Baths are a constant on and off struggle for Courtney. And when I say struggle, I mean her reaction is as if I’m torturing her with pins and needles. It carries over to not even wanting to wash her hands and a fear of bathrooms in general. We go through months of this! I wish every time I have to give her a bath that it wasn’t such a necessity in life. Nothing should be so painful for a child.

What was so mind boggling through these last few months was that before this she was asking for 3 baths a day! During that time she still didn’t like to be washed but she tolerated it. As long as we weren’t washing her she would play in the tub for hours at a time. Then suddenly a switched happened. This wasn’t the first time we went from liking to disliking. This seems to be how it works for her. For several months we like it and then several months we dislike it. The switches were just more extreme this time.

Thankfully, it appears the season of hating baths is coming to an end again. The switch from hating it to liking it is more gradual. You can physically see her trying to overcome the extreme anxiety. She will ask for a bath and then once it is filled she can’t overcome the anxiety enough to actually get in the tub. We have spent a couple weeks at this point. This past week she finally overcame that anxiety and is now getting in the tub after we fill it. She did it!

Watching her enjoy playing in the tub is beautiful because I know she had to overcome so much to get there. Welcome back phase of loving to play in the water, we missed you! Do me a favor though…let’s stay this time.