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Austin Babies
toddler suddenly terrified of the bath
DD usually loves the bath, a little over a week ago she started noticing if there is dirt in the bathtub while she's in it. The first time she just kind of pointed and whined until I got it out, but ever since then it's gotten progressively worse to the point where she won't get in the tub at all if she sees the tinest speck. Tonight we made sure the tub was super clean before she came into the bathroom but she still totally freaked out and kept crying about the dirt even though she wasn't in there(and we didn't see any dirt). She still loves the idea of bath, but as soon as she sees the tub she freaks.
Is this just a stage? I don't want to force her to take a bath, nor do I really want to make everything super clean, but I'm not sure what else to do.
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Re: toddler suddenly terrified of the bath
What if you fill the tub before you bring her in?
I think most kids go through a phase like this, though. Layna went through several. It sucked but we just forced our way through it and eventually she got over it.
We went through something similar, except no dirt issues. We were about at our wit's end, and then found a toy that was fun in the water. She played with it outside once, then we brought it to the tub, and then she suddenly loved the bath again.
I couldn't find the exact toy, but this one is like it. I have no idea why it worked, but it did. I hope this helps.
We went through this, it was horrible. Nothing worked and it dragged on for a few months. We ended up going with sink baths (luckily it was cooler outside, so she didn't get all sweaty during the day) until we could convince her to get in. We got an Elmo bathmat (I believe MrsRosie did the same thing) and we found that fun water faucet toy. Those didn't work consistently though.
I wish I had a magic answer, but we did a lot of trial and error; bribes, new toys, new towels, new soap. You name it, we tried it. However, she now loves baths again, except when we interrupt play time to make her take one, of course.