Bath Time - seems to be scared

[Crazy Monkey]

My DS has loved his bath time from about 6 weeks of age... Loved the water, gets so excited when you mention bath time... But the last couple of nights he has tried to stand in the bath and has slipped and given himself a fright... Obviousy we haven't left him alone, but he still managed to slip while we are holding his arm/hand...

Now when we put him in the bath, he just screams... We need to make a big effort of being stupid, to get him to calm down so we can get him washed...

I dont want him to be afraid of the bath... What can we do to encourage him to feel safe again??

Thanks in advance

[drewid]

Andrew went through a stage like this not too long ago. No amount of stupidity would save us - it was just a case of wash him real fast and get him outta there!

We went out and bought him a bath toy - its a plastic mat that sticks on the tile wall and has buttons that play different songs and has funny noises. Its for 3+ but we figure he is ALWAYS supervised in the bath, so not much chance of it being a danger to him. He LOVES it. We play songs and DH and I sing along and Andrew sits in the bath and laughs and claps and has a great time. Once the fun has subsided I give him a wash down and out he goes.

There are some really great bath toys around - and this in particular he doesn't actually use himself yet - we press the buttons and he watches. Great fun :)

[reAllytee]

I havent had this problem yet even with bubs thinking he is clever standing up then slipping over :rolleyes:
But ive had friends who like Nicole have said a new bath toy can work wonders !
Otherwise have you tried taking him in the shower with you or your hubby ?
Maybe this will ease things for awhile & then when he is ready to go back to the bath he will do so in his own time.
Good luck :)

[Crazy Monkey]

Thanks for the advice ladies...

He has about 20 bath toys and we rotate the toys every couple of weeks, so there is no shortage of toys... We'll have to try him in the shower...

[Ana Gram]

We went through this as well with no obvious reason for it, ie no falls or frights. She just all of a sudden hated having a bath and we hated giving it to her as she screamed bloody murder. And then over Xmas time, she suddenly liked having a bath again and was asking for one up to four times a day. My mother told me that it was just a stage that some kids go through and you just have to do the best you can with distraction of toys.

[Chickadee]

Putting something non-slip in the bottom of the tub may also help, if only for your own peace of mind. You can buy stickers for this or if you're renting like us you can buy a non-slip mat from a hardware store (eg Bunnings). Ours has suction cups all over it to stick it down. We have 3 now - one for the big tub, one for the shower used at our last house, and one that was cut down to fit the baby bath.

You could try blowing bubbles around him in the tub too (ie bubble liquid and a wand to blow them in the air). My DH started this recently and now DD insists on it.

[Peaceangels]

Does he like books? When my DS2 went through the hating bath time stage, we got a couple of plastic bath books (cause he love's books) and the stickers for the bottom of the bath and that eventually enticed him back in.:yelclap:

Just remember it is a stage, so if all you do for a few weeks is have him stand in the bath for a minute while you wash the dirty bits, it's easier than stopping it altogether, cause then they get used to not having one.

Goodluck!:)

[Crazy Monkey]

Thanks for the advice, and I'm glad to hear it is just a stage they all go through... He just loved bath time so much, I didn't want it to became something he didn't look forward to...

Last nights bath was a lot better, until we layed him down... We use to lay him in the bath to wash his 'bits' and he was fine with it but not anymore... Once he was sitting up he was much happier...

We have stickers on the bottom of the bath, bath books, hand puppets, the lot... I am going to get more stickers because there are gaps where he tends to slip more than others...

Thanks again

[mamachops]

Could you get in the bath with him?