Bathtub phobia.....

[I Believe!!!]

My daughter is such a sweet little 2 and 1/2 year old who would barrel down the hall way if bath was mentioned by anyone. We had to spell bath because she got so excited about being in the bath, I mean it was a love affair.

Well, one day she had a little accident in the tub and all the sudden we had little floaties bobbing in the water. As calmly as possible I drained the water and rinsed her off, put her on a towel, washed the tub real quick and then drew up a fresh bubbly bath. It was no big deal to me, I know things like that happen and I really was calm about everything.:idunno

Now the poor kid has a major phobia about getting into the tub and will just really sob if we mention bath time....I mean this kid is scared :panic and if I put her in the tub she screams like a cat who's tail got caught in the fan. As a compromise we have her stand on a towel and she basically gets a sponge bath. She's not gotten in for a whole month now.

We're just being patient and not forcing anything....one thing I keep telling her is that the tub didn't make the floaties (she can't stand having a little bitty booger on her finger....).

Poor kid is just terrified.........:scratch

[lisaann]

Is your kitchen sink or laundry sink big enough? A change of location might help. Even if she goes to a friends or grandparents to do it. :hug


When my ds did the "floaties in the bathtub" he thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. :rolleyes :heh

[funmudder]

My 2 year old only wanted showers for a while :noidea

He got over it with new bathtub toys that had to float

[Dolly]

If you have a hand-held shower, I'd see if she would just take a shower.

[Cd4u]

give her a snorkel :) maybe that will help. kids love snorkel, it get them all excited and forget their problems.

[StinkerBell]

Maybe after she has a big potty in the toilet she can then try a bath. Tell her the potty ate it. No, that might make her think the toilet is a monster.

[JohnnyHye]

I say it's time to introduce her to Mr. Shower!!! :) (well, MS. Shower, anyway)

[I Believe!!!]

Yeah.....I think I'll try the shower. When her brother takes a bath she'll stand on the outside and play in the water with her hands. It was funny, he was feeling anxious about soap getting in his eyes and she said to him, "Awwww it's ok, you don't have to be afraid." in her 2 and 1/2 year old accent that only the family understands. Here's she's deathly afraid of the tub encouraging her brother not to be afraid.

[Dee]

I don't have kids but how about taking her outside to let her play with the hose and water? Also, a small pool (enclosure). Let her have fun.

Then do the showers. Then do the showers in the tub. Then try the tub.

How big is your tub? I ask cause mine gimongus (word?). It's six feet by four feet and three and a half feet deep. I picked out that tub before we had our house plans drawn up and gave the specs to our architect to design the bathroom around that tub.

Anyway, if you have a whirlpool tub run water in it and put toys in it and put on a bathing suit and tell her you and her are going swimming.

My nieces used to love to "go swimming" in mine.

I'm thinking making it fun will take away the fear.

Of course my mother would probably just have made me get right back in the tub and been done with it. Maybe that's why I'm so weird. :heh

[chel0524]

My oldest went through that phase. She would scream through a bath. I finally started getting in with her. Pretty soon, she was ready for me to get out of the way so she had room to play.

My youngest is 19 months old and recently did the floaties. She was scared because the were "chasing" her around. It was cute if she hadn't been truly scared. Afterward she laughed about it and we giggle about it evertime she gets in now.