Bathtime - Madison,OH

Did something happen at all that you can think of. My son used to live in the bathtub. I could never get him out of it. One time he was in there so long that he accidentally pooped in there and was absolutely terrified of the poop, he jumped out of the tub screaming uncontrollably and refused to take a bath for several several months! Over 6mo later he finally let me put him back in the tub but only with underwear on. My son refuses to take a bath w/out underwear. I think maybe in his head he thinks if its covered then nothing can accidentally get out... Not that he has ever went to the bathroom again but he feels better so I let him. My other son only likes the tub if I have the soft cusion suction mat that goes in there. The kind so they don't slip. When my younger son would take baths his but would slide all over the place and he would get nervous.. now that I have the no slip pad he feels safer.

My son did the same thing at about 18 months. He would scream, cling onto you, kick, anything to stay out of the water. It is normal behavior at this age. For a couple of weeks, as needed, we took him into the shower with us for a quick wash. He would scream at first (but not really fight, like he did with the bath), but then he would settle down a bit. Meanwhile, on bath night, we gradually worked him back into the tub. We started by just sitting on the side of the tub together, with our feet in the water. Then we would stand in the tub, and later, sit in the tub. Soon, he was in the tub by himself, splashing and playing. Now, he even asks to take a bath.

My son (who is now 2) went through this twice. Something would scare him, and I'm not sure what. I would give him a sponge bath instead for a few weeks. Then I would reintroduce the bath and by then he forgot whatever scared him from taking a bath.

Hi D.,

This is not unusual. Around 1 year kids begin to go through a "fear" stage. Things that never caused problems before all of a sudden do. Make sure you and your mon try to be as calming as possible during bath and reassure him all is ok. He will eventually enjoy it once again.

Bath him in the sink. It works great! And they don't seem to be as afraid of the sink as they are the tub.

One of my sons went through a stage like that, he was like a cat clawing up my chest over my back to get out all of sudden and nothing had happened. He was a little older between 18 months and two years but I'm not sure that makes a difference. I tried some new toys and even getting in with him nothing helped. So - I just went with it. I quit giving him baths and bought one of those shower heads with the long hose and hand held sprayer. I would just stand him up in the tub and wet him down, wash him up and rinse him off. He got over it in about a month and now I can't get him out of the tub. Good Luck.

As long as your mother is sure that no one has teased or misused the bath with your little brother, then it's probably just a phase. Kids go through them. They test their parents. They push the limits to see what they can get away with and what they cannot. Mom should be firm with him in making sure he gets his bath. Maybe washing his hair in the kitchen sink, so he can lay down and not get his ears in the water. And wiping his face to make sure no water gets in his eyes. Give him a towel to hold over his face when he gets his hair washed. Make sure he has a bath toy to keep him occupied while he is being washed. He will eventually outgrow this fear.

Don't worry--my son went through the same thing around the same age. Like you and your mom, I was convinced he'd had some traumatic experience with water that I didn't know about somehow, but after doing lots of research I realized this is a normal phase lots of kids go through.

To get through it I let him play at the sink with water and toys. I bathed him at the sink with a sponge (him screaming and terrified the whole time!) and finally got him back in the tub with just a tiny bit of water at the bottom. I just made sure that I took "baby steps" to get him okay with the water again, and just made it really fun when he got in the tub--tried to be very gentle and overly enthusiastic.

Bottom line is it's a phase and he'll outgrow it--probably as quickly as it started! Don't worry.

my son did the same thing at about 1 year old. The only thing we could think of is that he was afraid he was going to go down the drain with the water. It lasted about 3 months. Wouldn't even go swimming. (he's 16 now) I gave him baths with pouring water on him standing in the tub so he didn't have to sit in water. A neighbor finally got him back into the water.

My friend's daughter went through a stage like that. Maybe he hates having the water poured over his head when rinsing off the shampoo? Anyhow, just tell your mom (or you can do it sometimes!) to take the bath with him :)

Dear D.,
Since we don't know why he is frighteded it's hard to tell what would work but here are some ideas:
-have mom get in with him
-have him play in the tub with nothing in it but a new toy and a bowl of water for him to splash in
-fill the sink, put a stool next to it and let him splash in the water so he starts liking water again
-have him come in the bathroom while someone in the family is taking a bath and have them overact with how happy and fun it is(offer to bring him into the tub but don't force it)

I hope this helps!

I recall one night trying to get Abbie in the tub for almost an hour! She was three at the time. FINALLY, after repeatedly showing her and telling her that there were no spiders in the tub (she had seen them in the tub at her mother's) and that she was NOT going to go down the drain (a step brother at her mom's had told her that)......I asked her if she'd be okay w/ the bath if I got in with her and sat at the drain end of the tub. The answer was "YES" and since then we have had absolutely NO issues. On top of that, bath time together has been SSSSOOOO much fun. We play games (creative guessing games) bath ring toss, "ice cream shop" w/ a large cup, plastic ice cream scoop, lots of bubbles, etc. and we BOTH love it! She just turned 7 and sometimes she STILL wants me to take a bath with her. She has said that taking a bath with me was like having a sleep over. She LOVES it and gets excited about it! Make it fun and join in or have another brother take it with him.

Sounds normal. All my kids went through the 'hate-the-bath' stage at some point between 8-18 months. It usually just lasted a few weeks. We would continue to give baths every 1-3 days (everyday in summer, every 2-3 days in winter when they weren't outside getting dirty as much) like normal. Sometimes they cried/screamed the whole time, sometimes they were standing and trying to climb out... we just did the best we could, remained calm and matter-of-fact and did it VERY fast. Eventually they realize it's part of life, it's going to happen, they won't get hurt and there's nothing to fear.

Some kids react well with distractions - bubbles are a good one. My husband or older children would blow bubbles while I washed the baby. We still had to do it very fast but the bubbles distracted for a few minutes.

Good luck - it's a phase that probably won't last long.