3 mo old suddenly hates bath time!

[Gemini529]

My son has always loved the bath. Soon after his umbilical stump fell off, we started giving him baths in his baby bath and he really liked it. He would immediately sigh and seem content in there, even when he had water being poured over his head and was being soaped up.

For the past 3 days, within about 30 seconds of getting into the tub, he starts to fuss. Then usually within a minute of that, he has transferred into full blown hysterical crying. It's so upsetting because it used to be such a nice and relaxing time for both of us and now I just dread it.

I am wondering if maybe he is getting too big for the baby bath. But he was born small and is still pretty small for his age. At 3 months, he's only 11 pounds. I imagine there are newborns the same size as him, so it's not like he doesn't fit in the bath. Although I have noticed that his legs seem a little more cramped in there than they used to. Should I transfer him to the "big tub"? I have tried changing the temperature to make it cooler/warmer, etc, but it doesn't help.

Anyone else go through this? Any advice?

[Knitting Mama]

Cecilia hated the baby bath SO much, but absolutely adores taking a bath or a shower with me. Maybe he just wanted to have you holding him like my girl does? Cecilia's small too, 12 lbs at 4 months old.

[jenfl]

My LO loves loves loves the bath. He lays on a bath cushion in the big tub. But sometimes, when there's a thunderstorm, we have to put him in a large tupperware. He was fine with this when he was little, but around 3 months, when he started moving his extremities around more, he started to dislike the container.

His very favorite thing is to lay on his bath cushion in the big tub, water up over his ears, and splash.

We have this one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...K16Z0JBAYJKSDX

[carmen358]

It could just be a phase too. My DD loves the bath, has since birth but there was a week where she hated it and cried for most of it. Other than that week though she loves bath time. It gets more fun when they can sit up too

[Ninetales]

My daughter hated the baby bath with a fiery passion. The only thing that I could do was take a bath with her in the big tub. We never had a bit of trouble doing that - most days she didn't make a peep, and when she did it was usually at the end when I had to put her on the floor on towels so I could get out.

Now she's strong enough to sit up with support and I wash her in the kitchen sink. She seems to like that. I only stopped bathing together because she got so wiggly and flailed around that I didn't feel safe in there anymore.

[hildare]

this happened to us.
we went loooong time between wiping her down with a washcloth and trying again. she hated it until she was around 5 months and watched her dad wade in a creek and splash. ever since, she's enjoyed many a splashing opportunity.
i personally think babes don't need baths very often, only a bottom sponge every once in a while. i couldn't stand the screaming, either. so.. that's how we did it, but it will indeed pass.

[Mawood]

My daughter went through a longer phase where she didn't enjoy taking a bath and it really changed with her being able to sit. Now she loves it, splashes the water and plays with little cups. Maybe once he is able to sit he will like it again. When she wasn't liking it so much we mostly gave her sponge bathes. She was never crying or screaming badly though but you could tell she wasn't liking it very much.

[Rosenbloom]

The same thing happen to my daughter at 11 weeks - suddenly started screaming in the bathtub. She loved bath time before. I changed temperature - did not help. So I just waited thinking it is something that go away with time. It did stopped after a week or so. I found it is important to take her out of the bathtub as soon as she gets upset and make her warm and cozy in the towel right after she is out.
Another thing that helped to brake the habit of fuss - give her a bath in the different time of the day (around noon) with some new toys.

[newmamalizzy]

You haven't done anything different with the air temperature in your home, have you? Little Bea loves the bath if the air is warm, but if it's chilly...boy does she scream. When she was a newborn we had to bathe her in the bathroom with the shower running on hot.

[treeoflife3]

My kiddo would enjoy enjoy baths if they were really warm. I never temped them or anything, but I have a feeling her comfort temperature was a bit higher than what most people would do. Until I figured out how warm she needed it, she hated baths. It was also best to let the bathroom to get nice and warm too so that it was all steamy and the air wasn't totally different from the water.

Also, does he by chance have any scrapes that water or your soap might be stinging?

It is definitely possible that he is done with the little tub. My kiddo was much happier laying on her back in the tiniest bit of water in the big tub at 3 or 4 months. I can't remember which. She couldn't roll yet and I kept one hand on her at all times because I was all worried, but she was fine and really started to love baths at that point... especially when it was warm enough... :P

[Gemini529]

Hey, thanks so much for the replies I just wanted to let you all know what ended up working for me! It turned out that he was just not liking his baby bath anymore. I got a bath sling and filled up the regular big tub with water and he was able to kick his legs around and splash. He loved it! I guess that was all he wanted...more space Glad that's over with. Apparently those baby baths don't get used for very long. I'm glad it was a hand me down and I didn't spend any money on it!

[Knitting Mama]

Excellent to hear! We got rid of ours and we won't even try with #2, why bother? We learned how to bathe Cecilia with us in the shower or in the big tub pretty quickly, and besides, babies don't need too many baths!