Toddler afraid of getting a bath

[slaveforpeppa]

Dear all,

My Dc has always really struggled I. Water. Did has a traumatic birth and was very seriously ill upon delivery. W spent 2 weeks in NICU,

Thankfully all recovered and DC doing fantastically well.

But we have had a massive regression with regards to fear of bathing/ water recently.

It took until she was 18 months before I could get her into a normal bath without a small bath/ pool etc.

She is now worse than ever, any suggestions? I think I will have to just give her cloth washes and keep filling the tub and playing with all her toys etc until she overcomes this.

Ime a lot of children go through this phase, both of mine did. Flannel eash is absolutely fine for now, no point in stressing you both. Would she get into the shower with you? I had to carry ds waltzing around a few times when he was really grubby!

My DD went through a similar aversion to the bath.

I bought her a Corolle bath doll (nice appealing doll) who was only to be played with at bath time. We started by DD leaning over the side to bath the doll a couple of times and then I suggested that she'd be able to reach more easily if DD was in the bath too. This worked in terms of getting DD into the bath happily. She's remained wary of water and still won't lie down in the bath but will at least sit and play.

It’s not uncommon, DS certainly went through a phase of screaming meltdowns about baths! It worked really well getting him to wash dolly, so maybe try some games with a dolly so she gets mucky (baking??) then say oooh shall we give dolly a bath and let your daughter help run it etc then give dolly a wash and dry her off. DS was tickled pink about being “the grown up” and he got in no fuss to get clean after that. Took me 4 months of stress to come up with it though

As the previous posters have mentioned, the more fun you can make it the better and the less she will think about her fears.

However you have to get her in there first. There are two things you can try, one is to get in with her as she may take comfort in you being there for safety until she gets over her fear. Alternatively you can start off with a very shallow bath, or even an empty bath and flannel wash if necessary, slowly increasing the amount of water in the bath over a long time.

Bubble bath wad the thing that helped DD when she became afraid of the bath. Made bedtime much easier.

Get in the bath with her, worked for mine

I filled up our laundry tub in the garden on a warm day with bubble bath. I had some jugs and cups and we had a bubble wand.
She stripped off and got in. I washed her there 😂

We then progressed to putting the laundry tub in the bath. I used the fact that it was too cold to play in the garden and we needed to put it in the bath to catch our splashes.

We tried lots of things before getting to that point:

• new bath toys
• shower instead of bath
• me in the bath with her
• washing baby dolls
• having a tea set in the bath and making cappuccino with the bubble bath.

Most of the above failed before the success with the tub but we went back to them when we were transitioning from tub to bath.

I think it's a case of trying lots of things to see what captures your little ones imagination.

I know some people have had success with bath paints.

Good luck! It can be stressful but you'll come out the other side.

Thank you all. We had been through this as it was only in April this year that I got her into a normal bath without a pool.

I think the suggestion of getting the dolly and just gradually suggesting she gets in might work.

I have got into the bath a few times but no luck,

Other than that it will be a flannel wash down and having a smelly dC.

Mine went through this phase. We just backed off baths for a while. Toddlers don’t really get sweaty do a bath isn’t necessary. A few months later we got some cool flashing bath toys and then baths were a thing again.

Have you tried Bath crayons? She can sit in a dry bath to draw with them then a little water to clean them off and gradually build up as she's confident?

I used to sit my son on the draining board with just his feet in the sink. We would play with toys like a watering can until he wanted to sit in the sink. A few weeks of this and he was happy to get in the bath again.

Thanks ladies. I have ordered the corolla doll and the bath crayons will report back with how we get on.

Mini bath bombs (Etsy) and Crackle Baff sachets are a big hit here.

We had a sink dip today in the kitchen with her feet and hands being washed. Enjoyed it and slashed about a little.

I had the shower running. Kept saying no shower for me. :(

Will just do slow and steady and hopefully it will pass