22mths suddenly HATES bath time

[huntersmummyinoz]

pretty sure last time i was over here was because he didnt want to get out of the bath

anyway, over the last week he either doesnt want to get in the bath and needs much convincing or he gets in but wants out after only a couple of minutes. he's a touchy little guy, so bath time has always been a good way of helping him chill out and play quietly in preparation for bedtime and i've noticed he has had a harder time falling asleep the last few nights so am super keen to try and sort this out.

at first i thought it was boredom as we've recently moved back to oz from the uk and had only a few bath toys, but our sea freight turned up 2 days ago and even with different toys in there it's making no difference. the only other reason i can think is that about 2 weeks ago he finally started weeing in his potty before bath time, which we then flush and say goodbye to the wees... so wondered if maybe he is suddenly worried about the drain in the bath or something?? who knows??

we do showers once a week instead which he loves but it's hard to get him out without dramas and as i mentioned before he doesnt chill out so much in the shower as he does in the bath.

long story short, anyone got ideas on how i can make him like the bath again??

kirry

[EloysH]

Kirry, J is not very confident with water and we've been through a few bath rejections with him. The root of it has been that he got a scare in the bath, - too big a splash or slipped over, something like that.  We have just had to start from scratch and ease him slowly back in. For instance when he slipped, we let him stand in the bath and sit only when he felt like it, we would suggest to sit, but let him actually do it, after a week or so he was back to sitting.     

Another time, he wouldn't get in a he slipped on the way in, so we would let him go in his own time,  and if it was taking too long make up a song about the boy called Jarrah who hopped up on the step and went into the bath, as he needed to hop up we put our hand and help him up, sometimes that worked he would be enchanted by the song.

Even now, if he has had a rough day, he doesn't want a bath, so we do a quick wash over ,  that's maybe once a fortnight for a rin of a few days.

[RachelC]

Try this link http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=148004.0 (and there's another link in there)

[huntersmummyinoz]

thanks ladies, got some great ideas there that we'll start trying tonight, fingers crossed

[EloysH]

OMG  Kirry, cna I just jump in here,   J has bene absolutely awful with getting splashed,  he's soo casred of splashes, we have been getting no where with swimming lessons for the last 6 weeks.  I just cancelled the lessons as he was truly traumatised and decided that he needs to have his little plastic bath in the shower with Dad everynight to get used to the splashes.  Well after 3 night s can I report that for the first time my little boy has been happy to get his hiar wet and "eat" the water sprays in the shower with Dad!!!   we still have far to go, but have made so much more progress at hime that the sutpid swimming lessons!!!  So sometimes I guess it just takes some creative thinking and a new approach to figure out the problem and solution.....

[huntersmummyinoz]

so guess we wont be heading to the aquatic centre on thursday

we have gone to bathing with him for the moment. DH did the first night and i've dont the last 2 as DH has been away. also taking lots of cups and his little watering can into the bath which he LOVES filling up from the tap. and then last night i got out about 5 mins before the end (made sure there was only a couple of inches of water left in the bath, seems to help) and he continued playing. he keeps talking about the drain so i think that may be part of the problem as it's quite noisy when it drains so have been teaching him to splash when the water runs out and that gets rid of most of the noise and he's happy for now (asked him if he wanted to get out first before pulling the plug but has said no the last 3 nights). best of all, last night he actually asked to get in the bath so yes small steps here too, will gradually build up time he has on his own in the bath and then try DH or i sitting on the side of the bath in a week and see how that goes. DH also said there was a bad hairwashing experience just over a week ago, went to rinse water off and hunter pulled the facewasher off his eyes so it poured all over his face and he freaked out a little, so guess that could have been a trigger too.

fun and games isnt it!

[EloysH]

hey hey  sounds like you're making great progress! We reverted  to bathing with Jarrah quite a few times to bulid his confidence up and that worked a treat.  Silly drain, why does it have to be so loud?

hmm the aquatic centre... maybe stick to land at the moment...

[AshleyB]

I had a similar situation a few weeks ago. Some suggested to me that since the bath was right before bed, that Chandler was tired and wanting to move the routine on to the next step because she was ready to go to sleep. This was also after the time change, so it made sense. For about a week or so we had to scrub her right away because she wanted out of the bath after only a few minutes. Now, however, she's back to her long-bath-playing ways. It'll probably pass.

[huntersmummyinoz]

thanks ashley, we are all good again. took about 3 weeks of bathing with him and then towards the end we were getting in just for a short while then letting him continue playing gradually increasing his time in there on his own. then moved to sitting on the edge of the bath and then he was fine again. have started rotating bath toys too which seems to help keep him interested.