How to Get Your Toddler in the Bath Without a Tantrum

Is your child cranky at bath time or resists baths? Even kids like my daughter, who love water and bath, often have a hard time getting into the tub. If you are tired of tantrums before bath, give the activities below a try and see if you can switch things up to become a positive experience.

Before you start experimenting, it might be worth observing and figuring out the real reason why your child is reluctant to get into the bath. Maybe they slipped and fell, got soap in their eyes, or hit their head on the faucet. If you find out the reason for not liking the bath, it will become easier to deal with the problem. Sometimes, little ones cannot tell us the reason, so we have no choice but to try different things and see what works.

Play into an empty bath

If your child is somehow afraid of the water, the amounts of it, or the bath itself, it might be a good idea to "warm up to it" by spending more time in the bath. I meant, who likes filling up a tub of water to only end up dumping it all out after you cannot get your toddler in, right? Although my daughter always loved the baths and pools, she does not like the noise of the tap and water when filling up the bath (too loud). So, there are different tricks you can try. If they are uncomfortable in the bath, you can start by bringing their favorite toys in it and do different activities with them. If they are afraid of the noise filling up the bath you can either fill it up before you bring them in or let them fill the bath slowly. If they are afraid of the water or the amounts of water you could try filling the tub just an inch or two or use a basin or a smaller tub.

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Bath-only toys

Some kids may need a little bit of motivation. A trick a friend of mine uses is having bath toys that are only allowed in the bath and cannot be played with anywhere else in the house. So, her child must get into the bath to play with it. This little Duckboxx penguin toy has given us tons of entertainment in the bath. A few other favorite ones by Munchkin is these cup toys, which you can arrange on top of each other and some of them spin when you pour water in them.

We keep all our bath toys in one of these mesh toy organizers.

Switch up the environment

Sometimes it is all about changing the environment for your toddler to make them happy. Things to try:

• Turning off the lights in the bathroom and using candles
• Play music or read a book while bathing
• Stick a poster of a book or TV character they like on the tile
• Do a bath in the afternoon instead of before bedtime

I know in some extreme situations, my friends have let their kids watch something on the phone to get them in the bath. This is fine, although my feeling is that it has a potential for things to go wrong (phone dropped in the water, kids getting too used to it). So I would try to phase it out slowly as soon as they start appearing more comfortable in the bath.

Prevent slips, bumps, and burns

When we started using the big bathtub with our baby, I immediately got a non-slip rubber mat. She was a bit too young for the big tub, but she wanted to go in and did not particularly like her baby tub, so we decided to let her have fun. That meant that we needed to make it as safe as possible and always watch her. After the first bath mat got too dirty we replaced it with this one that had cute sea creature images.

We also got a cute Munchkin bath faucet spout cover after our baby started bumping into it and complaining. Before doing that I was using an old plastic bottle with holes cut out in it but eventually we decided to graduate to something cuter.

Lastly, to prevent a burning sensation that can be very uncomfortable for a baby or a toddler, always the water temperature before letting him or her go in it.

Reward them for going into the bath

Some kids love stickers and there are sticker reward charts that work really well for some. My daughter has so many stickers that unfortunately that never worked. However, on occasions, I have "bribed" her effectively with a jelly bean or a gummy vitamin if she gets into the bath while I count to 10. Yes, this also has a potential to go wrong, so we do not do this frequently but if it's one of those days where NOTHING seems to be working and I'm at the end of my patience, it's a "go".

Bubbles, bath bombs, bath colors

Bubble baths, bath bombs, and bath colors have been probably the easiest way to get our daughter in the bath. She absolutely loves the bath bombs, especially the ones that have a toy inside. They are, however, expensive and I have also heard that it is not a good idea to do them often because they may lead to UTIs. These bath bombs with superhero toys inside (sold by Two Sisters Spa) smell absolutely amazing and have certainly been our favorites ones.

Bath colors have also been a success, although due to their size, they fizz out fast. My daughter likes mixing colors and seeing what comes out.

Bath bubbles are no longer as interesting for her but she was into those when she was about 2 years old. We love the smell of the Honest brand bath bubbles. We have tried both the lavender and the sweet orange vanilla ones and they are amazing. We have also tried the Mr. Bubble Original ones, however, I believe the Honest brand foams up a lot more.

Give them transition time

Many toddlers need a certain amount of transition time between activities. Telling them "ok, we are going in the bath" out of nowhere, or picking them up unexpectedly while they are still playing with their lego, is what could upset them and cause a meltdown. Give them a 10-minute warning, then a 5-minute one, then a 1-minute one. They will probably need some time to understand what it means (it may need to be practiced several times to actually get the concept).

Lead by example

How about actually showing your baby how much fun a bath is? In our case, my daughter finds dumping water on top of mommy to be tons of fun. Many parents feel differently about nudity, so if you are not comfortable being naked, you can always wear swim suit or underwear.

Shower instead of tub

Maybe after all the efforts the bath time is just not working. But staying dirty is just not an option, so a shower might be worth trying. My daughter gets very entertained by the shower squeegee, filling up cups slowly and spilling them on herself, and drawing on the shower door that is fogging from the heat. She does not last as long in the shower as she does in the bath, but it is enough to "get the job done".

The shower isn't working either? You can just take a break and give them a sponge or washcloth bath. I bet they will soon realize the bath or shower are more interesting.

Do you have friends whose kids fight bath time? Share this blog post and help them out!