Bath Time - York,PA

Did you try fun soaps? My husbands daughter wasn't big on bath time either. But then we got her the "paint" soap from Avon. She loves them. They are colorful and they smell good. She paints her legs in silly patterns and her face to look like a clown. They are around $2 each but are really worth it.

Go to bath and body and get this bath foam for kids. It comes out like shaving cream she is going to love playing iwth that. Plus you can wash her hair with it. She canapray her head like she is making a princess up do.
rub it alittle and rinse. Another thing is color soap crayons. But I like the foam idea.

Hmmm.....what if you switched her to a "shower" and bought one of the handheld shower heads. That way, the tub would be pretty much empty. My 3 1/2 yr old actually LOVES showers. Maybe she would take to that a little better.
Have you tried to figure out where the alligators/sharks fear came from?? I wonder if maybe she saw something that got into her little head. A friend of mine's child all of the sudden had a fear of monsters in her room at night. So, she got a can of air freshener and took the label off and put a new label on and called it "monster spray". Each night they sprayed it and all was well to her little one. =0) Sometimes it's as simple as humoring them and finding that simple way to ease their minds. Maybe you could take some sort of bubble bath bottle or something bath related and put "shark repellent" on it and you two could spray it or "clean" the bathtub with it right before bathtime. See if maybe that would work???? Just a thought. Good luck!

I use food coloring. They get to pick the color and as long as you only put a few drops in all it will do is color the water or bubbles. I also have soap that you can draw with and shampoo that comes out like foam. That helps me alot. Hope this helps.

I would try putting her in the tub without any water and then running the water while she is in the tub and let her put in the bubble bath. Try to make it fun by taking her to the store and have her pick out some new bath toys, bubble bath and maybe her own wash cloth and towels. My son loves to go The Dollar Tree and pick out his own wash cloth the kind that grows when you put it in the water. I also agree with giving her more showers than baths since baths can give little girls urinary tract infections.

at right around 3 years old, we had the same problem with our son. we bought him sone fun toys, soaps, washable markers for the tub and that worked for a bit. then we decided to see if he just wanted to take a shower instead. he's been showering ever since! he loves it! give that a shot...might make it easier to rinse her hair out too!

You could always get in with her to show her it's safe. Even if you felt uncomfortable you could wear a swim suit. =)

Hope it gets better. Unfounded fears can be hard to deal with!

My daughter use to HATE bathtime ever since a year old (she is now 3 1/2 years old). We have turned bathtime into playtime, she gets 30 mins to play (we have various bath toys, half which are just new cheap cooking spoons & little cups I got at the dollar store), we also do bubbles, I sit in the bathroom or in a chair right outside of the bathroom and read a book while she plays. Then around 30 mins we put the toys away, I ask which shampoo she wants (have a variety of tear free from Sam's club), and ask her if she wants we to use the little cup, which takes longer to wet/rinse her hair or the large cup which makes the wet/rinse go a lot quicker. We also have her (or I) hold a wash cloth over her eyes.

If you already do the above... Does her skin look irritated at all, a have know a few kids that due to the bubbles, soap or shampoo or one very rare case the water that would make the skin itch, get very red and not fun for the child. She may have also seen or even just heard from another kid talk about sharks or alligators and she is now afraid (at 3 years kids tend to have something that just scares them, my daughter now is not a fan of heights over 5 ft). If possible do not fill the bathtub just have her in it and wet her down with a cup, soaping up her body and hair then rinse her off. That way you can say that with out standing water there is no way for anything to harm her.

Hope she out grows it quickly for your sack is it is just a phase :)

My son never really liked baths. At about 2 1/2 he just was done with them.
One night when he just was adamant about not getting in the bath, Dad suggested he take a shower with him and see how that goes.
My son LOVED the shower. He said it felt like it was raining! Not only did we save on our water bill since all he did was go in, soap up and rinse, but the battles of "bath" time were over. Plus, it made him feel more in control.
Maybe a shower will work for you too. Best of luck!

I had a similar problem with my son (gotta love their imagination). I /We went to walmart and found Elmo color tablets. They change the color of the water (yellow, blue, purple, or any mixture you can create from them). He loves watching them fizz and change the water color. He also found out that he can draw with them too on our shower door. They do not stain as long as you rinse the drawing when you're done. Needless to say he loves bath time now. Hopefully this will work for you too. Good luck!

Take a shower. When I want to wash my son's hair it is easier to do it in the shower. I take him in the shower with me when it is a work day so he can be washed. It is easier and they do not get so much of the suds in their face. They do not like it. I wash him first then he plays with his toys while I wash myself. Another thing you may want to do it to get some of the elmo fizzy bathtub colors. They are under five bucks and they sell them at walmart and target. Tell her that the fizzy tabs will get rid of the alligators or sharks. They have different colors and they are really cool. She may not like getting her hair washed and this may be her excuse. Most kids at this age do not like all of the water in thier face. good luck

My son used to be the same way except he thought when I let the water out he was going to go down the drain! Have u ever tried 2 actually get in with her? Or maybe if she likes swimming relate it to that and make it a fun time. I think it's just a phase they go through! Or maybe you could relate it to one of her t.v. shows or something like a favorite toy and take it in the bath with her, if she sees that her toy is o.k. it will ease her alittle bit. Just throwing ideas out there, hope I helped a little!!!

I asked this same question 2 months ago about my 2 year old son. The only way I can get him in the tub is if I ask him if he wants to get in the tub and play with 'cream' (shaving cream)... sometimes he still fusses, but he loves taking the cream and smearing it on the tub and once he's in playing, he's fine and will proceed to splash and play. It took me a while until I found the right thing that worked for him. Maybe you can take her shopping so she can pick out a bath toy (something she really likes) and she can only play with it in the tub. I hope something works for you!

Updated

Hi, M.:
Wash her standing up in the sink.
Good luck. D.

Hey M., sorry I don't have any ideas about the bath. As a temporary fix for the hair problem, my mom used to wash ours in the laundry sink. We would kneel on a stool and lean in, and she'd run the water over our heads. Don't know if that would scare your daughter or not! Good luck!

I remember this happened to me when I was little, but it was complicated. It was a combination of: nature book with pirahnas eating an animal, visit to a gator farm (class trip) and visits to a park that had gators, a camping trip where a lone gator came up on the shore in front of our campsite, a boat ride and a pier with hundreds of jellyfish around it, visit to my uncle's house (he kept dozens of tanks, some of which held baby sharks), and having unfortunately seen a little bit of the movie Jaws. I wouldn't get in swimming pools, or lakes, and I was worried that sharks or something horrible was going to come up out of the bath drain.

I think _just_ a nature show or book or snippet of a movie by itself would have done it. The rest was overkill.

Have you offered to bathe her in the kitchen sink? Or offer her some bath toys that "eat alligators and sharks"? My mom's solution was a rubber bathtub stopper. It helped a little, but I just didn't bathe often for awhile.