Meltdown after bath - any ideas?

[anna*]

Not sure if this comes under 'A' or 'S'...

It's not a big deal really, but it spoils the end of every single day for Stanley (7.5months). And his days and nights are so great on EASY, it's hard for me to hear him so upset and see him shaking with rage when I get him into his nappy and nightclothes after his bath!

I've tried drying and dressing him in the bathroom on the changing mat straight after the bath, and tried taking him into his room and changing him in there, but it always just ends up with furious screaming. Of course it's almost bedtime, so he's tired (although not overtired) and he's anticipating his BF before bed, but he's not terribly hungry (I don't think) as he's had solids at 4.30 or 5. Honestly I think he's got into the habit of screaming about getting dressed. He doesn't love getting dressed at other times but he doesn't scream about it! I wish we could have a nice happy getting-ready-for-bed-time!

anna
x

[Samuel's mum]

This might be related to temperature change. How warm or drafty is the room you are in?

The most likely thing though is tiredness - can you post your routine?

[anna*]

When I get him dressed in the bathroom, there's not really much temperature change - the room is warm and I have the door closed so there's no draught. At this point I feel like in the habit of starting to scream as soon as I start putting his nappy on; I tried dressing him in his room (which is cooler than the bathroom) just to change things up but it didn't make any difference. A few weeks ago he started transitioning from 3 to 2 naps per day. He usually starts showing signs of being sleepy (rubbing his eyes) when he's in the bath. Our routine usually looks something like this (and the 'A' times include solids):

EA: 7
S: 9.30
EA: 11
S: 2
EA: 3.30
bath: 6.15
BF: 6.45
sleep: 7
DF: 10.15

[ark]

My DS went through this too.  He is now almost a year and is better.  It seemed to help if I gave him a toy or something interesting (lotion bottle) to distract him.  I would also sometimes just sit him on the floor and try to get him changed etc as he played.  This is a little more challenging, but he was happier.  I think in general my DS was just tired and less willing to put up with me inconveniencing him!!

[anna*]

I'm glad to hear it got better eventually! I generally try to give Stan a toy too - sometimes it helps a little, other times not at all.

anna
x

[Alibobs]

Our dd hated having a bath at night-time. It always ended in a complete meltdown, although that sometimes happened in the bath too. We switched her bath to the morning, after breakfast, and we found that bedtime improved dramatically and no major tantrums. We found that it didn't take much more time up in the morning than washing anyway, so worked well for us. At night, she still had a routine, but without the bath.

Hope you find a solution too.

[anna*]

Thanks Alison! He absolutely loves his bath... I really like having it as part of the bedtime routine (apart from the screaming part  ) because he enjoys it so much and he's pretty much always happy to have a bath at what can otherwise be a difficult time of day (starting to get tired). What do you do for your bedtime winddown/routine?

anna
x

[Samuel's mum]

I guess if he's woken at 3.30 then it might simply be tiredness by 6.15pm. And it will get better.
If you've got that long A time after 3.30 could bathtime just come earlier? It won't be so close to bedtime but if he's in pyjamas by 5pm you could just do playtime in pyjamas. Then gradually extend it by a few minutes each night.

[TDR'smom]

Tyler would do this from time to time at that age.  It was usually because he was tired.....

It will pass!