bath-time trauma

[teenyanne]

help me please...

My 11 mo dd suddently started hating her bath about 2 weeks ago, to the point where she screams from the moment i lift her over the bath until the moment i lift her out (she's not been sick with screaming yet, but it's not far off). There hasn't been any traumatic incident that I can see - literally it was one night to the next. And before, she used to bounce with excitement as she was going in because she loved her bath so much! We also go swimming, which she loves and so far hasn't reacted in the same way in the swimming pool.

So far we have tried:

• letting her play in the dry bath with her clothes on with her toys in there (she screamed at that)

-letting her stand in the bath without water in and using the shower head to clean her (she screamed as soon as we put her in the empty bath)

-filling the bath with bubbles and her favourite toys

-me being in the bath with her (she let me hold her, but as soon as any water touched her toe she screamed).

She does need a bath most nights as between nursery, finger foods and explosive poos she gets filthy. We don't tend to wash her hair much because she hates it, so I don't think it's hair washing that's causing the trouble.

Any ideas?

• sorry for long post, i'm totally flummoxed with this sudden change.

We had a similar experience with our DS, I think it's an independence thing.

It used to be that I would make him sit in the bath whilst I washed him. Then he started crying as soon as I got him in there.

The solution for me was to not make him sit down (which makes chasing him with the soapy sponge a challenge) and just let him play in the bath standing up. He particularly liked playing with cups that let him pour water over himself.

It is a matter of trust that they won't fall over in the bath and hurt themselves.

So far, he has hated being showered - but I need to try it again.

It's a common developmental phase. She should get over it. Just keep trying gradual introduction. In the meantime just wash her with a warm flannel.

Thanks for the replies, I will persevere with bathtime and wash her with a flannel for the moment (here's hoping the neighbours don't call social services worried about the screaming in the meantime, you would think we were murdering her if you heard her without knowing what we were doing!!)