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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

toddler bathtime meltdown?

4 replies

theory · 08/04/2010 13:28

And I mean meltdown- DD (17 months) starts tantruming as soon as we mention the bath, has to be wrestled to the floor to take her clothes off, carried screaming into the bath etc. Once in the tub, she can sometimes be distracted, but not that often...

She's never been great about the bath, but it's gotten worse lately. We do dinner-bath-stories/bottle-bed, so by the time we get to bath, she is tired. Was thinking of maybe doing bath before dinner so she'll be less tired, though I shudder to think what her pjs will look like in this case....

What are your schedules and strategies? DD thinks it's a control issue - not the bath, per se, but not wanting to be told what to do. Useful bribery techniques then?

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Original poster

theory · 08/04/2010 13:29

Sorry- that should be "DH thinks it's a control issue" (DD may well, too, but hasn't told us-- yet!}

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FaintlyMacabre · 08/04/2010 13:32

Does she actually need a bath? My DS loves his bath, but we stopped doing it as part of the bedtime routine because it took too long and got him over-excited (and we have a water meter).
A good all over wash with soap and flannel should suffice, surely?

Original poster

theory · 08/04/2010 13:37

You know, I've wondered about this, too...We didn't do all that many full baths when she was very little because she hated it so, and then there was a long period when it was more or less fine, and I felt it was important to establish a routine WITH bath...what I really don't want is for it to be a negotiation, if you see what I mean.

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burtie2u · 08/04/2010 14:01

We are very luck as DS (17 months) LOVES his baths, well he just loves water. So we have to watch him with ALL water ;-)
But we were told by the HV not to bath him too often, as it can dry out his skin, especially over winter. So we bath every other night and sometimes even miss it out, if he's too tired.
Maybe try that, so DD is not so stressed about bath time. Also it might be worth getting her to pick her own bath toys, just to see if you can get her excited about bath time. I sometime get in with DS, might be worth getting in with DD to make bath time time with mommy(but you sometimes have to accept the odd accident :-)

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