Toddler suddenly afraid of bath

[PandaMa]

Reposting here for traffic, hope you guys don't mind but I have no idea what to do!

I have a 2.5 year old who LOVED his bath. As of the last week or so he has screamed and cried real tears and literally hidden his bath towel when I tell him we are going for a bath. We've tried toys, bubbles, playing Fireman Sam with the shower but he just seems so afraid. I've had to get the baby bath back out - which funnily enough he sat in all himself and had a great time. I can't think of anything that's triggered this.

Has anyone else experienced this? How long did it last? What did you do to help?

Tried to explain everything is safe and even showing him the bath is fine by one of us getting in - He's not very verbal so not sure he fully understands.

Thanks for reading!

My DD went through that phase. Never figured out why. I recall using the baby bath and a few scrubs with a flannel. It passed reasonably quickly.

This is really common. Sometimes it is a real fear of literally going down the plug hole!
When my DC went through this phase I just did a stand up wash all over with a flannel, away from the actual bath. I put a big towel on the changing mat (on the floor) and used a washing up bowl and a flannel. If they didn't want to stand up, I let them lie down. As long as you manage to wash hands, face and bum it is fine.
They get over it.

My toddler was terrified her twin sister would go down the plug hole! Don't worry. It will pass.

Give him strip washes for a while and make no comment.

Ds went through this about that age, it will pass he's a teenager now and he's seems to spend all his spare time either swimming or in the shower !

Yep as above, keep going with the baby bath, at one point he will go in the big bath again, just be calm and fine, it's an actual fear no matter how crazy it seems.

We have been going through this for the past 2 weeks now! My son turned two last month. No idea why it's happened as he used to love the bath and would happily spend half an hour in there before we dragged him out. He does notice the plughole a lot more now so I wonder if he's scared of going down with the water.