Fear of water

We have a problem. Our child who has, until now, loved bath time, is now scared to death. I always run the water while Brigette undresses him. He crawls into the bathroom and is very excited. He normally stands up at the edge and watches his inflatable tub fill up.

Let me back up...A few nights ago, he wouldn't sit down and wanted to crawl/climb everywhere. I decided we should try bath time without the inflatable tub thinking he may have outgrown it. At first he was a little apprehensive, but then bath time proceeded as usual.

Today while I was at work, Brigette was doing laundry and had the pantry door open. For those of you who don't know this, we have a laundry closet and the detergent is kept in the pantry with the other cleaning supplies and the vacuum. Anyway...Owen crawled over at that moment, spotted the vacuum cleaner, which he loves, and nearly pulled it over on himself. In an attempt to stop this, Brigette put the liquid detergent down quickly and a very small amount dripped onto the back of his head. She immediately scooped him up, took his clothes off and attempted to put him in the tub. He screamed the entire time but she had to wash this off of him. When she told me this story this afternoon I thought it was a fluke...or he was ready for his nap...or hungry...or not used to her giving him a bath.

That wasn't the case at all. Tonight was going the same as always until I put him in the tub. He screamed. I told him it was okay and he still screamed. I pulled him out and hugged him and gave him a paci and he was fine. I tried to put him back in with the paci in his mouth and he screamed. So...I decided to get in with him. I thought this would solve our problem. Not so much. He screamed until I hugged him, and then he just whimpered. I could barely bathe him...I call it "hitting the high spots"...I knew I could forget washing his hair, but Brigette already did that earlier today. As soon as I got him out of the tub he stopped crying.

I'm so surprised he's developed this fear of water. He's never been scared of anything. I need to do some more research, but looking back a few hours, I probably shouldn't have forced him into the tub. I guess it's like forcing someone to hold a bug when they are scared of bugs. I'm really glad we don't have swimming lessons anytime soon.