Sunday, April 13, 2008

Irrational Fear

If you know Blake, you know how much he loves his bath. He always runs to the bathroom when we tell him it's bath time and usually asks for bubbles. Lately though he has gotten very nasty when we turn off the water. It got to the point where Blake wouldn't stop crying the whole time he was in the bath tub. We got very sick of this behavior so Joe suggested that next time he is in the tub and starts to freak out once the water is turned off to turn the shower on. Blake HATES the shower and often freaks out if he accidently turns on the shower. So lo and behold, Blake freaked out when I turned the water off so I turned the shower on and Blake freaked. So thinking it would help, I turned off the water but then he got mad that the water was off. Again, I turned the shower back on and it put Blake over the top. He wanted out of the tub, which I let him although I hadn't washed him yet. 
Two nights later it was time again for bath time. Joe got Blake all ready for bath time but out runs Blake naked to me and then hides by the side of the couch. I felt so bad for him. I picked him up (naked and all) and brought him into the bathroom where he promptly started screaming. I waited for Joe to turn off the water and we pried Blake off of me and into the tub. The only way we got him to stay in the tub was to give him his pacifier and take his mind off of the tub. It worked. Tonight we had to give him a bath and he did the whole thing over again. This time I put my legs in the water and sat him on my lap. I got him to start putting bubbles on my legs which made him happy. I didn't have to give him a pacifier which was progress.
Hopefully we haven't completely scarred our child for life. Slowly but surely he will like the bath again right? RIGHT? 

3 comments:

Lewieville said...

Yeah I am sure it's just a phase, but we are dealing with a "hair washing phobia" right now. Our daughter just freaks, so we have had to resort to washing her hair in the sink with Jake and I holding her so nothing gets in her eyes!!! THe things we do for our kids.

Kerstin said...

I am sure that he will get over his fear of the bath. Landon is like Blake in that he HATES the shower too. Kids make me laugh with someof the things they are afraid of.

Jensen Family said...

That's funny! Talk about classical conditioning!