My seven month old daughter has always enjoyed her nightly baths before her bedtime. For about three days now when she gets in the water she starts crying and doesn't want to be in it. My husband and I aren't sure what her trouble is, and I wondered if other moms have experienced this or something similar with their children. Any ideas would be appreciated!
I just HAD to read through these responses as my 20 month old started doing the same thing this week! I feel much better to see that it's somewhat normal!
All three of my babies did this, all at different times...it's just a phase they grow out of...and may go through again in a few months. Stick with your usual routine, the fear and crying will go away. When my babies went through these phases, I felt I was getting more of a bath than they were since I was often wet after the struggle! lol
Our son went through a few phases like that -- he got a bath (as part of bedtime) every night between 4mo. & 18 mo. old.
Basically we still always put him in the bath, even the few weeks where he was screamy, but if he cried we just washed & out.
We also experimented with different toys -- changing it up and that helped.
Now, we don't give our son a bath every night and a lot of nights we fight with him because he WANTS to take a bath.
Ahhh yes I have felt your confusion! Both of my children have gone through phases of bath time hatred. I don't know why. However I can say that when I have taken them to the pool they always liked the showers there. So I always made sure I had the soap and clean jammies for after the pool. I think the atmosphere was so different that they were too busy taking in the smells the texture of the spraying water and sounds and after spending some time in a pool made them sleepy. When she gets older there are tub paints, pellets that change the water colors, and crayons that helped.
We just went through this same thing with our 11 month old. I thought maybe she knew that bath meant bed time and that maybe she wasn't ready to go to bed. We moved bath/bed time routine from our normal time to about 30-45 minutes later and sure enough she stopped crying when we put her in the bath! I guess she was trying to tell us she wasn't ready for bed yet.
Hey-
My daughter did the same thing about 4 months she started giving me problems. She would throw a tantrum when taking a bath and would sit up in the blue bath tub I had, when her hair got wet. It was rather scary! Do you have a hose or a sprayer in your bath tub? I would try giving her a bath and then shampooing her hair and then using a hand hose or a sprayer on her hair. I think it all has to do with her head getting wet. Then now at 3 she still gives me a hard time about it. I just try to keep her distracted with other things like a bath book, a toy, and since my daughter is older she loves shower gel! She does get mad when I wash her hair for some reason still. I hope you can get it figured out! I am still trying lol!
Good luck!
C.
This is very common. My son did it at a slightly older age. I think you just need to try to be reassuring until the phase passes. Can you sponge bathe her for now? Try some new toys? Sometimes they don't like getting water in their face. I used to use bath visors designed to allow you to rinse their hair without getting water in the face or ears. Someone posted this same question about a week or two ago so you might be able to get additional ideas by looking it up on the main website. Good luck.
My daughter, who is now one, went through a phase like that too. I'm pretty sure it was around 7-8 months old. She would just scream in the tub, where she had loved it since birth. I think it's just a phase. She grew out of in within a month.
So hang in there. She'll grow out of it.
A.
I would guess she takes baths solo--it doesn't say in your question if she does or not--but I would guess she is experiencing separation anxiety and might like you in the bathtub with her. The separation anxiety phase is extremely important and in the way of attention from you, she needs what she wants. All in all, she's figured out the connection between taking a bath and going to bed...she is growing up and this is good that she's noticing this stuff.
You can always take a bath and when you are almost done, have your husband bring her into the tub with you. I am thinking you've got to experiment a bit to find out her gripe with the baths.
She might prefer baths in the morning from now on, which I'm thinking might make it easier to distract her in the evening in order to get her to fall asleep.
Of course you always want to reconsider her bath toys and the soap you are using...I guess that might be the problem...she might just be sick of her bath toys and might prefer honey-oat soap rather than lavender or something. Good luck!
It happens to the best of us! My daughter has gone through this twice. Once when she was about 10 months old.. and again at about a year and a half. I solved it by 1: Giving her a bath in the kitchen sink. I know it sounds crazy, but she felt safe for some reason, and she liked it. Slowly moved her back into the tub, and 2: Don't push the issue. She got used to the tub again. When she went through it the second time she was too big for the sink, so I put a plastic chair in the tub, and let her sit on that and dangle her feet. Once again, she liked that, then would stand in the tub and slowly got to love the bath again. I think all kids go through this at one time or another, so hang in there, she will change her mind before long and LOVE the bath again.
This is the age where they start fearing different things. You see it more when you leave the baby with someone, the seperation anxiety. My son started fearing anything with noise, the vacuumn, the food processor, thunder and the tractors on the ranch. You might try giving her a bath in the sink again or the baby bathtub, whichever you used when she was an infant. It will probaby only take a month or two for her to outgrow it.
