How do I stop my 2yo drinking the bath water?

[Olive1987]

He plays with little bath toys and a lot of them are cup shaped but with holes in. He just sits there drinking it. I'll say to him 'don't drink it' and he just repeats what I said!

Is it bad for him? I heard the hot water comes from a different tank than drinking water.

"Is it bad for him? I heard the hot water comes from a different tank than drinking water."

Both mine (2,5) do/have done this, and seem fine. Unless he's poo-ed in the bath or has a weeping wound, or you have a very old lead hot water tank, shouldn't be a problem.

Surely you know how your water is heated? Is it an old or new house?

It's flats so I don't know. There's no tank in the flat anywhere. And you can have the hot water on 'comfort' so it comes out hot without having to wait half hour for it to heat up. Literally turn the hot water on and it's hot instantly. So no I don't have a clue how the water is heated. The flats are not a new build, I don't know when they were built.

That's why I was concerned about him drinking it, he's only just started doing it and I'm not sure if it's safe.

My 2 year old does this too. I don't know how to stop her. Im not sure I can stop her, bar ending bath time there and then. She lies on her stomach in the water and takes big mouthfuls and dribbles it all out. Or uses the bath toys to take a drink from them. I spend the whole time telling her not to do it and its very draining. The thing that worries me is she wees in the bath so that cant be very nice but i guess its very diluted by then! Tried giving her a drink to hold from her cup but that doesn't work. Its gone on for ages now every night and nothing untoward has happened to her so far so im guessing it will be ok, I hope!

Give him different toys that he can't drink from

All my boys did this - I wouldn't worry, all part of the bath time fun

Mine has done this too. I just kind of let him get on with it, unless he was drinking loads amd then I explained that as the water is soapy it might give him tummy ache.

Kids are gross, aren't they? If it hasn't done him any harm thus far, I would just leave him to it. It's fun, not harming him, therefore stop stressing.

Left field suggestion - could it be the water is too warm? Especially in this warm weather? I always find baths make me thirsty.

My DS is 1 and likes to suck the water from the sponge and eat the sponge if he gets a chance I was thinking about maybe taking his sippy cup up next time we have one, to see if that helps?

DD has done this for ages. As she's now getting older (2.5) then we are tackling it a bit, because I can't imagine that all that pee and bubbles is doing her much good... A lot of repeated 'no's worked quite well. Recently we've said that if she keeps drinking the bath water we'll get her out.

I know it's not the end of the world and isn't doing her any harm, but we're rolling it into trying to teach a few more manners as she's getting a bit older.

One of my twins does this too. She drinks so much that her nappy and pajamas are soaked through the next morning. I let her do it

DS (20 months) does this too. I only use a very small amount of chemical-free shampoo/body wash and let him get on with it. He's feisty and it's a battle I really can't be arsed to have!