Bath phobic 2 year old

[MrsLukeDanes]

Hello. My 2.2 year old has had a couple of months of upheaval (birthday, new baby, who subsequently had to spend a week in hospital with me, Christmas etc) and in amidst all of that has suddenly become almost phobic about bathtime. In as much as she'll be fine and chatty, helping me get her towel, pjs, look at the water going in etc and then as soon as I go to take her clothes off to go in she SCREAMS and doesn't stop screaming until she's out and being dried etc. She just stands there screaming whilst I give her a quick wash. I've tried the following...

• letting her choosing any toys from around the house to go in the bath with her
• letting her choosing bubbles from the supermarket to go in with her
• having a bath 'with' the baby
• having a bath without the baby
• tried the shower and shower attachment
• having a bath with her cousin (similar age)
• having a bath with me
• bath crayons

Am at a loss now - any other suggestions?!? It's stressing me out as she used to love her bath and she can't articulate why it's upsetting her so much. She just says 'don't like it'. Any ideas? Thanks!

Just leave it while a give her a strip wash every couple of days.

How about taking her swimming?

Put her on a chair in the kitchen and get her to wash some 'pots' - plastic teaset?

Sounds to me that she is expressing her feelings in the only way she can. Give her lots of love and kisses/ and one to one time with you. Don't force the issue or stress about it. She'll come round in her own time. And in the summer get the paddling pool out, or bowl of water for her to play at 'pouring' in.

Hope this helps.

a friend had this problem with her DS heres what she done - said it's ok if you don't want to have a bath but mummys going to have one can mummy take your toys to play with? DS said yes so she jumps in the bath with all his toys left the door open and started playing and singing bath songs to herself, DS comes into the bathroom as his mummys clearly lost it she chatted to him and got him kneeing at the side playing with his toys with her for a bit within 15 mins he was in the bath 2 - have no idea if this would work for you but i thought it was a quite good way since there was no pressure and it looked fun he forgot about hating the bath :) She done this for maybe a week or every night before he started going himself again.

Thanks, good ideas so far. Agree that it is probably her expressing her feelings so will try anything! Particularly like the idea of having a very fun bath with all of her toys - will try that next weekend! Thanks.

The one thing about having the bath yourself is you must regress to the childs age v v important so splashing and singing 3 little ducks is a must have fun :)

Can you get your DD to give one of her doll's a bath as then you might find out what the problem is. I only suggest this as one of my friends was having a nightmare with getting one of her DD's to have a bath and, when she tried this, the doll had a very nice time until it came to hair wash time at which point it became apparent that her DD thought shampoo running into eyes was like having fingers poked into eyes (as that is what she did to her doll). My friend bought her DD one of those shampoo eye guard things, demonstrated how it was used and that was the end of that problem.
Otherwise, it could just be the end of the day, she's tired, had a lot of changes and is, as you say, expressing her feelings in the only way she can think of. Is it possible to bath her during the day for a change? Or, after a messy meal, shove her in the kitchen sink? My DD (2.4) still finds it hilarious to end up in the sink.
Good luck!

My DS (23 MO) has also gone from bath-loving to bath-phobic in the past few weeks.

It conicided with me buying him some new socks, which left fluff between his toes, which then floated in the bath looking a bit like a bee

So he now gets hosed down with the shower, which means any offending fluff (bees, according to DS) goes straight down the drain.

I have no idea where the fluff/bee confusion comes from...

Hello all. I thought the 'bath dolly' idea and talking to her sounded fab so I tried that last night. Poor dolly didn't even get a chance to take her clothes off as DD screamed and said that dolly didn't like bath. No other explanation. Am just strip washing at the moment until she calms down and I'll try some of other tips at the weekend!!! Thanks all.

Hi. I have 4 kids and to my recollection they all went through a phase of detesting bath time! Each came through in their own time. I continued to bath through the screaming (just made it quicker) and funnily enough my dd 2.6, is just back to loving the bath again. Now that she understands the concept of hairwashing, and will follow my instructions on head back, it's gotten much easier! It will pass- just stay calm till it does