Bathtime tantrums

[camp74]

Hello, this is the first time I have posted and need some suggestions. My one year old son like to stand in the bathtub. Every time I sit him down he has a tantrum. I take him out right away but he still doesn't learn that he cant stand in the bath. I only put a couple inches of water in the tub for his safety and try to keep him occupied so he wont want to stand but it doesn't seem to work. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[ra11en]

Oh gee, I so feel for you!! My daughter is notorious for wanting to stand up during her baths. I also had tried everything, including swatting the hiney with a firm no, sitting her down myself, warning her before removing her completely after she did it anyway, etc. Finally, I hate to say it, I let her learn the hard way. It was worse on me I'm sure, but she did ultimately slip / fall just like I knew she would. She cracked her bone above her eye and had one heck of a black eye for a few days. Did she learn - nope. The very next night, she slipped and fell again and hit her noggin. Boy did she cry! Has she done it since then - not nearly as much and when she does stand up she doesn't walk and will actually go into a squat instead. So, she learned her lesson the hard way and since then has been much better about listening to mom in the bath tub.

Sometimes you just have to let them learn. If nothing else, my DD learned what "Be careful" meant, almost immediately.

[autymsmommy]

I have to disagree with rallen, safety should always come first. While there are some things you have to let children learn for themselves, anything that could hurt them seriously, is not one of those things! Would you use the same technique if your son kept running into the street, or playing on the stairs? No.You would then be responsible if your child received a serious injury (like a concussion). Instead, I would recommend that you keep doing what you're doing, distraction or ultimately removal. Parenting is all about patience, and it may take awhile for a one year old to understand that if he stands, he gets out of the tub, BUT he will get it eventually. He's young. And there is a reason why parents are supposed to supervise their children in the bathtub until they're about 7. . .

[ra11en]

Just to clarify - safety does come first especially in the tub. However, when nothing else worked I allowed some supervised learning that resulted in her feeling some pain. I had tried for over a YEAR to get her to listen, pretty sure that is patience. I have to be able to clean her, and with her trying to run around in the bath tub or screaming bloody murder the entire time because I had to hold her in a sitting position was not working for us at all. I spent months 'removing her as soon as she stood' like you suggested but that did nothing - we were taking her out of the bath almost immediately upon putting her in it, usually before I even had a chance to get her wet, let alone wash her. I had a hold of her and was able to break her fall enough to prevent serious injury, but I did let her get hurt and it definitely worked.

[fuzzy]

My son is a year old too and he liked to stand in the tub too! I tried everything the taking him out, tell him "no",sitting him back down and nothing worked.Finally,He was standing up trying to get the shampoo bottle and he tripped over his feet and fell,he hit his head on the side and the water went a little in his face well that was the end to standing.I know it sounds wrong but we all learn from our own mistakes and kids do too!Like ra11en said as long as your right there to prevent"a real injury" I don't see anything wrong by letting your son learn on his own,mine did and it worked! Good luck!

[sm7226]

I had a similar problem w/ my daughter, now she's almost 3 and the problem w/ her sitting in the bath tub was gone in about a week. Let your baby pick out a shower poof ~ the kind you use with body wash. Let him/her stand with your help just to was his/her bottom and then they have to sit during the rest of their bath. Now my daughter understands she only stands when it's time to wash that part of her body and she loves to use her pink My Little Pony shower poof to wash her belly and legs. At Walmart and Target you can find all sorts of shower poofs w/ different characters for kids.

[camp74]

Thank you very much for the suggestions. At one point I did "let" him slip and he just bumped his head a little, but it didn't seem to teach him anything. I am a little nervous when it comes to babies and water so it makes it easier to just keep removing him. He is just turning one this week so he isn't interested in washing himself, but when he does get there, I really like the idea of letting him use the poof to help wash. He loves doing things himself.