2 YO suddenly fears bathtime

shella923

Anyone here have experience with this? I googled it and it seems quite common. The other night my husband was bathing our two-year-old. All of a sudden she got this look in her eye and she freaked out and wanted to get out. So since we bathe her every other night it's not a major issue yet however come on how long can this go on for? I did a little sponge bath last night and am going to take the baby bathtub out of storage and try in there. Thoughts?

littlestjerry

DS randomly goes through the bath hate/fear. It's almost cyclical. Maybe FFFC, but we just force him through these phases. One of us holds him still while the other cleans him quickly. 

Like I said, for months he'll love the bath, then randomly he'll hate it and want to get out for a few weeks. 

shella923

@littlestjerry‌ it might get to that point

littlestjerry

It seems mean, but he doesn't seem traumatized by it. 

tattooedtragedy

littlestjerry said:

DS randomly goes through the bath hate/fear. It's almost cyclical. Maybe FFFC, but we just force him through these phases. One of us holds him still while the other cleans him quickly. 

Like I said, for months he'll love the bath, then randomly he'll hate it and want to get out for a few weeks. 

We did this with E and we also tried showers and eventually the hate/fear just passed and she loved it again.

 

IDK, kids are weird :-/

tbmadeamistake

This happened when my daughter was about two, maybe a couple months shy. We didn't push too hard and gave her sponge baths for a couple nights. Then one night I filled the bath without her in the room, went and asked if she wanted to take a bath. I got her normal no, said OK, I was going to take one. Every step of the way I talked about how excited I was, how warm the water would be, that I got to play with the bath toys, etc. Eventually she was sitting there watching me have fun in the tub and she asked to come in, too. That was the end of the scare.

shella923

@Lilygrace48‌ I am going to give that a try tonight. I don't want my kid to be the smelly kid.

Helenahhandbasket

We JUST went through this.  We tried everything--new bath toys/ bath crayons/ playing with bubbles, me bathing with her etc.  It lasted maybe 3 months, and then she totally snapped out of it.

Hang in there-- it's most likely a phase (an annoying one).

ToastieSimons

this happpened to us with DS1.  He became hysterical about bathtime.  You couldn't even get him near the bathroom if the tub was running.

So we started with me getting in the tub and just holding him down while we washed him as fast as possible

It took about a week and he started to be okay while I was in the tub with him and after about 2-3 more weeks and he was back to loving bathtime.