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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

My 12 wk old hates bath time!!

12 replies

Imawurzel · 07/04/2008 10:25

How can i help my baby girl to start enjoying/liking bath time?
i was a bit slack at first and only did it once a week with top and tailing every day.
I have brought a 'mesh' type bath seat to go in the bath.
I did use the baby bath at first then moved on to bath with me. We give her baths on Sundays and Wednesdays now.
Should i up it to every other day?
I have 2 thermometer's, a dolphin one with 3 symbols and one from mothercare. both give different readings which is odd.
i always put heating on so it's warm and put towels on radiators.
She screams blue murder!!
Yesterday i sat her on my knees and dangled her feet in, she lookedat water then at me and bottom lip curled out and she cried, bless her.

jeez, just realised i wrote an essay!!
sorry for rambling.

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SirDigbyChickenCaesar · 07/04/2008 10:36

throw away the thermometers. put your elbow in the water.
DS screamed when we gave him baths. turned out the poor scone was freezing!

deaconblue · 07/04/2008 10:41

try a different time of the day. I bathed ds in the evening the first two weeks adn he screamed. Tried the morning and he loved it, so kept going wiht that for ages. He also hated all bath seats as they seem to keep them so high out of the water they get cold quickly, I would ditch the seats and just hold her. I also did a lot of reassuring nonsense talk "oh what a lovely bath" etc whihc seemed to help

LolaLadybird · 07/04/2008 11:25

DD hated baths for first few months so we used to bath her in the morning when she wasn't so tired and in a good mood. Made a big difference. DS hated baths to start with when he was v small but I bought one of those shaped foam pads which helped a lot. It keeps him quite low in the water (unlike many of the seats) and the water soaks through the foam so its nice and warm - he somehow seems to feel more secure than when I'm holding him.

A friend's son hated baths so when he was about 4 mo she got him used to the idea in the garden with a big bowl of water and lots of toys - turned the whole thing into a playtime and he loved it. Might be worth bearing in mind when the weather gets warmer ...

wobbegong · 07/04/2008 11:26

Sounds like she just needs to get used to it- if she hasn't had very many baths in her life? My DD (16 weeks) likes being submerged up to her chin in water- if we were to gingerly hold her on the edge and just dangle her feet in then she would definitely get cold and complain.

chinchi · 07/04/2008 11:31

My 7mo DS hated baths until last week. I tried him with a bubble bath and he loved it!

Elk · 07/04/2008 11:40

My dd1 hated baths from the start. Some babies just don't like them. dd2 loved them.
Even now dd1 (5) moans when we mention bathtime and dd2 (2) runs up the stairs and jumps in (normally before we've even got the water in!).

She may be happier when she can sit up and play with toys. Until then you could just keep baths to a mimimum or she could have them with you if she prefers that.

cheesesarnie · 07/04/2008 11:47

i agree about changing time of bath.could be tired or hungry and then cant enjoy bath.and i agree that the thermometres are waste of money-mine says its ok when its really freezing!she might be picking up on your anxiety if your expecting tears.

meebles · 07/04/2008 11:48

DD(18 weeks) has never been particularly keen. It's improved a bit now I take her in with me, but sometimes we just have to give up due to screaming. We do it about twice a week, and I think warmth is definitely a factor.

Jbck · 07/04/2008 11:58

DD2 (20 weeks) is similar altho' getting a bit better, quite often DD1 helps & she seems to enjoy that more as DD1 can splash a little with her wee toys which is hard to do when you're holding them yourself. We've got on of the seats which I'm going to try in a month or so as DD1 really came on when we started using it with her. She is like Elks now & could happily stay in till she was all prunelike.
I'm going to try daytimes this week as DD1 on school holidays and she can help.

nappyaddict · 14/04/2008 23:37

do you have a thermometer which gives an actual number reading? the bath should be about 39 degrees. perhaps it is too hot or too cold? btw a bath once a week at this age is fine. have you tried getting in with her?

Zil131 · 15/04/2008 21:02

Ditto the bits about throwing the thermomenters away. We had bath trauma until we made it nice and warm!
Also ensure she is fed. Bath - Bottle - Bed never worked for us, DS too hungry, try Bottle - Bath - Bed.
We also had a lot of success with a joint shower after breakfast - a nice hug and massaging water on his back.

NotQuiteCockney · 15/04/2008 21:04

Don't bathe her if she doesn't like it. She doesn't need a bath, she's not crawling around in the dirt.

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