All About Baby Bathing: How to Relax a Baby Scared of Water

Bathing your baby can be a wonderful experience. However, in some cases, your baby might be scared of the water or their bath time routine. This is why this article is dedicated to sharing all about baby bathing.

There are simple ways to resolve these issues that may be occurring with your infant. Here is advice on having a baby bath and enjoying it while you help your baby not be afraid of the water or their bathtime.

All About Baby Bathing: Why is this happening?

The first couple of baths with your little one might have been enjoyable and pleasant. They might even have loved their baths. However, as children age, they can start to develop different fears. Psychotherapist Alyson Schaferne said that one of the more common fears is the fear of water. It can be all about baby baths, swimming, or water in general. Fortunately, there are a variety of ways to help your little one love water and bathtime once again.

As a child develops, he or she will start to be aware of new things, especially potential dangers. Any negative feelings they start to have in any given situation can lead to fear. Even something as simple as water temperature can create a hurtful memory that babies associate with water, thus fostering anxiety for bathtime.

Developmental Stages

Babies typically will start to feel separation anxiety from their parents around six-months of age. They learn and can begin to understand that they are not with their loved ones. This sense of fear can generalize to other things, such as water. Soon, they are more engaged and observant of everything around them. Even though they are more observant, they still cannot understand normal everyday happenings.

For example, they can see water coming from the spout and exiting through a whole, but they cannot explain why that is occurring. All they see is the disappearance of the water. They then could develop a fear of disappearing down the hole as well. As they age, they also have a harder time differentiating between pretend and reality.

They start to have such a big imagination that their fears start to become a reality. If they experience one bad incident, it can create fear for a long period of time. Anything, even if it is a simple experience, can bring trauma to a child for years at a time. We hope that this advice on having a baby bath will help baths become more enjoyable for you and your infant.

Make it All about Baby

While we may not know the causes of all children’s fears, we can try to understand. Make this time all about baby or child. Look for things you can do differently and take time to help your child. These fears often have simple fixes. The first thing you can do is communicate everything you are doing with your child. Let them know what exactly you are doing through the bath. They have heard your voice for nine months in the womb, so your voice is calming to them.

Remember to always respect your child throughout this entire process. This process is all about baby and child. Do not try to force them to take a bath. Doing so will only make things worse. Allow them to fight off their fear on their own time schedule as much as possible.

Control Bath Associations

Sometimes it is not the water that is the problem, but rather something associated with bath time. It could be water or soap in the eye, slippery surfaces, or a new experience altogether. Once you know where the problem lies, you can better resolve it. Again, since this is all about baby, find things that will help them.

Products to Use

If it is water or soap in the face, a simple hat or a pouring cup will help to resolve the issue. You can easily get a visor or mask to cover the eyes. A non-slip mat will help if they are scared of slipping. Getting a water play mat will also allow them to explore the water to get more used to a bath.

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Take a Bath with Them

Some will be afraid of the bath because they are unaware of what is happening. Because they don’t understand what is happening, take a bath with them. They trust you, so show them a bath is normal and good by your actions. Take a bath with them and they will begin to understand that bathing is normal and can be relaxing. This will show them you care all about baby and want to help them overcome this obstacle.

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Tools and Aids

You can provide things to help your child be more comfortable in the bath. They can play with toys to distract them while you clean them. You can also put a picture up on the tub wall so your child has something to look at to distract them while rinsing their hair.

Make it Fun

Raising Children gives plenty of helpful advice on having a baby bath and enjoying it. Allowing toys is one way to make bathtime more fun for your child. You can also have them ‘wash’ and clean themselves by using smaller travel-sized bottles. Let them play with the bubbles and splash around to see the water will not hurt them. If a child hates to be splashed, don’t allow anything or anyone to splash while your child is bathing. You can also pour water over their hand. This will also help them to become used to the water. Once your baby makes these associations they will start to enjoy bath time once again.

Give it a Break

Some fears just take time to resolve. Sometimes, giving a break will allow your child to forget their fear of the bath. Going a couple of days without a bath won’t hurt your child. You can clean them using baby wipes and sponge baths and will allow time to overcome the fear. However, some fears need to be desensitized. Slowly expose your child to their fear. Take small steps into more steps until the fear is controlled. Whether it be the bath or the water in general, slow exposure with positive reinforcement could help your child to resolve their fear.

Overreacting can become a problem. Don’t wait too long to try to help fix their fear of the bath or water, but also don’t make a huge deal over it. When you overreact, the child will as well. They will believe in the fear more than before and it will be harder to overcome.

In the end, your child’s fear of the bath or water can be overcome, if you make it all about baby and look for ways to help them. This is good advice on having a baby bath. Work together alongside your child to resolve their fears. Not only will this enable bath time to be more enjoyable, but it will also build trust between the two of you. Some fears take longer than others to go away, but as you continuously work toward it and make it all about baby, your child will enjoy the water once again.

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