Toddler bath phobia!

[ItalianJob]

Sorry if this has been done a zillion times before, could only find one brief thread in the archives.

DS - 24 months has developed a bath phobia. He even starts screaming when he hears a bath running for me! Any tips? I've tried putting more toys in, tried putting him in an empty bath, got a bathmat...

What about having a bath together? DD has the same fear with the shower and its gradually helping her get used to it.

I've tried that but it only helped a little bit. Worth giving it another try I guess.

We had this with dd, we put all her balls from her ball pit in the bath so she could'nt see the water, it worked and now she loves her baths and does'nt want to get out, now we just need to overcome her fear of the hoover and the washing machiene

When my dd1 went through this, I just let her sit in the bottom of the shower with the shower head next to her for a few weeks, till she'd forgotten about it!

Reverse psychology. Tell him he isn't allowed a bath?

Ds got a tea set to use in the water - she loves baths now after weeks of refusing to sit down.

Only things that work with ds are to tell him it's MY bath and he's not allowed in, or pretend I need his help finding a toy in there.

Could you play some games in the bathroom when it's not actually bathtime? Sounds mad, I know, but if something is scaring him and the only time he goes in there is bathtime... might help to make the room seem normal and less frightening. And then work up to playing a game that actually involves the bath itself.

Bath crayons?

Success at last - started blowing bubbles in an empty bath, put DS in, then ran bath an inch. DS had a mild wobbly and ran down again. Then yesterday he heard DH running a bath, and demanded to get in

Thanks all for your advice!