21 month old daughter hates having her hair and girly parts washed/wiped. Any suggestions? Need help!!

Jessie - posted on 03/08/2012

Its not the act of the washing, which i do no more than 2 times a week(she has sensitive skin), its the water. I took her in the shouwer yesterday with me...and it took her a while...she did get rather upset when her hair had to be rinsed, butnot as bad as in the tub, perhaos because i was holding her. I guess shes just going to be like this until. Thanks for suggestions!!

Vicki - posted on 03/06/2012

If she hates her hair being washed I'd just do it infrequently. My boy has long below his shoulders and I rarely wash it. He puts his head under the shower lots and it gets wet when we swim but I've never used shampoo, I'm not sure why it's needed really, his hair seems clean enough. I used conditioner every few weeks to keep the tangles down.

Dayna - posted on 03/05/2012

my son had the same problems. I learned that he hated the water in his face. I gave him a rag to wipe his eyes. he still gets upset but calms quickly and often points to the rag. He also hated me rubbing the soap in his hair so i showed him the bubbles and now he gets excited and says "Bubbles!" when i pull out the soap. I have no solution to the private area problem. Hope this helps!

Brittney - posted on 03/05/2012

My daughter hates water on her head, she was born on time, so I don't think it has anything to do with yours being born early. Every time I hand her the shampoo or body wash, she immediately puts it in her hair, then I'm forced to wash her hair, I use tear free, so I have n idea what her problem is. I just use the shower head and do a quick rinse on her, she gets up and frantically tries to get out of the tub. As for cleaning her girl parts, I let her do it. I'm going to try letting her rinse her hair, she is 16 months and only has a little bit of hair, so its not like I absolutely have to wash it every single time. Good luck!

Jessie - posted on 03/05/2012

I did the same thing with my son, it did save a ton of time:) I had forgotten all about doing that, it was 10 yrs ago! lol She does like the bath, except for teh hair cleaning bit. What about her girly bits? Even when changing her diaper, its a battle. I do let her clean herself, but its not very good, so i just finish up. Obviousily i never had that issue with my son.

Kelly - posted on 03/05/2012

I had these issues with my daughter. She was also born early and we thought that she was getting cold too easily when in water. We introduced her to swimming during the summer and she had no problems with going in the water, but still screamed and cried when we tried to give her a bath in the tub.

We finally switched to showers. My husband or I would take her in with us which made things faster although not any easier for our daughter. At around 22 months she, out of the blue started asking to take showers when we mentioned them. She made a complete turn around all on her own. We don't know what made her change her mind about bathing, but she loves it now and washes herself with supervision. She's 25 months now and we can't even say the word shower without her running to the bathroom.

Don't give up hope! Try showering with your daughter, and letting her do the washing, Things will get better eventually. Parenthood is a learning process and a lot of give and take.