Calming Baby after bath

Question

I guess that I am lucky in some ways. My son, three months old. Loves being in the bath. He is not scared of water and loves to splash.

However, taking him out of the bath is a different matter, often it will set him off screaming, and crying which can last till after he is dried and dressed.

Is he upset about leaving the bath? Or is it likely to be the sensation of being wet but not in the bath that he likes. Are there ways to make getting out of the bath less shocking for him.

I normally pick him out and wrap him in a towel straight away.

Answer 1

If I was warm and happy in the tub I would probably scream too when you took me out ;)

It's probably a combination of being somewhere that is warm and feels natural (think that they spent 9 months floating in warm body temperature water) and just simple opposition to any kind of transition. I think that kids of all ages (even some of us old guys) need a little help to change from one state to another.

Just make sure that you don't do anything to make the bath less fun, this might introduce a bigger problem.... a kid that doesn't want to take a bath.

When bath time is over, have a nice towel, maybe a favorite toy, entice them to want to leave the bath. Make it a game. We have a giant mirror along one wall of our bathroom and always play "Kiss the Baby" and have them kiss their reflection. Getting out of the tub is as big a production as getting into it. In fact, my 6 year old still want to do kiss the baby.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Perhaps he is just cold. You could try warming the towel a bit just before taking him out, or warming his clothes. In the first days of my son's life, we would wrap his clothes and diaper around a hot water bottle (in opposite order of putting on him), then wrap a towel around all that.

Answer 3

try just letting the water out of the tub. Sitting in the bottom if the tub, with no water, is not fun. Perhaps then the idea of a towel and a hug will seem more attractive..

Answer 4

I struggled at bath time with my children (now 2, 3, and 4) when they were very little. I found two things to be helpful. First, before the bath, I would turn the shower head on full hot, full blast for a minute or two with the door closed to fill the room with steam. That raised the temperature of the bathroom enough for a naked infant to be comfortable before and after the bath. It doesn't take more than a minute or two to steam up my 6' by 6' bathroom. I let the hot water go down the drain, and I touched the tub to make sure it wasn't hot. Then I started the normal bath routine with a warmed bathroom.

After the bath, I'd take my shirt off, put a diaper on the baby, and then let him/her rest on my chest for a while with a big towel wrapped around both of us. Google skin-to-skin contact with baby -- it helps calm them, even several months after birth.

Answer 5

Our daughter has always loved her bath, but coming out... not so much. All the other answers already say enough about wrapping him fast, preheating the towels...

All I want to add is: have a toy ready that he can play with - it'll distract him, and while he's playing you can dry him quite easily without any tears.

Answer 6

My wife and I originally had the same problem with our newborn twins fussing when bath time was over. What worked for us was to have the towel ready to dry them off IMMEDIATELY and then talking to them the entire time from the moment we take them out of the bath until they are dry and in a new diaper.

Since we figured this out, we've seldom had a bad fuss after bathing.