I have a 2 1/2 year old daughter who is having bath issues all of a sudden. She likes bath time until it's time to wash her hair, at which point she screams and cries and clings to me, saying "I wanna get out." It's made hair washing time stressful for both of us. I have no idea why this has started and I have no idea how to help her. Has anyone else had this issue? If so, how did you resolve it? I'd appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks!
R.
You are not alone! I hope you get some good advice because I feel like I've tried everything and nothing is working. I just do it as quickly as possible through the crying and screaming. And I feel terrible about it.
I know this would be easier with a boy, but we let our son poor the water over his head himself. He got pretty good and accurate with it pretty quickly.
As a girl, my mom used to let me lay down on the kitchen counter and she did it with the sprayer hose. It worked okay for us. GL
Yea I let my son do it himself and there are times when he just refuses. Try to get her to plug her nose when you pour it over her head it seems to be a working solution when my son refuses doing it on his own. GOOD LUCK!!
I give my sons a dry washcloth that I let them put over their eyes while I run the water over their hair. This helps them feel in control of the situation and has made our hair washing a much better experience.
All kids go through this at some point. It isn't a choice however and it is something she has to do. Just keep washing her hair, give her the option to pour the cup of water on her own head and even help with washing it. It will pass, also they have this bath visors that you can put on kids that will keep the water and soap directly out of their eyes. My kids went through this, my son briefly and the visor helped him. Just don't cave with her fits no matter how upsetting and explain she has to have clean hair. With my daughter it helped letting her "wash her own" hair, I would get it wet and put some baby shampoo on her hand and she washed it and then rinsed it herself.
Ditto for me on your issue R. about two months ago. I started asking her if sees any animals on the ceiling. Like pink elephants or blue monkeys, etc. I try to be as animated as possible. Now when I tell her to put her head back and look up at the ceiling she says, "and look for pink elephants?". I know this probably won't last long and I'll have to come up with something new, but it's working now. :)
my daughter didn't like it for a while either, but we started giving her the cup and we let her dump it over our heads first. She thinks it's so much fun. We take turns pouring the water out over each other's heads...this obviously only works if you are needing to wash your hair later anyway, but it did solve the problem we had. My daughter is a bit younger, but I think it's pretty universal that kids think it's fun to get to do stuff like that to mommy and daddy.
My little girl was like that too ... but has gotten much better. She just hates and was very scared to get water in her eyes, she still doesn't like it but has gotten better about getting her hair washed, as long as I am careful not to get water in her eyes. This is what works for us:
1) I cut her hair as short as I could possibly stand it. I figure when she can take care of it herself, we can grow it longer, but I don't want to deal with a lot of overhead right now.
2) I do take a bath with her on hair washing days. It gives me more control of her and the water.
3) I bring in a mirror so she can see the "horns" we make with the shampoo suds. I also bring in a couple of dry washclothes so I can quickly wipe off any water before it goes into her eyes.
4) Prior to using a cup to wash/rinse her hair, I use my wet hands to slick back as much of her hair as I can -- giving her the "seal" look and keeping the water and suds away from her eyes while I am lathering her up.
5) This is the most important part: for the final rinse off I tell her to look at the ceiling, so she won't get any water or soap in her eyes. I also thought about putting a mobile or something interesting on the ceiling, but didn't need to -- she is pretty self-motivated to stare at the ceiling and avoid getting anything into her eyes.
6) No conditioner. Just a leave-in detangler which I also use in the bathtub prior to getting her out of the tub.
Best Wishes,
A.
It is no fun when they hit this stage, but I have learned a little trick that usually works.....usually. My girls always had really long hair by this age, and if it didn't get washed every few days (thats all hair should be washed) well their hair was gross. I would lay them on the counter and wash it in the sink, the first time they aren't sure what is going to happen, and are hesitant but once they realise it isn't going to get any soap or water in their eyes they relax, mine always liked when I massaged their scalps, just a thought!
