Sudden bathtime anxiety

[Michelle D]

My darling 10 month old son has recently started to cry A LOT during his bath.   The minute I sit him down in the water he puts his arms in the air crying to be rescued.  The longer I try to console him the more he persists.  He will start to stand up and the cries get louder and more horrific.  I tried a few experiments like putting him in the baby tub (which sits in the actual tub) with no water and he began to cry.  I removed the baby tub and placed him in the regular tub with no water and he didn't cry but wanted me right there.  Then I took baby tub out of the bathroom completely and placed it on the bedroom floor and sat him in it (no water) and of course big smiles.  I am wondering if he has suddenly become afraid of water?  This was something that literally changed overnight and I just can't figure out why? Can anyone relate?  Please help

[Brandonsmom]

Hi there! Does he have any diaper rash? Our DS started this when he had a case of it. It took a couple of nights of standing him up and just splashing his body with water to get him used to the bath again. And this was after the diaper rash healed. Maybe he doesn't like your regular tub. You could try just sitting his tub on the bathroom floor with a little water in it, or giving him a sponge bath in it.

[Jimbob]

It might be worth getting in the bath with him and see if this helps. Both my children liked sharing baths with myself or dh at this age. They now both prefer having a bath together and have great fun. I know my ds who suffers with eczema does not like them so much when he is flared so it could be that he may have a little nappy rash and the water is makingit sting. Hope you find the cause soon.

[linfran]

DS went through this about 2 months ago.  He is now 18mo LOVES his bath but went through a stage of spending less and less time in the bath before refusing to get in at all, crying if he even touched the water.  We don't know what set him off, could have been getting his hair washed or slipping on the surface of the bath.

We ended up filling a little washing up bowl with warm water and bubble bath and putting some of his toys in.  We put towels on the floor of the bathroom so he could splash if he wanted.  At the start he wouldn't put his hands in at all but played with the toys and I managed to just top and tail him.  Finally he started putting his hands into the soapy suds and once he was OK with that we began putting the washing up bowl into the empty bath so he would do the same thing in the empty bath.

He started showing curiosity about the taps so as each evening progressed we added a little warm water to the bath as he sat in it, always starting when he was sitting in it empty.  Little by little we added more water each evening and eventually he went back to the usual routine and woul get into the bath when the water was in it.

For us the key was trying things really slowly and gently - it took us about 6 weeks to get back on track but I honestly don't believe we could have done anything different.