Bath Time

[dwmum]

Help, my DD (3 months) has decided she hates bath time, I have tried all I can think of but nothing seems to work. DH helps, as does DS (5 years), all to no avail. it has got so bad I now dread bath time, as it can sometimes take upto 15 minutes to calm her down after and I hate seing her so upset. she used to love baths please share any tips you have to help get her laughing again at bath time. Thanks

[tinyfeet]

Could be the temperature of the water. Too hot or too cold? We thought DD hated the bath, but it turned out that the water was too hot - I realized after a friend checked for me. Also, do you have a nice pad or something like a towel to put her in. Perhaps she doesn't like the hard surface of the tub. HTH.

[SofiaAmes]

Why don't you take a break for a few days. Just wipe her "stinky" bits with a flannel and give her a chance to forget about whatever it is that she doesn't like about the bath. It certainly won't hurt her not to have a daily bath.

[lou33]

This happened to me with dd1, and I did what SofiaAmes suggests. It was a while before she would go back in, but until then I just washed her with a flannel. She turned into a water baby after about 6 months of age.

[sprout]

Don't forget there's no rule that says you have to bath babies every day. In Germany, for example, they say once a week is more than enough, as it just dries out their delicate skin and then you have to put lots of oil/cream full of chemicals on to compensate. So don't feel guilty (easier said than done ) if you just bathe her once a week, and clean up the messy bits with a damp flannel the rest of the time.

[ninja]

There's another thead at the moment 'bathtime blues' someone with exactly the same age kid - there might be some more suggestions there.

My dd at 3 months started to considerably less enthusiastic and I wondered if it was that the newborn swim instinct was going (she was the same in the swimming pool - OK but not kicking about as much). Have you taken her swimming?

Also do you bath with your dd? even if she doesn't want to splash about she can lie back on your knee and gaze into your eyes or go on her front on your chest (dd loves this)

[Jenie]

Ds only gets bathed once every 4 days due to eczma, doctors orders. I just wipe the stinky bits with water and it helps to keep his skin from getting too dry.

Keeping babies too clean is a bad thing for their skin and their immune systems.

[twiglett]

message withdrawn

[dwmum]

Thanks for all of the advice, will try leaving it for a while then, and see how we go. Not tried swimming yet as to scared she will scream the swimming pool down!!!
Will let you know how we get on .

[Ghosty]

dwmum ... my ds was the same and hated swimming pools too.
The only way he tolerated the bath was if one of us was in there too!
He got over it by about 5 months and just adores the bath and is a real water baby ... (he is 3 yrs old now and goes swimming every week!)