fear of water

[jessgray]

my ds turned bath time into a battle ground a while ago, at first i thought it was him just testing out his new found tantrum skills. coz he would give in after 10 mins. but now a few months later, he refuses to get into anything with water in it. i thought ok, he doesnt like the bath try the sink for a bath nope didnt work. he wont go near water at all. he isnt really into water play either. how can i get my ds to go in the bath without making his fear of water worse?

[almond eyes]

Hi Jess :)

How about buying some new inetresting bath toys? If he is bored with his old ones, some new ones might get him to get back into the water. Also, maybe you could do it slowly like, just immerse his feet while standing up then just wet his body using a dipper.

A couple of months ago, my DS started to take off his bath visor. I guess it irritated him as he got older. However, it also got water in his eyes, which got him real scared. He would stand in the bath while I'd be soaping him, trying to get out...obviously scared. So, I would sowly pour water on his head using a dipper and use my hand as a visor and brush his hair backwards, that way no water would get in his eyes. Then I made it a habit to count to three for his last rinse...and guess what, he would close his eys now and grin, anticipating the water to run down his face.

It's a long process though. But he'll get used to it and be fine. Best of luck to you.

[jessgray]

i cant even get him near the bath anymore last nite i gave up in getting him to hop in after he had an asthma attack from his stress. :(
i ended up giving hima sponge bath lol

[pookiesossige]

You may already have tried this, but is he scared of the shower? With you or his dad in it too? You could put on some music he likes, or get some new toys or bath books, have you or DH/DP get in the shower first while the other undressess him and stands by to take him out if it's a no-go.
Otherwise, it may just a matter of waiting until he develops past his fear and by encouraging this by doing a bit of water play with him- very 'safe' water play- starting with pouring water from one container to another for example and moving up to water with bubbles in it, pouring it through a sieve, etc.
Good luck! :fingerscrossed: Try and stay as relaxed about it as you can so that his anxiousness isn't increased by yours.

[jessgray]

he has been in the shower with me once and he found it to be a bit of a novelty coz he could see DP on the computer from the shower coz the door to the bathroom was open lol
he just didnt like the water going on his face and he would try to hide from the water so it would go on his head and then he would get cranky coz he would get cold lol the shower is probably the closest thing he will get to water.

[almond eyes]

Oh great that he likes the shower. Just get him one of those bath visors to protect his face from water. It might just work. :thumbsup:

[wattle]

Hi Jess. Ds also has water phobia (and hair cut phobia, and hair wash phobia, and clothes change phobia etc etc etc) and there's no way in a zillion years he'd go near the shower. It takes a LOT of patience to get their trust back. Our bubs are similar ages, so perhaps its something that happens around that age too.

I found that if I get in the bath and ignore him for a while, he gets curious and comes in on his own. (It's getting pretty hard now that I'm 37 weeks pregnant though :eek: ). Each night I try and put a bit more water in the bath, and splash a bit and that seems to help.

I also encourage water play outside (not easy with melbourne weather brrrrrrrr) and have a few buckets with warm water and some squeaky toys and plastic containers in them. This seems to help him too, as he feels more in control. He can run away if it all gets too much. I've found he's quite happy tipping gallons of water all over himself while he has clothes on. The only problem is the panic he has when I try to take the wet clothes off. Agh. I just think the answer is to go very very slowly, as frustrating as it is.

[jessgray]

where would i get a visor for bath time from?

wattle- my ds also doesnt like being changed. he hates getting dressed. just before we had to get him dressed to go see some relatives and you'd swear we were murdering him the way he was screaming lol

[wattle]

I've been trying to rack my brains all afternoon because I know I saw the visors somewhere.... it was Spotlight. It just came to me :)

I know how you feel, the neighbours must think we're sticking pins in his eyes the way he carries on. We're not........ I promise.

[jessgray]

:) thanks i will have to head out to spotlight this week sometime.
ds needs to have his hair washed today maybe i should invest in some ear plugs and sound proofing before i do it lol

[almond eyes]

I got my bath visor at Baby Galore... Jolly Bath I think they're called. Samuel uses the frog one---so cute! I think it's about 12 dollars. :)

[jessgray]

:) i will have 2 see if they r on the baby galore site coz we dont have that store here :(