HATES bathtime...

[danas]

Hi there,

My 11 month old LO is a happy little girl.  Sleeps great (day and night) and everything is going well, except bathtime...  She get herself in a right state everytime we take her upstairs at the end of the day for her to get ready for bed (bath, change, BF).  She literally fusses/cried from the moment we start to undress her until she is BF before bed.  It is getting so bad that now when i take her upstairs during the day and into our room (where we unchange her for her bath) she starts to make unhappy noises!  It seems to have gotten worse when we moved her from the newborn/toddler tub to the big tub, but she is way too big now to fit.

We have tried bathing her in the AM, but it doesn't work with our schedule at all.  It has been part of her bedtime routine since she was 2 months old.

I don't think it is an issue with our schedule, as she would be happy as a clam for a while longer if we just continued reading or playing.  The bathing seems to be the trigger.

Any suggestions how to make this time fuss-free, so she can relax and enjoy it?

Thanks!

Dana

[Jiinx]

Hi Dana,
 I've been thinking about this since you posted..I moved it to activity as I didn't think it was an EASY issue..

 When you bathed her in the AM, was she as fussy?

[danas]

Thanks Sarah.  Not as fussy, but still doesn't love it.  Especially anything to do with washing her hair...  Would love suggestions from Mums on how they made bathtime fun (obviously I am not doing a good job of that!)

Thanks for moving this to the right place!

[anna*]

I think they all go through stages of hating bathtime, and I think the best thing you can do is not force the issue. She doesn't need to have a bath every day, so I would keep it to maybe just twice a week, or once and then maybe go swimming one time? Don't make the hair washing worse by using shampoo, at this age just a quick rinse through with water is plenty. And if she is really hating the bath i would just bypass it altogether for a few weeks, and wipe her down with a warm flannel - then from there you could move on to having a sponge bath in the bath but with no water, and then playing with bath toys in the empty bath, and then adding just a tiny bit of water and encouraging her to splash and play etc...

Finally if she's less fussy aout it in the AM, do it then. There's no reason it needs to be part of the evening wind-down.

[Discombobulated]

My lad had the same problem (almost 6 months old).  We sorted it by having a bath with him.  He loves that as he can sit on or between your legs.  Also bf in the bathroom/bath helped loads. I'm sure you are doing this already but make sure the room is nice and warm:)

[Jiinx]

still thinking...
Maybe she doesn't enjoy her hair being touched/washed? You could try patting it or just putting water in it? Is she okay with her hair being played with or put into a pony/clips etc?

[~*Nicole*~]

DD went through this same phase. It didn't last that long. I did bath every other night AT MOST which helped save MY sanity. Plus, she wasn't getting all that dirty and I'd wipe her hands, face, feet down before bed so she was clean for PJs and sheets. She is fine with a bath now but still not a huge fan of having her hair washed. She'll tolerate it b/c I say it has to be cleaned, but I try to do it as fast as possible for her! We did have the sitting up bath seat for her until she started standing in it and had to move her to the big bath....maybe something like that would help?

[danas]

Thanks everyone.  We made it part of our nightime routine since she was 2 months and she is a great sleeper, so didn't want to change it too much.  Really when I think about it, she is fine as long as no water touches her hair...  I'll try without wetting her hair tonight and see if that is better.