Do you have a child that hates taking a bath? What do you think
the reason is? Sometimes adults feel like kids are just being difficult
when they refuse to take a bath and that there isn’t a real reason behind why
they don’t want to take a bath. However, sometimes there are real reasons
why they resist.
Check out 10 real reasons kids fight taking a bath.
- Fear of water: Some kids
could have a fear of water. It does happen and when kids get older
their ability to voice their fears improves. Maybe they choked on
some water in a baby pool once or they knew someone who drowned.
That could have caused them to fear water and wonder if the same thing
could happen to them.
- Painful rash: Kids can get
a nasty case of diaper rash or variations on diaper rash that are extremely
painful when they hit warm water. Even older kids could get a rash
brought on by an allergy to laundry detergent. If parents always
send them in to shower by themselves then there is no way that they would
know what is going on. Older kids might be embarrassed to say
something about a rash. Rashes are sometimes brought on by
medications and it could be serious so look deeper into why your child
doesn’t want to take a bath.
- Fear of going to bed: Some kids
suffer from night terrors or nightmares and have a fear of going to
bed. Many bedtime routines include taking a bath so it’s not unusual
for a child to think that if they can prolong the bath that they will
prolong having to go to bed. Getting to the bottom of their fears is
important so you can give them the help they need.
- Get too cold afterwards: It’s not fun
to get out of a nice warm bath and get really cold. It’s possible
that your child is really sensitive to temperature changes and just dreads
getting into hot water only to get out and be really cold. Helping
kids by bringing a heater into the bathroom or drying them off quickly
afterwards may help them not dislike the experience so much.
- Don’t like getting hair pulled
afterwards: My daughter has long hair that tends to get
really tangled when she washes it. She has actually told me that she
hates taking a shower because she doesn’t want to get her hair
pulled. While we try our best not to pull her hair we have added a
spray-in detangler to her routine so she doesn’t hate it quite so much.
- Hate cleaning the bathroom up: Both my kids
hate that they have to pick up towels and wipe up any water on the floor
when they get done with a shower. They also have to pick up their
clothes and take them back to their room. For some reason they hate
doing this and this will cause them to fight taking a bath.
- Hate the blow dryer: Some girls
hate the blow dryer. The sound is loud and it blows their hair in
their face which they don’t like. Going to bed with wet hair or
going out in the cold with wet hair isn’t a good option so sometimes blow
drying is a necessary evil. To avoid this fight you might move the
bath time from bedtime to maybe the morning or after school when there’s
more time to let it dry naturally.
- Don’t want to miss out: If you have
particularly social kids or you are doing something really fun as a family
it can be hard for a child to leave the fun to go take a shower or
bath. Try to let your child know that you will pause the movie or
the game until they get back. To avoid this you might change bath
time to after school when there isn’t so much family fun going on.
- Afraid of falling in the shower: Children can
get a little careless in the bathtub and maybe they have slipped or fallen
in the past. Having a fear of falling or getting hurt is actually
pretty common. To help with this you might put rubber grips on the
bottom of the bathtub to give them better traction.
- Hate getting sprayed in the eyes: Once a child
reaches a certain age they are better off taking a shower versus a
bath. Girls with long hair have a hard time washing their hair by
themselves in a bath so a shower works out better. However, they are
still pretty short and may hate having the spray get in their eyes.
A solution for this is a shower head that attaches over the faucet and can
be suction cupped to the wall at whatever is an appropriate height for
your child.
Contacts and sources:
Nancy Parker
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