DD loathes the bath! how to change this?

[hildare]

DD is 3 1/2 months old. We used to bathe her in a plastic tub, but then I began letting her take baths with me. She seemed to really like it for a while.
Now, though, she has screamed at the top of her lungs, and i mean SCREAMED when we've tried her either in the tub with me, or the plastic tub the past couple of times.
She suddenly decided she is either terrified or hates it! Nothing has changed at all about what we're doing.

How can I make her like the bath again? Any idea what happened? Is this an age thing?

[hotharmony]

My Lo was like this and the only thing that made it better was the weather, once it got warmer, and the sink. He decided he like being bathed in the bathroom sink.

So trying cranking up the heat about 15 minutes before you give your next bath so it is nice and hot in your house to see if it makes a difference.

[dogmom327]

DS went through a stage where he was petrified of water--DD is now in that stage (she's 8 mo). We decided just to go with it. At that age they aren't exactly getting dirty. We'd keep their bottoms clean, etc. but avoided baths. DS finally grew out of it but it took me getting into the tub with him before he was fully okay with the concept and now he loves baths.

[mama2myloves]

DS went through a phase like that, too. We just rode it out with sponge baths, then eased him slowly back into the tub with lots of toys, bubbles and music (he was about 6 months old).

[Ruthie's momma]

A thorough scrub down with a soft wash cloth is more than sufficient.

[Mama Khi]

When DD was younger she hated baths, too. I started nursing her in the tub while DH or I wiped her off with a wet cloth. The nursing kept her completely calm and happy. Now at almost 8 months old she loves bathtime.

[JayJay]

I was going to say, try nursing in the bath. We do that.

You are, however, risking getting pood on - that has happened to me! But as long as you have a shower attachment handy, it shouldn't be THAT much of a problem!

[pumpkin]

We had the same problem at that age.
The thing that helped most was running the shower while we bathed her in the baby bathtub. DH and I would be dripping with sweat, but DD liked the sauna effect. We also got a thermometer that helped us get her baths as warm as possible without being unsafe.

She liked showering much more than baths so I would take her in the shower as her main way of getting clean. We would just do the occasional bath.

She did outgrow her hatred. Now loves baths and showers equally. I use the shower when she needs to calm down because it really mellows her out.

[Anastasiya]

Originally Posted by pumpkin

We had the same problem at that age.
The thing that helped most was running the shower while we bathed her in the baby bathtub. DH and I would be dripping with sweat, but DD liked the sauna effect. We also got a thermometer that helped us get her baths as warm as possible without being unsafe.

She liked showering much more than baths so I would take her in the shower as her main way of getting clean. We would just do the occasional bath.

She did outgrow her hatred. Now loves baths and showers equally. I use the shower when she needs to calm down because it really mellows her out.

Same here. Showers. My babies LOVED showers.