18 month old hates bath time

[MyBigToes]

My 18 month old dd starts screaming her head off as soon as you take her into the bathroom to get a bath. I’ve tried getting in with her and giving her new bath toys but she’s not interested. She just sits there screaming her head off pleading for me to get her out so we’ve started only bathing her every other day. Does anyone have any other tips? This has been going on for 4 weeks now

Empty bath and bath toys. Tap dripping...
No washing.. No plug in.
Next time tap on a bit more no plug in ..
Is it the coldness? The water?
Bath crayons are a good distraction.. Bubbles?.
Ds6 likes to eat snacks off my bath tray!

My 19 month old goes through phases of this occasionally. Like you I usually get in too and I cuddle him and try to distract with objects. I've found the best way to overcome it was having "play" baths at a different time of day. So in the morning I'll stick the bath mat in and run the tap (no plug). And pop a few toys in. He usually loves this and sees it as a novelty. Then after running the tap for a while I put the plug in and he has a good splash around. I never let it get too deep though. Then the next time we do bath before bed I just repeat the process, but this time let it fill up a bit more. He's usually having fun and doesn't notice that it's become a normal bath. Then other days I just continue with putting him in a shallow bath and topping up with water once he's in. He has a bath every night, it's part of our bedtime routine. Good luck!

Just do a strip wash, with a warm sponge, standing in the shower or even on a tray.

I had one like this. They don’t need bathed very often at this age, just the dirt cleaned off, they’re not smelly like teenagers! I’m afraid he’s not much better at 7yo, but we do insist now.

Mine had this and it gets super bad when we wash her hair. We only do that once a week now its so bad! She's gotten much better I the bath though. We ha e bath books that change colour and bath crayons so she can draw on the bath to keep her distracted. We were also given a battery operated play tap which she loves. Have you tried getting her to help you run the bath? Turning the taps on and she can run her hands under it whilst it fills up? This really helped us as well as putting her in the empty bath and running it so it's not such a shock. From what I read it's a development thing and not uncommon, you just have to ride through it!

Go for twice a week unless muddy or esp covered in food etc. Try the strip wash but expect even more screaming as it’s very cold being washed like that. It’s only teens and coal miners who really need a daily wash

Have you tried giving her a quick dunk in the kitchen sink or a shower? Stop doing it at bed time?

😂

My DD hates getting her hair washed, and has done since she was about 3 months old. We do baths twice a week and make it as fun as possible, and we let her splash about as much as she wants for as long as she wants. It's not needed every night unless they have been rolling in mud and it is just unnecessary stress.

I'll start to shower her. May be more enjoyable. I used to shower with our little boy. I'll have a chair for him and I'll shower first then shower him. He was quite happy. Worth a try.

Just do a sponge down instead.