My Toddler's Scared of the bath

[tuscan32]

Please help.. My 2yr old daughter is petrified of the bath or getting anywhere near it. I can not pinpont an event which has started this and it is such a struggle to get her anywhere near the water. We go swimming together and she loves it in the pool. I have tried all sorts and so far nothing seems to help the situation. People keep saying that its a phase she is going through and it will pass but this has been going on for a few months now. She use to love her bath time but now it is a horrendous task. We go swimming once a week just to get her clean! Any help will be much appreciated.

[BlueHeaven]

Please don't despair - it really IS a phase. My daughter is now 8 but from the age of 2 right through until the age of 4 she was petrified of the bath, and I couldn't pinpoint what had set it off, either.

Some things to try:
Use one of those shower attachments that attaches to the taps, make it seem like something special, and wash her with that.
Put her favourite doll or plastic toy in the bath (one that she wouldn't usually have in the bath, or if you can, buy her something new).
Not sure if you already do this, but if not get her one of those visor thingies to shield her face from the water when washing her hair.
Do make it seem as if you're not at all bothered if she makes a fuss and you have to get her out of the bath - if you get stressed it makes it worse.
Try having a bath together so you can hold her if she's frightened - to reassure her that everybody has baths.
Failing that - just put her in the bath, wash her as fast as possible despite the screaming, without getting stressed yourself, and eventually she will grow out of it.

And she WILL grow out of it. My daughter has only just started to not mind water on her face and as I said, she's 8! Her latest trick is putting the shower jets on her tongue because it tickles and makes her giggle! But in saying all that, my daughter is petrified of swimming pools!!

Hope this helps :)

[cliffsweb]

i was thinking in this hot weather, get her a little paddling pool, let her play in it, add some toys such as rubber duck, watering can ect, add some bubbles, if she.s having fun she wont realize shes having a bath outside, if shes frighteed of hair washing just do it once a week, do that in the bathroom and the funbaths can be had in the paddling pool in the garden.

[PinkFizz]

my son will get in the bath but he freaks out when I wash his hair - and he is nearly 7!!! I have no idea why but it drives me nuts!! lol

[tradey]

my 2yr old was the same,she used to hit out and scream the place down,one day i desided to pretend one of my fingers wanted to be friends with her, i put a face on it and started to speak to her,saying come on now im getting in the bath with you,lets play splash,may sound really silly but it worked and now she loves getting into the bath just try it you never now keep us informed good luck

[spangle111]

Have you tried going in with her? If that is no good try bathing her in the kitchen sink - when my daughter was small it was one way of getting her to have a bath when she didn't want to go in the 'big' bath. If you don't like the idea of the kitchen sink why not try going back to the baby bath for a while. Good Luck! x

[juhurst27]

my 6 year old son started to suddenly take an aversion to sitting in the bath with or without water, at around the same age and i remember all my freinds and family thought it was weired especially as like you he never had an 'incident' in the bath as im aware of anyway. but you know what i just showered him instead. and eventually he got to accept the bath ,but not for about 2 years and i thought so what? big deal if hes not like'normal' children who are suppossed to love the bath is it all so important? the awnser is NO! . even now i have a bit of resistance when it comes to hygene but that in my oppinion is a minor quirk in the grand scheme of things. julia cheshunt herts.