Won't Take a Bath

Hi E.,
Same thing just recently happened with my 2 year old son, who also loves bath time. One week, he just became scared of the drain, nothing has every happened before. This was also in conjunction with him becoming scared of things in general. I think its a phase. What helped us was to distract him with "cool" toys to play with while in the tub and wash him as fast as possible. We normally take a short bath every night, but if he is upset just like you desribed, then I would clean up the dirty parts (face, hands, tushy, feet) with a wash cloth and not push him.
Good Luck
N.

My 18 month old just got over the same thing. I put her in the shower with me. She loves it. After a month of playing in the shower, she is willing to go back to the tub.

Could it be that he has developed a fear of going down the drain? I think I read somewhere that that fear can arise around this age. So far, my own daughter hasn't developed it- she's almost 2 1/2- so unfortunately I don't have a solution for you. I hope this helps, though. Good luck!

my daughter has issues with the bath sometimes. for most of the time (since she could sit up) she's HATED her hair washed...but sometimes if her hair is clean i don't wash it and she still wants out w/in a couple minutes. though she only screams when i pour water on her hair, or touch it in any way (unless she's relaxing and i'm running my fingers through her hair...) i'm not sure why she has a problem when she does, but it comes and goes. sometimes it lasts a couple weeks at a time. when i see that she's going through this, i wait a couple days in between to bathe her, and just make sure to wipe her down with a couple wipes, or a soaped up washcloth and then rinse with a warm wet washcloth and dry instead of putting her in the tub. i know when it gets warmer out it's not going to be that easy because there will be much outside play and tons of dirt and mud (my daughter's also 2) but while it's still cool/cold out, try the wipes and/or washcloth deal when he freaks out like that. maybe if you can, get in the tub with him (even in a bathing suit, either you, or both of you) or have your husband bathe with him. you can also try to start a shower. when she screams through rinsing her hair i put the shower on, makes the screaming worse, but much shorter a time! hope this helps some, sorry if i couldn't help. good luck. though it does pass at some point.

My son went through that too. Try taking him shopping for tub toys. Like a boat, that worked great. First let him play in the tub without the water and he will see it's no fun without the water. Get him squirty things and he will want them to squirt. Also try running the bath water with him and let him test it out and feel to see if it's "just right".

Good luck!

L. :)

Had the same issue with my 2 year old girl and the same when my son was 2 1/2 (he's 5 now).
I sat in the tub with them and make a small bubble bath, I didn't invite either one to join in on my fun (and was taking the bubbly soap and wiping it on my arms.....both of them came over on their own and that was that. I did it two or three times, and they were each fine.