Why my Child / Toddler refusing to take baths or shower?. I’m going to talk to you about children toddlers especially refusing to take baths or to take showers. There are many causes for this behavior and there are solutions that you can apply right now today.
when i was about to give bath to my four-year-old twins one of them was refusing to do it but I encourage them in a really particular way. We are going to talk about causes and solutions I am a regular mother like you and want to teach you what I have learned from experience. Today in this blog we’re going to talk about bath time battles cause number one past experience and that’s what happened to one of my twins he bumped his chin today and then he had a little cut and he was really nervous about his eyes burning when he was in the water so he was refusing to take a bath today. On another day one of my twins while he was in the bath he hit his toe and he was nervous about it and then the next day the in bath time maybe your child had a bad experience with soap on the eyes or maybe if he had a bad experience with one of his siblings trying to draw on anything but past experience could create anxiety. Here are some tips which i have learned and wanted to share with you
Make them feel safe
To help my children with those past experiences that are creating that bath time anxiety, I helped them process the feeling before bath time and i helped them realize that they were going to be safe without minimizing their feelings and after that then i helped him get familiar with the bath time situation all over again with that new circumstance of the little cut on the chin he was a little nervous i said okay what can i do to help you feel safer during bath time and then he said what about your band-aid and also told my child that it is going to prevent the new cut from getting water there but it’s going to help him feel more relaxed so we put a little band-aid there and he was more comfortable before bath time.
Take little steps (transition them to bath time instead)
Another thing you can do is to transition them to bath time instead of like saying okay get in the past time right now it’s time to take a bath but to slowly slowly get them familiar with the water maybe they could put a finger in maybe the one leg maybe the other and eventually they’re going to be in the bathtub that’s what i did with my other twin the other day when he bumped his toe he was really concerned about his toe and i said okay what about you put your other foot in what about a hand what about the other hand.
Sensory anxiety
One other thing which we need to look for is the sensory needs. Our children may have sensory anxiety around things that had to do with their hygiene because if you think about it hygiene activities bathing brushing teeth calming hair all those things require a lot of sensory input they feel a lot of things sensory wise so it could create anxiety when it comes to sensory anxiety the first thing that i recommend you to do is to find out what is that particular thing about bath time that is overbearing for his senses maybe it is when you turn on the tap of the water the noise is too overbearing or maybe the temperature or the water or maybe the height and how high the water goes that might be a little scary that they’re going to drown or something. What is that thing that really bothers them for their senses, I had a child in foster care a long time ago she was scared of the noise of the bathtub so i invited her to cover her ears while i was filling up the bathtub and that really helped her another thing that could help with sensory anxiety is to get them familiar with that thing that gives them sensory anxiety before they have to be full in the bathtub for example so today during shin situation thing my child was really uncomfortable i said okay let’s play sink or float with the little ball that is going to sink or float once the bathtub was filled up with all sorts of toys they were happy to get in it.
Stop controlling your Children
Sometimes the reason might not be anxiety it might be a controlled situation so when do children feel the most controlled by their parents doing daily routine things they need to take baths they need to brush their teeth there are things that we know they have to do so on the things that we know they have to do we as parents tend to control them you have to get a bath you have to brush your teeth and they feel control and when children feel control they tend to control back so that need for control creates a power struggle because he doesn’t only have that need but you have that need as well so when it comes to this release control to them you can do a few things to help them with that offer them two options that you’re okay with so if you’re okay with telling them do you want to take a bath before dinner time or after dinner time if that’s okay for you and the dynamic of your house offer that solution when they feel that they have some control over the situation they’re more willing to cooperate with you than when they feel controlled by you. You have to do this that does not work with your kids you’re going to end up with a big bath time tantrum every single behavior communicates a need bath time struggles bath time tantrums communicate on it as well it could be sensory it could be a past experience or it could be control related so find what that need is and respond to the behavior according to the need that they communicate that’s the core of parenting with understanding and that’s what you’re going to learn in the parenting with understanding program to identify what your children’s needs are and to know how to respond effectively without getting into power struggles without giving in without raising your voice.
I hope you enjoyed reading my blog and hope to see you soon.