DS won't go to sleep and now HATES bath time UGH!

DS turned 2 in September. His newest thing is when I put him in the bath, he screams until he turns purple. He won't even sit in the water! He stands there crying while I wash him as fast as I can. What is this all about? I've tried getting him new bath toys, making it fun, getting bubbles, etc.....nothing has worked.

AND, he is becoming more and more of a night owl. He hates getting up in the morning (which I can't complain about on the weekends when I don't work) but he won't go to bed. It's a struggle every night. I have to start the process around 8pm and it usually takes about an hour or so. He was NEVER this way. We never rocked him. Always went in his crib and got himself to sleep within 15 minutes. Now, if I walk out of the room he screams. And I've tried CIO and it dosent work...just screams until I go back in...no matter how long I wait. I try rocking him and if I look at him just for a second he laughs. Or, just when I think he's asleep, I put him in the crib and he starts screaming again. The only way to get him to sleep is the stand over him, with my hand on his belly until he falls asleep. I'm exhausted. HELP!

Re: DS won't go to sleep and now HATES bath time UGH!

First I just wanted to say that DS was similar in that a few months after he turned two things went crazy! I don't know what happened to my extremely easy boy.

We haven't had the same exact issues as you, but we did have some sleeping issues....

He ended up just stopping naps all togehter.

For bedtime, I would put him in his bed and I would sit in the rockign chair in his room until he fell asleep. This worked for a while, but then I had DD! I did not have time to sit in the rocking chair for up to an hour. SO, I woudl put him in his bed, with the light on in his room and I said I would be back to check on him. I would go back in after 2 minutes, then back in after 5, then 10, etc. This worked very well. I would tell him I was first going to go brush my teeth for bed, then I would be back. The next time I'd say I'm going to put my pjs on and I'd be right back, etc. After a while I would stop going in at 2 minutes or I would just change it up...go in after 2 minutes, then 10 minutes later. A lot of times he'd be asleep before I even went in once. And then we just faded it out. We did it for about 2 months. Now he says to me "see you in the morning!"

HTH. good luck! remember it's just a phase!

Re: DS won't go to sleep and now HATES bath time UGH!

Did you try filling the bath first? Sometimes the running faucet scares them.

Re: DS won't go to sleep and now HATES bath time UGH!

Have you started potty training him? Maybe he has to go to the bathroom and get the urge when the water is running?

As far as the bed time, it sounds to me like he is just overtired. Have you tried putting him to bed a little earlier?

Re: DS won't go to sleep and now HATES bath time UGH!

Re: DS won't go to sleep and now HATES bath time UGH!

Not sure, but Anthony started the bath thing a bit before 2. He refuses to sit in it and is always trying to climb out.
Have you tried his own bathtub - like a ducky tub? That helped the 1st time anthony was scared of baths...

Can't help with bedtime either - mine goes to bed the EARLIEST 9:30 usually 10:30 because of DH work scedule

Message edited 1/10/2011 2:38:20 PM.