HI,

I'm in charge of bath times, and for the last 9 1/2 months all has been well, Elijah has had a really good time, but these last two weeks he started screaming the house down the minute we go into the bathroom, and all through the bath , he refuses to sit or lie down and just screams and cries mercilessly while clinging onto me for dear life . After bath its story time with Mama and bed and he now get so worked up at bath time that its is getting really hard for Mari to get him down, it used to take 30 mins but since this started its taking up to an hour.

No part of the bath has changed, getting in with him does not help.

Can anyone shed light on this sudden change?

Thanks,

Johnny

Libby had this and I know alot of other little ones did too so I think it's just a phase

I had a bath with Libby and that seemed to 'cure' her, maybe thats worth a go?

xx

john tried that a few times - bathtime with me isnt greatly useful because he just tries to bf!

john has just relieved me from trying to get him down to bed - nearly 2 months of managing really well and this is the 3rd night in a row it has taken 2 hours +

does he know sometimes im at work in the evening??? is it teeth?????? is it growing pains??? is it the phase of the moon??? i wish it was funny really

OOo I 2nd susan, I remeber quite a few of us with LOs around the same age, we all went through this the same time. was so weird. Lillie loved the bath and one day (cant rememeber what age now...) but she hated it!! screamed soon as I mentioned bath! was a nightmare, I even started to think something happened to her at my mums or something when she bathed her. But after posting a few all said the same.
Dont worry within few weeks we were back to normal.. now have opposit problem cant get her out xx

Ya..the co-bathing thing does work..but try adding some bubbles..a few toys..and make it fun. It is just a phase and soon you won't be able to get him out of the tub, even when the water turns ice cold and they are have little prune fingers and toes. xxx

Sorry I did have to giggle at him trying to BF

Ummm, could always do it in the kitchen sink? When we moved here we were having a new bathroom fitted and so the bath was out of service - put her in the kitchen sink and she loved it!! Maybe try that??

Not sure about bedtimes, Simon has NEVER put Libby to bed on his own

Hopefully it is teeth and he gets over it very soon xxxx

we have toys! fun! bubbles! frolicks! i hope so last thing in the day screaming is horrible, what a cross way to go to bed!

susan, i bf elijah and generally he is asleep after 5 minutes so i sneak him down, but a few times since i started working evenings (and a few times when i thought my head was going to pop haha) john has taken over and shooshed him to sleep. i got home at ten last night and elijah was snoozing on daddy

I had this with my big two and it was just a phase! Hope you get to the other end of it soon!!

P.S I love that your OH posts on here too! Well done Mr Mari!!

Xxx

mr.mari hahahaha he will piss himself when he sees that. hes such a nosey git (i try not to let him read the foof and bum posts hahaha )

we will just need to persevere, im worried hes figured out bath = bed! well, he will just have to get used to that

mm strange one, ava was like that until we let her roam free without her safety seat, do you have the water really shallow so he can crawl about?

yep, we abandoned any bath seat in january because he was too good at escaping it was less dangerous to let him loose! he just has to see the bath and that's it, screaming....really odd.

Have you tried sitting him in the bath at different times of the day with no water in and playing?? Might not help but could be worth a shot!

Xx

aaaaw bless him its heartbreaking when they get so distressed about something like this. Just wanted to say I also think its a phase and I really hope he grows out of it soon x

We had this with Harry too, and I found that letting him see the bath being run helped him chill about it a bit more. He found the running water very interesting and couldn't wait to get in after that and we haven't had a problem since xx

Hannah is exactly the same hun, I could've written the posts myself. She's not been too bad to get to sleep because she loves her bed but it's literally a case of in, wash, out before has chance to get too hysterical. Then she gets to explore the bathroom whilst I get Thomas sorted so gives her chance to calm down.

I can't help much hun because Thomas did the exact same thing at the exact same stage and we just toughed it out and he eventually stopped. Hannah only gets a bath every other day so at least its not every night. I think it's 'just one of those things' they all seem to go through :/ sorry mr and mrs Mari, I'm not much help

Xx

haha mr and mrs mari

soooo plan of action! let him play in the bath/bathroom (attended of course!), let him see the water being run....and if all else fails, man it out

he is still doing it, but not quite so wholeheartedly, you can kind of see he has no idea why he is crying now, but he thinks he is meant to cry hrrrmmm

C went thru a phase of it too. I highly reccomend the bath with mummy or daddy route-what about (random as it sounds) sitting in bath with him with a bikini top or summat on so he isnt so distracted by yer baps hon

Also can he stand? I saw the bit about her wont sit down. C still prefers to bath standing up so i just let her. After a year of it i can now get her to sit down if need be but if im in with her she either sits on me or just stands up and plays and i pour water over her to wash her.

Lastly i HIGHLY reccomend bath crayons! They turned our nightmare bathtimes around big style. I can even wash her hair now if she knows she can have the crayons after

thanks mario, he stands really well and seems stable enough to hold onto the side and nosey at us, so that's fine, i worry about him getting a bit cold but...well if it makes him happy!

we have had a wee bit of success tonight; a combination of playing with water in the washing up bowl with toys and bubbles, daddy being in the bath too (cos i was ready for work) and being allowed to take the beloved toothbrush with him!

i think you are right, distraction might just be the key, he on screamed going into and coming out of the bath tonight which is an immense improvement!

Glad its helped mari, its just perseverance. We had abdabs for ages with c til we discovered the crayons. Now we got thru a pack every 3 months or so cos she mashes em so hard into the walls lol

And standing def helps, i just pour water over her regularly to keep her warm and she now thinks its a game and does it back to me

we will just keep going, the crayons are a good idea though (although the toothbrush/wet flannel seem to provide lots of amusement still). im a bit scared to take him swimming again we havent been since it started.....hm maybe i should take the toothbrush it comes everywhere else with us

Lol we still hardly take c swimming now as bloody waterbabies traumatised her so now i dont know where to start with her in case she remembers it and freaks again

hahaha wtf what did waterbabies do?!

they do that dunking em under the water thing dont they. frightened the shit out of her. she used to scream as soon as she saw the pool after that

christ, i thought it looked good but reaaaaaaaaaaaaally insanely expensive, maybe think twice about that. if i want a half-drowned child im sure he can do that himself in a year or so

i actually skipped the last 4 lessons and took the loss of money at 12 pound a sessio rather than keep putting her through it