As parents of toddlers will know, they can change their minds on anything very suddenly - like bath time. Your toddler could be splashing around in the bath one night and screaming in terror at the sight of it the next.
It can be a struggle for parents to try and deal with a toddler’s fear of baths and can cause a normally smooth evening routine to become stressful and tiresome.
There are a few reasons your toddler may become afraid of the bath; perhaps she is frightened of getting water and soap in her eyes or face. Your toddler may also be afraid of falling down the drain, which of course is illogical to us but not to them.
The important thing to do is to accept their fear and don’t try to laugh it off. It is real for them at the moment and no amount of reassurance will change this unfortunately. She doesn’t understand her fear nor why she is scared so it is best to try to accept it and hope that it passes as swiftly as it came on.
For the duration of her fear, rather than force a terrified toddler into a bath, just wash her with a cloth or in a smaller vessel that she isn’t so frightened of.
Here are some tips that may help your toddler to get over this bath time fear:
- Bath her dolls/toys and demonstrate how they neither fall down the drain nor get their eyes wet.
- Show her how the plug for the bath works, plugging it in and filling the bath a little with water. The more she understands the less scared she will be.
- Share bath time with your toddler. Run a bath with some fun bubbles and get in. If she is unwilling to join you let her watch and hopefully it won’t be too long till she wants to join in the fun too!
- Go to a swimming pool. If she likes the baby section of the pool she may get over her bath time fear.
- Make bath time fun. Lots of bubbles, bath toys, colours etc.
Hopefully within time this fear will pass and your toddler will be back to loving their bath time!
