By natasha anne on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 04:21 pm:

My 14 month old, Charlie, has started to not like having a bath. He comes to the bathroom and is interested in the bath while I fill it (which is normal) but when I put him in he cries and tries climbing out of the bath constantly. I had thought it was because I had changed him from bathing in his small baby bath to bathing in the shallow normal bath (I had always had his small bath inside the big bath anyway)... but even when I put him back into his baby bath he continues the same, crying and trying to climb out.

I've tried getting him distracted with toys he normally plays with... but this doesnt seem to help much. So I end up giving him his tooth brush to chew on while I splash a lot of water around washing him up as quick as possible so I can get him out of the bath where he's obviously not confortable.

Showers... well, they were always out of the question with him before (the sound maybe, or the water splashing too much??).

Any suggestions? I was trying to avoid me having to bath or shower with him.

By Kathryn on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - 02:02 pm:

Hi Natasha,
My daughter experienced a similar thing around 12 months of age. She did exactly the same after experiencing a "big bath". It then took her some time to be comfortable in the bath again. I let her guide me as to when she was ready, and slowly she became comfortable again. Every night i ran the bath and attempted to put her in - if she cried i would remove her straight away. I also would prepare her by telling her it was bath time and spent some time with her getting the bath ready, throwing in the duckies etc. She now asks for her bath and really enjoys that time. I have since bathed her in a normal bath and she loved it. My advice would be to just let Charlie guide you as to when he is ready and hopefully, as he becomes more familiar he will be happy to be bathed again.