My children are killing me with baths right now. They love bathtime but they HATE hair washing. We bathe them separately, so its not like they are feeding off each other. They just both completely FLIP OUT when I wash their hair. This is relatively new- like in the last month or so. Sophie won't be still when I lay her down to wash her hair- she flips herself over so she's face down in the water! I can't figure out how to gently hold her down and wash her hair at the same time.
And then there's Gavin. OMG... he screams like he is being attacked. It's so bad- I really can't even describe it. I think of myself as a pretty tough mama, but this is really too much for me to handle. I mean, he won't lay down to get his hair washed and if I try to do it while he's sitting up, I'm afraid he will drown b/c he's screaming so much and the water just goes right into his nose/mouth. Everytime I do it, it ends with me holding him down and dumping water on his head as fast as I can and he gets choked up and sputters and honestly, he's probably scared of it at this point which is just making it all that much worse. It has gotten to the point that I am totally stressing out and dreading bath time and so is DH. It always ends up with everyone upset for bedtime afterwards. Please give me a solution?
Re: Need help- bathtime
We had to get this thing:
It's called a Boon Flo. Mia hated getting her head wet but apparently loves the "waterfall" aspect of it and doesn't care anymore.
We bathe out kids together and I think that helps. They see how the other one reacts.
We make them sit up and fully dump the water over their heads.
They used to freak out about it and we had to fight through that. Now they actually kind of like it.
We also do showers 2x a week--we have a walk-in shower with a rain showerhead and the kids love it. Aerin stayed in once for almost 20 mins. After she started taking showers, she started to love having the water poured over her head.
We tried doing it together but it was bad b/c when Gavin started flailing about... he almost kicked Sophie! Showers are out too... I tried that last night. He still flipped out on me. He just hates the water on his face in any way. Ugh... thanks for the tips ladies. At least I'm not alone!
Does he like playing in the water outside of getting clean? When it warms up, you can spend some time with him with the hose outside just playing and occassionally getting water on his face. You know, play it up like it's fun and show him you getting yourself wet and such. Maybe he'll get used to it and associate bath water with the times he got splashed when having fun outside??
Other than that, have you ever just given full control to him and let him figure out where his boundries are as far as getting his face wet goes? I know when I put my head back too far and get water on my face, it somehow finds its way up my nose. I hate that! I think that's what was happening with my kids but when I started just letting them navigate the water from the faucet to rinse their own hair, they started to chill out.
I like the Boon Flo. That looks pretty cool.
Oh the screaming! It can be so horrible and DH and I's ears will be ringing it is so loud in the bathroom. And then we are all in a bad mood for bed. Not the relaxing bedtime routine we are all looking for.
Here is the only things that have helped lately: (And hopefully I'm not jinxing myself)
Sometimes we let him wet and rinse his own hair by dumping the cup himself. Sometimes he wants to do it and then he doesn't scream. This doesn't work every night though.
The main thing I started was having him close his eyes, close his mouth, and then shake his head like a puppy dog as I pour the water. It still goes in his face, but for some reason it doesn't bother him as much. He likes the whole puppy dog thing and thinks its funny. I also make a big deal of saying how much he is shaking and splashing. "You got me all wet" kind of thing, which he thinks is funny.
I have never gotten him to look up. I put stickers on the ceiling for him to look at, big fail. I bought the cup that is flexible so it molds to his head, well that still only works if he will look up. The only thing I haven't tried is the little visors that they sell in One Step Ahead that are made for the bathtub and supposedly help shield their face from the water. And that Boon thing looks fun too.
My boys have had major flip outs over getting their hair washed, but have been pretty decent lately. With Ethan, he hates to lay in the tub so he'll allow me rince his hair if I give him a dry wash cloth to put over his face. Even though the wash cloth gets wet while I'm rinsing his hair, he just seems able to tolerate it. It's like the wash cloth is a security blanket for him. As long as he has that, he's fine.
With Jack, he won't lay down or use the wash cloth so I just have to dump water over his head. He doesn't really care for it, but has gotten better.
I also typically do a countdown with them and that seems to help a lot. I always say, "You are doing so good! Only 3 more rinses and we are done!" Once we are done, I hand them a dry towel to wipe their face and they seem pretty happy afterwards.
ditto this!
Not sure I can be much help to you, Stacie, as HC cries when we tell her she's NOT getting a bath and hasn't had much trouble washing her hair! But I do love this thing; may get it just for the coolness factor.
Relatedly, what about having them hold a doll or water toy with hair that they can wash as you wash theirs? And aside from the days when they get gunk in their hair, can you wash hair infrequently (as in once every 3-4 days or even longer) for right now? May just take experiences of not getting water in their eyes, or washing a little bit of the back of their heads but not the top for a looooong time (could use a slightly soapy washcloth for the top, perhaps?) until the fear factor dials down a bit? HTH; hang in there!!
You know what else you can do? Let him wear goggles in the tub.
Alec started bringing the goggles from his tool bench in the tub and he has tested them that they keep all water out of his eyes.
Have him put them on only when you pour the water over his head and make a game of it.