DS 10months screaming in the bath, is he scared?

[MsStrawberry]

My DS is 10 months old and has previously always loved having a bath ever since he was born he used to really enjoy it, but the last 2 weeks he has started to stand up and SCREAM everytime i put him in the bath!
We did move house 5 weeks ago but I don't think he's scared because its a different bath now, because the first 3 weeks he was fine and enjoying baths like normal, then all of a sudden it changed!
At first I thought it was his eczema, maybe it was stinging or sore. But i tried him in the paddling pool when it was sunny and he loved it, didn't seem to have any discomfort at all and no screaming! So it's just the bath that's the problem, not the water.
So now I don't know what's causing it and I don't know what to do! Has this happened to anyone else??
I have tried getting him in bath with him and he is fine then, i can wash him and we have a play but getting out and getting us both dried is a bit of a nightmare so i don't want to have to do this forever!
I just don't understand the sudden change, he used to love it in the bath, how can i get him to enjoy it again?

It's actually quite a common age for something like this to happen.
My DD went through a similar phase at 10 months too.
(I made the mistake of starting baby swimming at that age!!!)

It is only a phase and he will grow out of it, like all other phases.
Try to make bath time as fun as possible.
Introduce a new toy or two. Get in with him if you need to. (Yes, it's hassle getting you both dry, but it won't be forever.)
Make sure that bath time is more of a game than a chore.

If none of this is enough, you can simply skip some baths and wash him down with a damp cloth instead for a few days. That won't do him any harm, but might reduce the trauma.

It won't be long before he's splashing around like a fish again.

My 18 month old DS has been in this phase for the past few months :( Screams the house down when he's in the bath!

I find that distraction helps a bit... sometimes if he seems like he's going to start crying I give him a sweet or a piece of fruit to nibble in the bath (I put in straight in his mouth) and this seems to take his mind off it.

Or I make bathtime into a game, not a chore, as the previous poster said too.

One thing I've noticed though, is that DS seems happier in the bath if he isn't tired. If he's tired or hungry then all the noise, change in temperature, movement seems to annoy him.

Hope that helps!

My DS went through this phase a couple of months ago also!

We'd recently moved house, although for the first few weeks everything was fine. Then, he just changed one day and screamed like I was torturing him! It was horrible! He was petrified and nothing I did worked. However, after a few weeks, he just seemed fine again. Very odd!

So, in his case, it seemed to be a short (thankfully) phase, although I've no idea what triggered it.

thanks for the advice guys, im glad im not the only one this has happened to! Its a weird phase isn't it as i don't understand it, but I'll just do my best to make bath time fun for him and maybe try to do it when he's not too tired and hopefully this phase will pass on its own...

tigerlillyd02 - can i ask how old ur DS was when this happened? That's funny that u had recently moved house too i wonder if that is something to do with it then?!

I moved in April this year and it was about 4 weeks later. Soooo he'd have been around 17 months. It really wasn't that long ago.

He had a bath seat but he fought that hard to get out he had (quite bad!)bruises on the tops of his legs from it. So, I had to stop putting him in there but then without the seat, as he was fighting me so much to get out, I couldn't hold him steady and wash him at the same time. My mum had to come round and help me. I was also thankful for the company and a witness as I was convinced the neighbours would report me for torturing him! Seriously, I'd never heard him scream like it.

At the time, I wondered if it was because it was a new bath in a new place, but then because it was a good few weeks after we'd moved in, I assumed not. But, I really don't have a clue. He was fine one night and then the next was petrified.

I am glad he's now back to normal!