My 16 month old is suddenly terrified of the bath! What do I do?

[Baileysmum220118]

My 16 month old has always loved water (and the bath). We took her to swimming lessons from 6 months and have just come back from a holiday where she spent at least two hours a day in the pool with her dad and I but suddenly she screams uncontrollably and clings to me when I try to sit her in the bath.

Does anyone else have any experience of this? Been going on for a week now and I don't know what to do. She will get in if her Dad or I are with her but only if she can sit on our lap (so won't just sit in the bath with us). Still fine splashing in that scenario and having water poured over her head to wash her hair. When we are in there with her she is her normal self as long as she is on our lap but if we aren't in there with her she literally won't let go of me (or sit down in the water).

It feels like she is scared of falling over in the water all of a sudden (not that this has ever happened to her before).

Her dad works shifts so I bath her along quite a lot and can't manage that really if I have to get in with her.

Any help would be great fully accepted.

Thanks everyone.

My son just went through a stage of being afraid of the bath at around that sort of time (now only 17m so quite recently). It came out of nowhere and disappeared as suddenly!

My main advice is to try not to feed into her fear. So try not to show her that you’re dreading bath time yourself, keep it fun and if necessary short! I wouldn’t get in with her if that’s not what you normally do coz you don’t want to get into habits you don’t want to continue.

Just ride out the phase as I’m sure it will pass. Hopefully it won’t last too long for you - think it was only a couple of weeks for us though it feels so much longer when you’re in it!

It is quite normal for fears to increase/appear as they get older, i.e. the obvious one is being scared of the dark, most toddlers are not afraid of the dark but most//all will develop this fear as they get older. She could have just become aware of the 'dangers' of water (as she perceives them) so hence why she is scared - it will probably require some patience to get to loose her fear.

@Kle209
Did you just put your little one into the bath anyway even though they were upset? I'm afraid that doing that will make things worse. ☹️ By the same token completely get that if I keep getting in with her or just avoid nothing is going to change. It's so hard!

Yes but kept it really short so he didn’t have too much chance to get upset. Tried to stay really upbeat the whole time and be comforting without making him think that there was too much to be upset about. Lots of toys in the bath too to try to distract.

He’s really afraid of the shower too though we did try that! Sadly they’ve got to get clean somehow so we kept going with baths. Personally, I think it’s good to try to stay in the same routine as much as possible, but we only bath every couple of days which takes some pressure off.

Hope it gets better for you very soon!

Hi
I'm in the same boat with 17 month old ,last 2 weeks he has been petrified of the bath and used to enjoy it .
I'm hoping it goes away soon as it's not a very relaxing end of the day ,as he def needs a wash ! I tried getting in but didn't work ,we tried blowing bubbles over as he loves them but made no difference!
If I find anything that works will let you know !

Thanks everyone! I'll persevere then. Avoided bath time today as she has a temperature so didn't think it was worth upsetting her. Think she is teething which is probably not helping any of this!!

Is it the bath itself or being in a lot of water that frightens him? If it is the bath, perhaps you could sit him in it comfortably, with toys, and shower him.