How to Make Bath Time More Pleasant for Your Baby

I clearly remember the day that I first tried to give my son his first bath. I placed a happy baby into the bathtub. I made sure the water was just the right temperature. As soon as the water touched him, though, he started screaming. "Aren't babies supposed to enjoy bath time?" I wondered, completely baffled by my son's extreme behavior.

I'm sure I'm not the only parent that has stared in confusion at their water-hating newborn. No one ever warns you that your baby may not like bath time.

So what are your options? For the first few weeks, I thought my only option was to just try to ignore the screaming and get done as quickly as possible. It killed me to be enforcing something my son hated so much though. Then there was a sneaky suspicion I had that he didn't really hate water so much as he didn't understand it and was scared by the strange sensation. It pained me to be unable to soothe him and alleviate his fears.

At the same time that I was struggling with giving him his baths, I was also struggling to get myself bathed. My son didn't like to be put down in his crib and he liked me leaving the room even less. Taking him in to the bathroom with me so he could see me shower helped, but eventually he would get bored and start screaming. Bathing for both of us had become a strained and stressful experience.

One day the idea occurred to me though to try saving time by taking him in to the shower with me. Amazingly, even when the water from the shower head hit him full force he didn't shed a single tear. Instead, he clung to me and smiled, ecstatic that he was getting to hop in the shower with his mother.

I have several theories as to why this worked. First of all, being held is a very soothing experience for a newborn, and I think by holding him in the shower I alleviated a lot of his fears of water. Second, I think watching me get in the water helped him to see that it was a part of normal, human day-to-day life. I also think it helped to reassure him that there was nothing dangerous about water.

I continued to share shower time with my son until he grew too big for holding him in the shower to be feasible. I then started putting him in an infant bath seat on the shower floor and bathing him that way, then letting him stay in the shower with me while I got myself washed up. When he was 5 months old, I finally felt it was safe to try transferring him to his bath tub. Not only did he tolerate it this time without throwing a temper tantrum, but he loved it - even more than he loved taking a shower with me! He now spends bath time in his own tub, gleefully attempting to steal his washcloth from me and kicking his legs.

Probably the best thing about bringing him in to the shower with me as a newborn though was not the calm it brought over him but the bonding experience that it provided for us. I don't think such a strong bonding experience could have been created in any other situation, as no other situation provides as much skin-to-skin contact or physical closeness and personal nature (while breast feeding comes close, it doesn't quite make it).

If you're a parent struggling with a water-hating baby, take a cue from me and try taking him or her in to the bath or shower with you some time. You don't need to worry about your child becoming "spoiled" from the experience, as once he or she reaches a certain age they will be eager to try out their bathtub. As a newborn, though, the world can be a scary place - so cushion the shock as much as you can. In return you will get a well-adjusted and content baby.