she HATES the bath- what can I do?

[red and lulu]

Dd is 17 mo. I've never bathed her frequently, only once a week or so in the colder months unless she's filthy (in the summer she bathed almost every day). Lately she freaks when I try to give her a bath. She sees the bathtub and grabs me screaming no! no! no! I try to get her excited about bathtime, put fun special toys in the tub, I even tried getting in with her, but she won't have it. I end up washing her quickly as she clings to me screaming and crying. Not ideal. 

Is this just typical of her age? She used to LOVE the bath. What else could I do to make bathtime at least tolerable for her? 

[crunchy_mommy]

I had the same issue with 22mo DS... finally after a couple months of no successful baths, I bought him bath crayons and that solved our problem (well, he still hesitates a bit sometimes, doesn't get as excited as he used to, but doesn't freak out & happily plays with the crayons). I don't know if that would work as well if your DD doesn't love coloring the way my DS does... Another thing that I kept meaning to try (if the crayons hadn't done the trick) was putting on our bathing suits & pretending we were going for a swim.

When he really hated it I had DH wash him with a washcloth while DS & I 'washed' one of his favorite toy animals and that distracted him enough that DH could get him somewhat clean without too much crying...

I actually wonder if infrequent bathing somehow makes it harder on DS, so it's interesting that you also do the ~once-a-week thing & have problems... I wonder if we did baths daily/more often if DS would resist less & enjoy it more...

[bella99]

Have you tried to take a shower with her?

For awhile my daughter was fine with a bath until it came time to wash her hair and then she practically had to be held down in order to get it washed, and that was only once or twice a week.

So she started taking showers with us and that helped her a lot.  Now she takes showers half the time and baths half the time (she's gotten much better about having her hair washed).

[K1329]

Ds went through this stage at about the same age... we just bathed as infrequently as possible, tried all the tricks to make it fun, and, eventually the resistance passed. I suspect shortlly your dd will be fine with baths again. I never forced ds to take a bath - just used bribery (bubble baths, fun activities for after the bath, etc.) and used a washcloth for a quick wash alot. We definitely had a dirty toddler for awhile, lol!

[mckittre]

My son went through this at around this age, and is mostly out the other side now, except still hates having his hair washed.  We tried all the coaxing and toys we could think of which kind of worked sometimes, and otherwise just sort of forced it with a quick washcloth bath when necessary.  Now at 22 months he still takes coaxing, but mostly is OK with it.

[kasey08]

DD was the exact same way at that age. What solved it for us is that she watched her friend of the same age take a bath at a playdate, and after a few minutes was so excited that she ended up in the tub and they happily played together. Ever since then, she is the one who asks to take a bath and is happy to do so!