Bath Time trauma - 14 week old

[STORM01]

My DD is now 14 weeks old.

She has always been fine in the bath & seems to enjoy it. About 2 weeks ago she started to cry as soon as we took her out & continued to scream until dressed, wrapped up with a bottle in her mouth. That I can cope with as she is obviously tired at that time & now the weathers changing maybe a little cooler in the bedroom.

However for the last 2 nights DD has been fine for the first 5 mins or so happily smiling & giggling away to then absolutely screaming the house down. Its almost as though something has hurt her as it seems to me like a "pain" cry. I have checked the bath, checked the temperature, dont wear watches/jewellery that could have caught her etc & so can not put my finger on what the problem could be.
She is absolutely inconsolable (until as above with bottle but still very upset & takes her time settling to feed):(

Bathtime used to be so enjoyable & I dont want her to start to think it is a bad time.

Any suggestions?

Both my children had the same reaction to bathtime at about the same age..First few weeks were fine and suddenly I thought my neighbours might call socil services due to the shreiking!!!
My friend suggested i take ds swimming...and I thought brilliant now everyone else will have to endure the screaming but he loved it..His next bath i got out the swim ring and put it in the bath next to him and ...........no screams...Hes never looked back....Did the same thing 5 years later with a screaming dd and now at 9 motnhs she comes running everytime she hears the bath...
might be worth a try???

good luck

Have you tried getting in the bath with her? She might enjoy it more with an adult to keep her warm and cuddled.

Have you tried a bath support for her? Our DD got like this & a bath support helped to make her feel 'safer' I think.

Just a normal new baby freakout I'd say. Both mine were prone to the screaming abdabs for no reason (come to think of it, they still are!)

If there are two of you at home, one could get in the bath with her as theyoungvisiter suggests. That can be really lovely.

Having said that, the "problem" is probably that she is very clearly telling you "It's time to get out now thank you very much", so I wouldn't worry too much. Just warn the neighbours. I think mine assumed that I violently stood on my child every evening at about 2000, given the yells coming from our bathroom.

Thanks everyone.
Sugerbea we went swimming last week and are due to go again tomorrow so hopefully she wont scream the place down (she was fine last week)

She has been in the bath with me once....will try that again. She started crying after about a minute tonight, so think the "had enough now" idea maybe out the window.

As daddy was in charge tonight, he took her straight out as he hates to see her cry.....what do you guys think to that? If it had been me I'd have let her cry & carried on (horrible woman I know) not kept her in the bath unnecessarily but at least until I'd washed her properly. Surely Daddys way is giving wrong signal to her that as soon as she cries we stop, surely not good in other situations later in life?

She's too young to remember "signals" - and she can't distinguish between a life threatening drowning incident and a routine task.

I mean, if she burnt herself on a radiator and was wailing, you'd snatch her away instantly, wouldn't you, without worrying about "signals"? This is no different to her. She's cold, she's tired, she's finding it stressful. Responding to her distress won't teach her any bad habits, I promise. Time enough for that when she's older.

Also you know babies don't really need bathing very often. A quick scrape fore and aft with a flannel, and a proper bath once a week, is perfectly adequate.

I think daddy may have hit on the solution without realising it. Have you tried just popping her in literally for no more than a minute - just long enough for a quick swish about and then out again?

If you did this for a week and then extended it by 30 seconds, then another minute etc.... do you see what I'm getting at?

Might be worth a go xx

She's only little - it could be she's tired and over stimulated hence the crying? I know my DS rarely lasted a few mins at that age. Many nights we skipped it as he got overtired quite easily. Around 2 months they wake up and become more alert and also more easily overwhelmed.

As for your DH stopping when she cries - she's far too young to be manipulative. You said yourself she sounded as if she was in pain - so she needs your help and crying is the only way she can tell you. The "fake" tears start when they're older - DS does it now at 11 months. It's supposed to be better to make them feel secure by responding sympathetically then around 6 months they learn that they can get you to respond in certain ways.

I had a very similar scenario with my daughter and I resolved it firstly by having a bath with her which she still loves. But I've since bought a foam bath sponge from Tescos and we use that in her baby bath and the screaming has stopped (except for the occasional cry with hair-washing of course). :)

Thanks again everyone.
I will try all the above!!!....& wont tell DH that he's probably right as I'll never hear the end of it

"Surely Daddys way is giving wrong signal to her that as soon as she cries we stop, surely not good in other situations later in life?"

She's 14 weeks old - how else is she going to tell you she's had enough? Or that she doesn't wanst to have a bath? She doesn't actually need a bath, you know - it's only convention says that babies need to have a batht every day!

Agree with seeker. I found that DS only really enjoyed bath time when he was able to sit up. Before that we were actually doing it for ourselves and thought it was the right thing to do. Same with bedtime story and lullabies - DS just wanted to sleep!

Well we went swimming - all fine no tears. She had a bath with me had a bit of a moan but didnt cry.

seeker & Igglybuff I know exactly what your saying - Im new to this mummy stuff!!!