Bathtime used to be fun, now DS hates it

[hildathebuilder]

My Ds is 18 months (corrected age was very prem) and while he had always enjoyed his bath he nowloathes it, screams, has a tantrum everytime we go into the bathroom before bed, hurls himself about, won't sit down and is generally ojecting to the whol idea of bathing. Any ideas, is tis normal, is it a phase which will pass

DD did this at about 18mo. We've started to do her barely tepid baths and she loves them now -20mo

Is there something specific frightening him? Has he been upset by the bath in any way? Or is he just being a stroppy toddler flexing his 'muscles'?

Unless he is actually grubby, he doesn't need to be bathed every day.

What about a shower instead?

Could you try bathing him in the middle of the day?

My dc love playing with cornflour in the bath - would that entertain and get him into the tub? But be careful, it makes the tub and the dc quite slippery afterwards, just like being dusted in talc.

Sometimes for a treat I put food colouring in the bathwater.

Ok I will try different temperature water, he sometimes is fine to come in with me, but that's not always practical, he hates showers (he also can't stand as he has cerebral plasy but thats allanother set of threads). may also resort to food colouring

I bought a load of toys that can be stuck with suckers to tiles/bath/mirror so he has things that are a distraction from being washed! balls that spin, a cascade of water that he can pour, a set of toy pans he can fill with water and bubbles and so on... my DS is 2 just and he used to scream terribly at bath time, now he loves it. I also blow a little pot of bubbles sometimes, if you blow them over his head then they settle as halfbubbles on the water, mine likes to splashy-pop them so we all get soaked! we only do a bath every other day.

Given what you say about him sometimes being OK bathing with you, and having CP, maybe he feels unstable in the water? Do you ever take him swimming? If he feels at home in water, secure, supported, then perhaps the slippery hard bath might feel less daunting?

Ds1 did this at exactly the same age - very stressful and lasted about 3 months from memory - we just bathed him every other night and literally in and out in 2 seconds thru the screaming. Now I can't get him out the bath. Ds3 currently going thru it a bit -will only be happy if his two older brothers are also in.

Hi Hilda! Just mumsnet stalking you!

My DD (19 months now) went (and sometimes still does) through a stage of not wanting to take her clothes off at night, BUT if she thought she was going to have a bath, she stripped off like a..., well she was very happy to get nekkid for a bath then into her bed clothes. I don't bath her every day, but for a week or so, I had to, just to get her into bed.

She also went though a stage of not wanting a bath, and as soon as she was in it, she wanted out. I got new bath toys and that solved that. (Although the best toy was an old bubble bath bottle that she just filled out, then emptied, then filled out, then emptied, then filled out, then emptied etc etc

So I guess what I am trying to say is - I am sure its a phase!