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My LO has taken to screaming every time I get him undressed and he knows he is getting a bath. He screams and tries to get out through the whole bath, and winds up only being half bathed. I am just satisfied if I can get his hair washed and body rinsed off at this point. He hasn't fallen in the tub or had any traumatic event around water that I am aware of (unless something happened at daycare I don't know about), so I have no clue what is going on with him. He used to love love love his bathtime, and scream when I got him out, now he doesn't want to get in. The weird part is he still likes water. When I am running the bath, he will stick his hand in the running water and giggle.

Do you ladies have any suggestions or have any of you had a similar situation happen? I am almost to the point I want to stop giving him baths because it is so painful for us both. He only gets a bath three times a week. I have tried playing with him next to the tub before I run the water and while the water is running to see if that would help with no luck. I just don't know if this is a phase (I sure hope so) or there is really something wrong. I need your advice gals.

Ditto the above.

It's the hair rinsing that causes all the problems here. I have given up on being gentle (trust me, I've tried it all). Now, I just do one or two quick pails of water over the head and... voila! We're done. He's still screaming, but no more than if I had taken my time.

My two older ones went through that phase...and I'm soooo hoping that number three doesn't! I know it's a pain and you feel like the worst mother in the world for making your children scream.

The one thing I can suggest is a shower. I don't know if that will work or not - because some don't like the water running over their heads - but it worked for my SIL. Actually I think it made them appreciate the bath even more!

How long did the phase last for your LO's GG? I can only hope he will get past it soon.

Too long! I'm just teasing. I actually don't remember how long it lasted. That's one of the wonderful things about motherhood - you forget the bad stuff.

Have you tried letting him pick out a new bath toy? Maybe taking him to Wally World or Target and picking one out himself. One of the best things for my two was the colored bath tablets. They fizz and turn the water colors. I always let them pick the color for that night. It can be a good learning tool too for colors. Just a thought!

So far my youngest still loves baths (fingers crossed), but my oldest went through this phase. For us it was the hair rinsing too. She was fine through all of the bath, except for when water got on her face/head. then she freaked out.

Walmart sells this nifty little water bucket that allows you to rinse their hair without water getting in their eyes. That helped us a lot. Here's the link: http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?product...&subCategoryId=86186 I know this is the one step ahead catalog, but the SAME product is about $4 at walmart. I have yet to see it at target for some reason.

Other than that, we just did the dump it on her head real fast trick. She screamed, but it was over fast.

Oh - about showers - my oldest loved those for a really long time, so definitely give it a try. One of us would go in with her and hold her. She thought it was so much fun. My youngest loves taking showers with daddy when we're in a rush and don't have time for a bath.

I haven't tried the shower since he was about 10 months old (he didn't like it at all then), but I guess I have nothing to lose at this point. I will try it again tonight.

BTW...Ronald screams as soon as I undress him and he sees the tub with water and toys in it. He then screams the entire time I am trying to bathe him. The crying stops as soon as I take him out of the tub. I wish he only fussed when I washed his hair and got his face wet...that would be so much more tolerable.

Oh my. I don't have any advice unfortunately. My LO loves water. What I do though is get the water temp right then undress him and let him stand in the tub while it's filling up and he likes to play in the running water and catch it in a cup. Lately though he's been taking showers. One night after his daddy came in from work and took a shower my LO stripped his diaper off and climbed in the tub .
I hope your LO gets over this phase quickly.

When my oldest was around 2 she was scared she would go down the drain in the tub and she freaked. I bought an inflatable rubber duckie baby tub and filled it within the big tub and she was okay in that. Also - I changed my shower head in the "kids bathroom" tub to a removable shower head and I rinse her hair using that instead of dumping water over her head. I put stickers on the ceiling and had her look up and tell me about them while I rinsed - it kept her head up and the water poured down her back without getting in her face. Now my second is learning the technique. So far so good.

thats a really good idea for rinsing hair, we are gonna have to do that here!

So how's it going in the bath?
Better, I hope!

No better. Still screaming. Just praying he grows out of it, and fast. Tried the shower, and he was fine as long as I held him, but it I tried to put him down to wash his hair, he screamed. UGH! I have only been giving him baths every third day because it is so painful for both of us.

An update...He finally had a scream free bath last night. Yippee!!! He still was not happy and stood up the entire time, but did not scream. I played with him a bunch and took it really slowly so he didn't get upset.

Yea! So maybe we're towards the end of the phase!

Yahoo for small victories!!
WTG Ronald!