Tips for washing a toddler in a shower?

[TheBirdintheCave]

We go on holiday to Bologna in June and our apartment has a shower but not a bath (my focus was getting an apartment with a washing machine so that my son's cloth nappies could be washed). Does anyone have any tips about how to wash a toddler in the shower? Should I practice before we go? Haha. This sounds so daft now that I've written it out but my son hates water in his eyes so I'm anticipating it all going very badly!

We bought a very small inflatable paddling pool and put it in the bottom of the shower with warm water for ds2 as he hated the shower.

I’d get a cheap paddling pool and use it on the shower floor as a bath. You can buy one specially made for this but any small paddling pool would do.

Amazon link

DS also hated showers when he was little. We got him used to it by keeping the temperature and the power of the water turned down low. Whereas I love a piping hot, powerful-as-possible shower - DS had a lukewarm dribble of water by comparison!

Wash him in the kitchen sink?

Swim goggles or
snorkel mask, also great for encouraging him to put his face under the water in the toddler pool or bath. As an in flight treat we used to by a kids magazine with gifts on the front- toy cars, treasure etc and we used to throw them in the pool and make a game of finding it- suddenly lots of interest in finding the toys, it worked a great

Ours either stand or sit in shower and I hold the shower head, rinse, lather and rinse. If can't hold shower in hand I'd wash them when in myself, pop them out in towel to dry while I washed.

I shower baby and have done since very small to get her use to the running water down her face, we have a bath and she has a splash about too.

i had a fold up baby bath which worked great but we drove - not sure how easily it would pack for a flight.
any chance the shower tray is deep? If so, get a universal bath plug and make a little bath. Key camp caravan showers used to be like this and I say mine down in it and bathed them .

Ours will only stand in the shower and refuses baths after she came in with me once

give yours some cups, she loves standing there collecting the waterfall

you might need to put something on the floor of it as they get really slippery, see if the venue has a bath mat or if not maybe sacrifice a towel for the week or something

Just had this on holiday. My daughter informed me before that she hates showers, I said fine she can just have a wash. However I let her hold the shower head and she loved aiming the water at her legs and tummy. I then had a turn and cleaned her back etc. she now loves showers and wants them instead of baths at home!

how old is he? Mine is just 3. I remember a similar situation when she was tiny (7months ish) and I just got in with her, then my husband dried her while sorted myself out.

Bucket bath. Either a bucket big enough to fit them in or stand them in the shower and use a small jug fulls of water from the bucket first to wet them down. Then once they are wet, soap them. Then rinse off. You can get jugs which help you not to get it into their eyes, but also you can wash their body without washing their hair at all, and then use a flannel to do their face.

Deffo practice. Does the apartment shower have a detachable hose?

My toddler LOVES showers, she thinks they are very funny. She really likes playing with running water, even in the bath we have the tap on 🥴 such a waste of water!

She holds the hose and sprays it around (contained within the shower cubicle). I chuck in plastic figures & she washes them. She’s fascinated by the shampoo etc bottles..

Maybe also worth taking your toddler swimming so he gets used to dealing rugby water in his face & not panicking 😊

Google inflatable baby bath here is an example

Thanks for the tips everyone! :) Sorry for the late reply, for some reason Mumsnet won't let me post from my phone anymore. I don't think my phone likes the new update.

We will definitely practice in the shower the next time it's bath night and I'll look into the shower tray pool thingy and possibly a travel shower mat of some sort :)

To answer some questions: My son is seventeen months and the shower in the apartment doesn't have a detachable nozzle (I just checked the photos) it's a rain shower and the tray doesn't look very deep :/

The kitchen part is more of a kitchenette and the sink is very small so I don't think he'd fit in that.

Our toddler has just outgrown the baby bath so we introduced a shower yesterday. We found a shower toy with funnels etc that sticks to the shower tiles that she can play with to distract her and wash her as quick as possible, she didn't hate it 😂we angled the shower head slightly at the wall so there wasn't a huge stream of water on her to get in her eyes, hope this helps!

The best way is to get in with him. Then get DH to dry and dress him while you enjoy your shower.
Or vice versa.