washcloth w/ his feet in the water. Unless he's really messy w/ food in his hair, he doesn't need a real bath but once, maybe twice a week. Bird baths are the way to go and help save his skin from the chlorine in our tap water...

Have you left him alone for a minute or two? To answer a phone or get him another toy, any reason? Something must have scared him. Maybe he snorted a little water up his nose...that would scare him. Try just sponge bathing him like when he was a baby baby...just on the kitchen counter or somewhere away from the tub for a while. Maybe he sat on his "little package". Who knows. Good luck Mommy. Hey, maybe the soap is irretating him?????

My son refused bath after he turned one. We bought a little rug for the bottom of the big bathtub and he takes showers now (I shower him with a hand held shower and he helps). He loves it and he is just as relaxed and clean in the end!
Y..

Though it's been many years (my babies are in college) this is precisely what happened with my daughter. She loved bath time and then, all of a sudden, she was terrified and I couldn't link it to anything at all. We backed right off because she was so clearly afraid. I still ran her a bath, asked her if she wanted in, suggested calmly that it would be fun but then said, "well, let's just get washed off then" and gave her a sponge bath. That was fine with her but by day 3 I was a internally thinking that she was starting to really need a bath...

Right then, Mr. Rogers (RIP) came on with an episode where he calmly sat on the lid of the toilet, splashed his hand in the bath water and sang" No, you'll never go down, you'll never go down, no, you'll never go down the drain." Abby was completely transfixed by this segment so when it was rebroadcast that afternoon I videotaped it (right. years ago.).

So, laugh if you will (I did and I'm a child and family therapist, not of Freudian ilk) but that was the issue apparently. All I know is that she watched it about 100 times over the next day or two, I said "that's right, you're too big to go down the drain" and then she matter-of-factly started taking baths again.

I have no idea where you would find that old episode or whether that has anything to do with what's going on, but we've often laughed about our debt to Mr. Rogers. You may need to just find a way to do a demo and then delay draining the tub after bath time for a while.

BTW- my daughter is now a master diver majoring in marine science. :-)

He may have noticed the drain and may now fear going down with the water. Talk to him about the drain in terms he will understand.

Hi M.,

I FORGOT about that phase! Something to look forward to with our second :-)

As I remember, it was short-lived. I got in the tub with our daughter a couple times - this too shall pass!

N.