Fear/severe dislike of water in 16 month old

[Zephyrrywitchescat]

I posted about this months ago when ds was about 8 months old I think but we are still having the same problem. He will not go anywhere near water. He absolutely hates it. If I take him into the bathroom when dd is in the bath or anything he panics and curls up into me and hides his face and cries. Obviously I have to get him clean at some point but when I touch him with the water he goes mad and gets really really upset. I can't think of anything we haven't already tried to get him used to it but he needs a bath!! (Don't get me wrong I wash him everyday with wiped etc lol)

Can anyone help?

youve probably tried this but have you got into the bath with him?

have you tried a shower?

have you tried a puddle in the bath? ie half an inch, with all his toys, you, and anything else you can think of

why not use these bath bombs that fizz the bath up and turn it pink? (although maybe not best for a babies skin)

Yep tried all of those! (except the bomb!) I thought that he would be ok getting in with me but he literally panics and climbs up me to get away from the water. I sat on the edge of the bath holding him and ran the shower over his feet and legs but he did the same thing. We've tried playing with water and toys in the sink but he hates touching it!! It's really strange! I could understand if I knew a reason for it like I'd dropped him in the bath or something but he's been like it since he was born.

oh god poor you

i can only think of the bomb

im sure lush and body shop do them, and ive seen them in tesco for kids

good luck

ps has he been swimming? does he have trunks? he could wear them in the bath

oh just thought of another

a shower radio, or some music played loud in another room and you could have a musical bath......................

Might have to try that - I'm off to lush later so will see if they do kids ones. He's never been swimmming, might be something for Daddy to try with him....hmmmm.

I'm starting to wonder if I should make him have a little bath every single day and just keep on til he gets used to it or if that will traumatize him into being 100 times worse?!

We had this with DD when she was about 18 months, but unlike you it only lasted about 4 weeks. It was never clear what triggered it off: there was never an obvious "slip" incident or anything similar. She would really panic when going anywhere near the bath, cling on, scrabble away really frantically and generally be very very upset. We did carry on doing it (as we would be bathing DS every day anyway), but just dunked her in and out: it sounds heartless but we honestly thought that she needed to see that it was quite normal. We let her do a lot of pre and post bath preparation (running around with no clothes on, towels draped in various ways etc - our nanny makes different towel "styles" and gives them different names!) and made the bath itself very short. Lots and lots of bath toys. The other things that work well are bubbles and those bath colour tablets. She very gradually got over it and now is absolutely fine with baths (not that keen on swimming, though - I wouldn't really recommend that until you got the bath thing sorted)