Tuesday 21 March 2017

Lily HATING Bath time.




Lily has never been a big fan of the bath. Even as a baby she didn't want to spend to much time in there and cried to come out. 

But as she has gotten older it really has started to turn into a tricky ordeal. There have been tantrums, theres kicking, there crying and bath time is something I now dread to do. 

I have no idea why it has suddenly got worse, before now she would always happily go in the bath and play, and as a younger child always enjoyed the water splashed over her head. Though we always had to get her looking up to the ceiling to wash her hair as she hated the water going in her eyes. 

This is how bath time currently goes. 

"Lily, time to have a bath. Shall we go and make bubbles?"

Lily really excited. 


"BUBBLES!!!!! Yes Yes Yes," 

We run to the bathroom, start the bath, she watches and plays with the bubbles with her hands as they start to form. 

When the bath is full. "Ok, lets go and get undressed and get in"

Lily runs away screaming "No no no no" 


Then its a game of catch Lily to try to undress her. She isn't currently laughing, she really knows that she is about to have a bath and doesn't want to go in.  

Then the even harder part. Putting her in the bath. I lift her up, hold her over it and she lifts her legs up and kicks and screams "No No No"

She really needs to have a bath, it not like I make her have one daily but washing is a must. So I generally dunk her bottom half in to the water and eventually she sits down. (maybe realising that the water isn't so scary)


Then, she finally relaxes, plays with her bath toys and the bubbles and starts to enjoy the bath. She gets to play for a good 20 minutes and then I start to wash her. She starts to winge as I wash her. You know.. that pretend cry that toddlers do. But she lets me do it. 

Then comes the hard part. Washing the hair. She HATES having her hair washed. 

Ive tried so many different ways of making it nicer for her. Firstly wetting her hair.. Ive got her toys and squirted the water on her head. Ive tried stroking her hair with a wet hand, with a cloth, sponge. Tried pouring over her head. Non of them work and she instantly starts to cry. I put the shampoo on which is always baby no tears brands and start to rub it in. She cries more and at this point she has started to stand up in the bath and tries to get out which is really dangerous as she keeps nearly slipping. 

So last time Lily had actually dived out the bath into my arms before the shampoo was washed out. What do I do? I need to wash the shampoo out? 
In the end last week my partner had to lean her over the bath and I had to really quickly get the shower and wash it out. All while she was screaming and wiggling in my partner arms. Its horrible. 

I have no idea the best way to wash the shampoo out without upsetting her now. Ive tried huge distractions with things up in the air to get her to put her head back but she is so clever and knows exactly what Im doing. 

We have started to do her baths in the morning now incase it was a tired thing but it hasn't changed anything. Also me and my partner both don't do bath time without each other there to help now. So we always have to find the right time. 

I really don't know what to do and admit that Its not something I ever imagined struggling with. 

Its bath time tomorrow morning and i'm dreading it. Does anyone have any ideas? Anyone been through this with their child?? 


15 comments:

  1. I have 3 children - the oldest is my son who is almost 5 and he went through this stage but we just persisted and it finally got better. My 3 year old daughter is very head strong and when she doesn't want to do something, she will not do it and sometimes when she refuses to get in the bath, I will get in the bath with her and let her wash my hair. It also helps if she has a doll (Swim n Spin Ariel) whose hair she can wash. You don't have to wash your daughters hair every day, do you? I wash my daughters hair every other day as I don't use products on it unlike my son's (which I wash every day). I know this sounds awful and people will disagree with me but when Daniel used to have his tantrums and when my Lilly has hers, I just pour the water over her head with a bucket - she would be screaming anyway - sometimes you've just got to not be so afraid of upsetting them, at the end of the day, you need to get the shampoo off so rather than try and reason with her for ages, I'll just do it and deal with the screaming after! Hope this is a help :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ive tried her baby in the bath, but maybe one that we can wash its hair properly could help. Didn't think of that thank you. (her doll is a baby doll with plastic head)

      Delete
    2. Ive tried her baby in the bath, but maybe one that we can wash its hair properly could help. Didn't think of that thank you. (her doll is a baby doll with plastic head)

      Delete
  2. One of my twin boys, who are 15 now, was very similar to this when he was around one! he started the screaming fit as we walked in the bathroom, getting him undressed and in was the biggest nightmare i have ever faced. He was throwing up and clinging on like a monkey before his feet hit the water. We ended up in water therapy for him via Sure Start which worked to some extent. My youngest who is 9 became scared die to his older brothers dislike to the water. What i did for him is possibly a solution for Lily ... drag the baby bath back out, it makes them more secure in a smaller environment BUT potentially more messy for you!! Did this for about 3 weeks with him then put it into the big bath with him still using the baby bath and eventually after a couple more baths started filling the actual bath up with water too, he was eventually in the right level of water with hair being washed. It takes time but she will get there.

    ReplyDelete
  3. M at the point where I force my son into the bath, wash him quickly and let him out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Firstly, my eldest son and daughter hated bathtime, so, for the first couple of years, I bathed with them! We would take in the toys, sing songs, and just make it a place to have fun! Making loadsa bubbles and creating bubble beards was their favourite! Then as they got older I would only put a small amount of water in, and let them have their swimming things on, along with a pair of goggles, and would pretend we were at the pool on holiday, it made it much more bearable for them lol. As for hair washing My girl Roxy was exactly the same until we bought her shampoo shield from Amazon (they do them at Tescos and various other places!) she calls it her 'Magic hat' and while Daddy distracts her talking to her about magical powers, I pretend I am the bad guy trying to steal her hat with my Mystical Water! lol. Oh the stories we tell our lot to get them sorted for bed, but with four of them we have to be imaginative! They do grow out of this stage though, it takes one drip of shampoo to make bath time so hard, and My older daughter has hair that goes to the backs of her knees now, its so thick washing it takes forever, so I'm glad I can at least get the youngest in and out of the bath! x

    ReplyDelete
  5. I hated baths when i was little,but grew out of it eventually x

    ReplyDelete
  6. My son hates the bath too, he won't even sit down and play. His dad has to hold him in the bath while I wash him, screaming the entire time. Yet he loves playing with the water table and even paddled in the paddling pool last summer, but he hates going to the swimming baths.

    ReplyDelete
  7. We spend the first 2 years of my daughters life bathing her as she screamed, she would stand up at the side of the bath and refuse to sit in the water. There was like a bath tag team where me and my husband had a little system going just to clean our child. One day out of nowhere she just sat down and started to enjoy bathtime. I would probably be really mean and not allow playtime until after she had been washed. You cant really reason with a 2 year old

    ReplyDelete
  8. Poor Lily! My daughter used to be very fussy over the bath. Now she just refuses to shower. Bath is good - shower is bad lol x

    ReplyDelete
  9. I hope bath time went well this morning?
    My son went through a phase of hating the bath, then one day he decided it wasn't so bad & has been fine ever since. My ideas to try would be-
    Leave her as long as you can between baths & hair washing.
    Can you get in with her- would that make a difference?
    Have you tried having a shower with her down the other end of the bath- she will only get a little bit of water on her & it might help her. The bathroom would need to be quite warm for this.
    How about trying Gelly Baff? I never got round to trying it but I think my son would have loved it.

    I hope you manage to get through this phase quickly both for you & Lily xx

    ReplyDelete
  10. Do you think this is just a phase
    Have you tried the swimming baths -or a bath with one of her friends
    Very frustrating for you

    ReplyDelete
  11. cant say our little girl has ever hated bath time, she loves splash splash

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh I remember my daughter when she was little and she loved going in the bath. she was sit at one end of the bath and shuffle upto the other end then back again it made us laugh , funny thing is yesterday I was on about this to her brother lol <3

    ReplyDelete
  13. sounds really stressful. Iv never had this problem but maybe you could leave her as long as possible between baths and let her see you in the bath.

    ReplyDelete