I think I figured out the bath-phobia

hikerbeth

As I've mentioned before, DD has been panicky about baths for the last month.  This is a child who used to spend an hour in the tub every bathtime (not everyday) and she would cling to my neck and cry.

I took her swimming and she had a fine time, so I knew it wasn't fear of the water.

The other (early) morning she woke up with a horrible nightmare screaming, "I don't want to take a bath!!"  I'm pretty sure she's been having nightmares about the bath.  This is good because I know it's not something traumatic that happened in the real bath (because for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what it could be).  This is bad because it's a totally irrational fear and she has to get clean.

We took a few "practice baths" this weekend. . . no hair washing, I let her hold a dry washcloth over her eyes if she wanted and I kept one hand on her at all times.

This morning we finally had to wash the hair and I let her choose which tub to bathe in, how she wanted to get her hair rinsed, which soap to use, etc. etc.  I also had gotten her a new bath toy a few weeks ago (which hadn't enticed her yet), but she got really involved with the new toy and hung out for 30 minutes!!  Huge improvement.  When I asked how she wanted to rinse her conditioner, she actually wanted to lean back in the water!

I'm cautiously optomistic that she's realized baths are o.k. again.

KoriBrett

Silly question - will she take a shower instead?  DD was scared to do it, but we have a hand-held showerhead and as long as she holds it, we're good. 

VERY glad she is getting better about it!!!

hikerbeth

We don't have a hand-held showerhead and one time at the beach I had to get her in a shower to rinse the sand off and she went crazy.  I always give her the option of a shower, but she always picks bath instead.

esposa38

I'm glad it's getting better, too.  It's so tough all around to have to battle over something like that, for her and you both.  I hope it keeps up.