If you are struggling to get your toddler to take a bath without screaming the place down, don’t worry. Every child is different and every child will take a dislike to something. Our Lottie HATED taking a bath between the age of 8 months and 18 months but thankfully she loves them now! So, how did we turn bathing a toddler from bath time troubles to bath time chuckles?
Bubbles For Bathing
For us it was all about stimulating Charlotte’s senses. Giving Lottie’s brain something to focus on other than getting handled, soaped up, dunked, rinsed and dried. The first change we made was to the water itself. By the time Lottie started disliking her baths we realised that we could start adding bubbles. Babies do have sensitive skin but there are plenty of paraben free options out there! Some of my favourites include Johnsons Cotton Touch, Burts Bees (which smells amazing!) but if you are on a budget the ASDA Little Angels Range is great too.
Distractions For Dunking
Various bathtime activities helped us on the really bad days. One of the first activities I tried with Lottie was adding glow sticks to the bath. You can thank Pinterest for that one! It wasn’t something I had thought of but once we tried it and I saw the look of wonder on her face, I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it. It kept her so distracted and it was fun for myself too. As the months went on and Lottie developed, the novelty of the glow sticks wore off and so I found a few other fun activities.
Charlotte is 3 now and her favourite thing to do in the bath is use Bath Crayons. She gets so creative with different colours and patterns, she could draw on herself all day if I let her! We also have these great Peppa Pig bath bubbles that can be used as bubble bath or blown.
Rhymes For Rinsing
What else could you possibly add to bath time to make it EVEN better? Music! Whether it be singing songs or playing music on your phone there are brilliant bath time related songs that get kids excited for their wash. My go to songs are “Splish Splash” by Bobby Darrin or “Bath Song” by CoCoMelon (that one is to the tune of “Baby Shark” so extra helpful for those baby shark loving kids).
I also like to sing to Lottie while I rinse her hair and I encourage her to sing. Singing helps you relax and it has proved to be very beneficial when washing those bubbles away. I lie her back slowly while we sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and get her to imagine the stars in the sky above her.
I hope these simple changes work for you and your little one. Bathing a toddler can be hard enough without a tantrum too. Try not to get cross, just breath and remember it’s just a phase. If you have any other ideas to make bath time easier for parents, please let me know in the comments!
We love singing in the bath too. There’s a bathtime album on spotify that has a song about smelly feet which is a firm favourite here!
Oh my goodness, I have to check this out!
I love the idea of glow sticks in the bath, will definitely try it, my kid’s are 6 and 8 but I think they’ll still love it!
Aww I’m sure they will! I know I loved it haha
our boy loves the pouring cups so we got some of those for him its just getting him out the bath now we get tantrums
Ah pouring cups are a great idea! Haha a good kinda tantrum
Glow sticks and definitely something we have not tired yet!y kiddos are very entertained with small containers or cups that they can fill with water and dump 😂 I just have to be careful so they don’t get too excited and spill the water outside of the tun😉
Haha lucky you! Tell me about I think my kitchen ceiling is going to give way!