Recently I saw these questions asked in a mom’s group I belong to.
My little boy gets so bored of baths. Can anyone suggest some fairly simple but different ideas for bath time please~Anon
and
Advice please! My 18 month old daughter has decided she hates bathing! She starts crying as soon as I start running the bath until it’s over. She went from hating it as a newborn to loving it and now hating it again. Any experience or advice? ~ Anon
So I had a think and a chat to some other mothers and this is the list of ideas we came up with.
Here are some tips and ideas:
A lot of these are distraction tactics which make your little one forget that they are actually bathing!
- Try some different bath toys, books or games.
- Get in the bath with her.
- A new bath toy, like Mermaid Barbie, sea creature, diver etc.
- Use bath paint made from shaving cream and food colour; use paint brushes to paint the bath.
- Prepare him saying that he’s going to love his bath, read a story about bath time or get a bath book that can be read in the water.
- Blow some bubbles, it keeps his mind of the fact that he’s going to take a bath.
- Shaving foam; spray it on the bath sides and tiles and let them draw and enjoy the feeling of the foam
- Try the shower. Some children prefer it.
- Use bubble bath and a nearby mirror to see the funny hair-dos they can create
- Try no toys in the bath. Some kids just like space.
- Make bath time a bit messy using bath crayons. Start drawing on the bath while standing outside it and try to move her into the bath to carry on drawing.
- Use the colour bath dissolving tablets or sprinkles…there are ones that crackle, fizz or just change the water colour. and they smell nice too.
- Use dissolving beans: they usually have colourful foam shapes/animals inside for them to discover as the bean dissolves.
- Foam letters or shapes that can be stuck on the bath/tiles when wet.
- Little watering cans, empty plastic bottles and containers, bowls, spoons, cups and jugs; your little one will love scooping or pouring water.
- Give baby a bath- allow your child to take a baby dolly into the bath and to give the doll a wash.
- Provide toys that squirt water, just prepare yourself to mop up afterwards.
- Put glow sticks in the bath and turn out the lights.
- Ball pit balls with a net so he fish the balls out
- Make dyed ice cubes, they can watch the ice cubes melt, feel the cold temperature and see the colour being released into the clear bath water.
- Fizzing bath bombs-children love watching and feeling them fizz as they dissolve, and they smell good too! Look out for ones for sensitive skins.
- Bath confetti- these are available in most shops or online. You simply sprinkle it in the water and they dissolve.
- A plastic tea set for playing tea parties
- Dissolving beans, these have foam shapes inside that pop out when the cover is dissolved
- Drop in some corks- good reason to save all those corks from your wine bottles
Bath time should be fun and not stressful for your child-or you! Don’t sweat it if you miss a bath , the world will not end if your little one skips it every now and again.
I am a preschool and primary school teacher and mum to 3 children. I have been involved in education since 1997 and have trained in a variety of educational specialist areas. It is with this expertise that I write articles to help parents and educators provide quality learning experiences for the children in their care.
