Bath Times

[Justine2912]

My DS is 2.4 and suddenly hates getting in the bath, it just seemed to happen overnight one day he loved it the next he hates it. He screams the place down and we have to give him a quick swill and out, where as before he used to love playing with the toys in the bath.

Any reason why this could be?

We just had exactly the same thing recently with DD at 2.4. It happened for about a week. She would either refuse to sit down or not get in at all. The only thing we could link it to was the fact we had started to be a bit more serious about the potty before getting in the bath. We haven't started proper potty training but this was just a warm up.

She did go to the loo in the bath a couple of nights and we found that if she needed to go (but nothing happened when she sat on the potty before bath) when she was put in the bath she would refuse to sit or bathe.

She seems fine now and it was just a phase

me too - my dd 17 mo suddenly screams the place down as if we're bathing her in acid. No idea why this has started - hoping it's a phase. Getting very wet having her sobbing and trying to climb out/cling to me whilst washing her hair.

we had this with DS 19m. i bought some small plastic buckets at the car boot on the weekend and suddenly he loves his bath again. I think they just need something distracting. He also likes to lean over and give the water a swish before getting in.

Potty training pressure, or did he have an incident recently - even something that seems small to you like a bad hair wash where he got distressed. He slipped under, or banged himself or the water was a bit hot - anything?

They are madly sensitive and have ridiculous ability to recall a tiny event that was high stress for them at the time.

I like moocowme's idea of a new toy though - maybe go to shop with him to pick it and make a big deal of it - tell him he can have a treat in the bath to go with it, like jam on toast or chocolate milk or something? Do you have any steps so he can "get in himself" with your help obviously. I find if they can decide to do something for themselves it's so much better. They often hate being lifted and plonked at that age.

Good luck

actually now I think we got a new toy boat which helped

my went through thsi phase it lasted ages though we had to use paddling pool in living room then he went to standing in bath then sitting but quick wash and out and then not at all agin

it was a nightmare but now at 4 loves them would have 2 a day if he could ot turned out he didnt like having his hair washed having water poured on his head so i started saying were having bath no hair wash ok and he would play happily

we would flannel his hair every day no need for shampoo anyway at this age