Help - 23 months old refusing bath for 10 days

[ExhaustedMarianella]

Our DS suddenly started hating bath that he loved as part of his bedtime routine since 6 months old. One evening he hated it and stood up, slipped, and that was it. He's so scared that he doesn't want to step into the bathroom. We tried everything and turned to friends and the internet for advice with no avail. We tried:

1. Introduced new bath toys. Showed no interest
2. I or DH got into the bath with him. Still refused
3. I and DH got into the bath, playing and having fun while he watched. This was nearly successful and he was amused, until he slipped on the bathroom floor and made it far worse. He doesn't want the sight of the bathtub.
4. With an infant bath in the living room, turned on TV to distract while we sponge him. Sort of worked, but then he flipped the tub. Can't do it again as the carpet took days to dry.
5. Used a small bowl to sponge him, while in the bathroom. Again, he was curious, dipped his feet into water, then suddenly walked away and slipped AGAIN. Even more traumatised
6. Bribed with sweets, didn't work.
7. Shower. Hates it.

It's been 10 days since the first slipping incident, and we are out of ideas. He's a very active, fearless boy and for some reason he's not scared of slides or stairs for example, that he fell off multiple times. We don't want to force it as he'd resist even harder next time. He's also a very slow talker, and although he understands us very well, saying that it's not scary, we'll give him treats if he gets into a bath, or Mummy will also be there doesn't help. No favourite toys that he can take into the bath either. We think he's hitting Terrible Two's, and negotiating over bath usually leads to horrible meltdowns every night and I am really stressed and miserable. Please help.

Get a nonslip in-bath mat.

Why is your bathroom floor slippy as well? Rugs may help?

We can get a non-slip mat but for the time being it won't help as he is refusing to enter the bathroom.

He slipped on the floor after splashing some water out of the bowl we were using, to demonstrate bath wasn't scary. Looking back, bad idea, but he loves splashing and we thought this would help.

He basically runs everywhere. It's very hard to keep him in place. This is both of us watching at all times and he still runs off and slips or falls all the time

It sounds like the repeated slipping over is the problem! He’s actually approached it several times from what you say but always ends up falling over somehow. So I would focus on stopping that!

Could you get him some non-slip socks if you already have a mat? It’s hard when they run everywhere!

Failing that, could you take him swimming? Not instead of a bath, but to get him used to water again, but somewhere fun and different?

It sounds like you have almost succeeded with a couple of your ideas, so I would say give it a few days to allow the memory of any slipping to fade a bit (might have to be a damp flannel wash down for now ) and then just try again to slowly build up his confidence in the bathroom and then in the bath itself.

Could you buy a really large non-slip towelling bathmat for the bathroom floor to avoid it feeling in any way ‘slippy’?

Our 25m old DD has had a similar episode of hating the bath after I had to do an emergency shower down following a nappy explosion...took a week ish of slowly getting her confidence back. We’ve found it’s been quite a sensitive age for her developing new fears which we’ve then had to adapt to.

Thank you all, we had some success last night - he got into the bath!! Still no hair washing though, do you have any tips? We have a few shower visors but he removes it.

That's great!

We use the Munchkin shampoo rinser jug, but have to time it for when she's looking up and distracted with toys. Something that we've found works well is the Tomy bath rocket as she has to lift it up to get the water to spray out.