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Parenting

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Original poster

1yo suddenly hates the bath

7 replies

Caitlin991 · 31/07/2023 19:48

My 1yo (just turned) has gone from loving the bath to HATING it in the space of 3 days and I don’t know what to do…
He won’t even let me dip his toes in now, he just screams bloody murder and clings onto me.
I tried getting in with him and same thing..
I don’t understand what has happened since his last bath, I always check the temp with a thermometer and my elbow, we’re using the same bath products & nothing happened during his last bath time as far as I can remember.
Is this just a faze? How can I help him to enjoy the bath again?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

WAC1 · 31/07/2023 19:49

Yes. It's a phase. Happens occasionally with my 16 month old, especially when he is really tired. I offered bath before dinner for a couple of days so he was less tired and that helped 😊

Original poster

Caitlin991 · 31/07/2023 19:52

That’s reassuring, thank you!
He has his 12 month jabs tomorrow so I’ll try leaving the bath for a couple of days then try it before dinner and see if that helps

OP posts:

UnravellingTheWorld · 31/07/2023 20:07

It's a phase. My 2 yo gets them - a couple of months ago he was clinging to me and refusing to sit down in it, and screamed the place down when I tried to wash his hair.

I reduced hair washes to as needed, so that sped up most bath durations. I'm not a bath toy person, but I gave him a couple of his favourite toys as distraction - measuring spoons/cups from the kitchen are a great bath toy. Even 5 minutes of screentime wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if he's really beside himself (I'm not a screentime mum, but 5 min every few days will be fine if it saves all that distress). I also encouraged splashing, because who doesn't love a good splash

Today my son refused to sit in the bath. I cleaned him down and was about to dry off... at which point he sat down and refused to get out 😅

He will get over it!

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Whyohwhyohwhy123 · 31/07/2023 20:09

If the weather is reasonable and you still have the baby bath, bath them in the garden in the middle of the day. Mine love that

Astromelia · 31/07/2023 20:11

Get a tempting bath toy, get in and play without him. He’ll want to join in eventually. If he has an older sibling get them to do it

In the meantime it’ll have to be a cloth wash.

Original poster

Caitlin991 · 31/07/2023 20:15

Thanks all, I tried the new bath toys he got for his birthday the other day, but he was having none of it. I even tried getting him to just throw them in the bath and make a splash as that was his favourite thing the other day.
Hopefully the phase passes quickly - thankfully he’s not too much of a messy eater 😂

OP posts:

Nails1x1x · 31/07/2023 20:24

Yes, we went through this! To encourage my daughter we put a washing up bowl on the bathroom floor filled with water and her bath toys and let her play around with it … the next time we put the washing up bowl filled with water in the empty bath and sat her in the bath and she played with the water and then after that started filling the bath with water without the washing up bowl and she was fine …, definitely a phase .. did last about 3-4 weeks though I think 🤔

hope it soon passes :)

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