14 mnth old suddenly scared of the bath

[girlafraid]

He previously loved his bath but since last week he weeps through the whole process, tries to climb out and when he gets out collapses in my arms weeping

I am almost certain this started when he had a "movement" in the bath while DH was bathing him and DH got quite stressed about it, shouting downstairs for me and generally not being very calm#

Do you think this has traumatised DS and how can I make bath time fun again?

I think this is pretty normal - most children go through a phase of being scared of the bath - when it happened with both of mine I just spoke calmly and gave them the briefest of dips so that they still had a bath and it passed within a matter of days.

DD has gone in and out of phases like this (although no poo in the bath which I know can be upsetting). We just really jolly her along, make her laugh, bathe less frequently and keep it short. She usually gets over it pretty quickly.

If you have stacking cups, you could try putting them in the bath, filling two consecutive sizes with water and then pushing the smaller inside the larger. The resulting fountain always gets DD giggling.

My child went through this, it was bad, as soon as the bath was run she would melt down,

things I done
let her run in and out of bathroom while older sister was playing happily in bath, never forced her to go in bath, just washed her down daily
sat her up at kitchen sink with water in sink and let her dip her feet.
gradually got her to stand in sink
bought a toy fishing set, let her fish from bath.
gradually got her to stand in bath in very shallow water, first she would only do it if she had wellies on
then she sat in shallow water to splash
now she goes in bath and we can't get her out of it

My DS went through this. I got in the bath with him and sat him on my lap until he was comfortable with it again. (My Dp would have, but DS had a tendency to kick daddy in his private parts )

He was happier knowing he could just cling to me, and then we could wash him off when he was calmer (DP has to be with me at bathing time as I have epilepsy and still fit occasionally, so can't bathe DS unsupervised - it actually makes bathtime a wonderful family time).

Movements in the bath are liable to prompt a bit of an overreaction from my DP too, but fortunately as your DS gets older they will be less frequent. Maybe postpone bathtime until your DS has done a poo that day, or leave it for the night if he still hasn't - one more day between baths won't hurt him, and my DS hasn't been any worse at baths for not having them to a set schedule. (But then I am utterly hopeless at routines, so take that part with a pinch of salt please!)

hi girlafraid, I've started a v similar thread about my DS - he's older, at 2.2 but think it's similar problem - he did a poo in the bath months ago and it freaked him out, seemed to get over it but I think now he's more aware the poo comes out of his bottom he's developed a real fear of having a bare bottom and no nappy on, esp in the bath! we have been sponging him down, and he even puts up with being dangled over the bath to have his hair washed if it means he can avoid getting in (which causes full on screaming so we're not making him get in).
Please let me know if you find a solution to this - I'm trying and will let you know if we crack it as well, it's very upsetting isn't it, esp when they used to love their baths so much! mine used to run around the house naked first and now hates us taking his nappy off - good luck