16 month old suddenly petrified of bath

[waterjungle]

Hi there, My 16 month old has always had a bath every night as part of his bedtime routine, he has always loved it.
Last week he decided he did NOT love it anymore - not just would rather not - complete fear. The minute we start to undress him, even approaching the bathroom brings on panicked tears. It's like trying to get a cat in the bath, he clings to us and once in he scrambles to get out, as he is so wet and slippery I'm scared he will hurt himself.
The only reason I can think of for this change is he got a bit of a nasty teething nappy rash and the bath could have made it sting. It's all better now but the associated fear is still there.
We have tried -
me being in the bath with him
watching me bath
Standing in an empty bath
Bath in the sink
Going into the bathroom outside of bath time
Running the tap and letting him play with it
Bath toys that he usually loves
Out of ideas now, anyone have another strategy???

[AnonEvent]

We had exactly this with DD (13mo) a few weeks ago, we too thought it was down to a one-off nappy rash, and the warm water stinging her poor bum.

It passed relatively quickly, we kept her bath a bit cooler for a week or so (just a bit warmer than tepid), and DH and I bathed her together, me creating a distraction while he got her into the water... “look DD, it’s Froggy Frogster, look how he jumps, jumpy, jumpy, jumping!!”

[eurochick]

It’s a phase. It will pass.

[Nicae]

Same thing happened with my eldest although she was a bit younger, I changed her routine around and bathed her in the morning for a few days, she seemed to not associate morning baths with the hated night time ones! After a week or so we swapped back and she was fine.