Bathtub Issues with 16 Month Old

Might be a silly question, but how long are you away from home? Can you just wait and give him a bath when you get back? Waiting 7-10 days to get a bath has never killed anyone in all of history that I am aware of... you could always spot clean him with a soapy washcloth if he needs it, but why put yourselves through all this trauma over getting in a full bath, if it can be avoided?

My newborn (5th child) had hip dysplasia and had to wear a harness that we could not even take off for diapering let alone take off for a shower.... After that first month, we could finally take it off 1 hr. per day so I could finally put it through the wash and give him a bath.

Bathing so often is really something common to us in the USA, but is not really necessary. With 5 kids at our house, our kids are usually scheduled to only get 2 baths per week. Oftentimes with all the activities we have going on, it only happens once. No biggie. Hope this helps you to put bath time into perspective. :-)

~ A mom that's learned to relax and not worry about the small stuff

Do you still have his baby bath tub? You could bring it with you and bathe him in his baby tub inside the big tub. That might ease his fear, by having something familiar to him. My daughter still fits in hers at 15 months old. Good luck!

Would he fit in one of those inflatable tubs? We used that as a transition between the infant tub and the regular tub for my two daughters. We used that at home in the regular tub and also took it with us when we went out of town. You would have to deflate and then re-inflate it, though! But this might ease his discomfort with the unfamiliar surroundings...

My little guy is the exact same way! I don't know what it is about other bath tubs, but he is scared of them. Likewise, scared when we get home. We were just on vacation last week with this issue. I can't say I have any advice, but I wanted you to know that I am in the same boat! I will be keeping an eye on the responses to see what others say!

My daughter was afraid of my parents and my friend's tub. I realized it was because their tubs are slippery on the bottom. I purchased a shower floor mat for the bottom of my parents' tub. That seemed to help a lot! Hope this helps.

Try bringing along his favorite bath toys. Perhaps when he sees that they are there he will feel better about the situation. Mine just recently went through a similar phase where bath time was the devil...we were traveling a lot and he just started liking it again. I had to make it really fun with lots of toys to throw out and mom throw back in, squirters, and wall stick toys (I don't know what they are they're foamy and stick to wet walls). He loves these and I'm going to try taking them with next time....maybe if they're having fun in the tub he'll want to join.