If there’s one thing babies and toddlers don’t like, it’s when water, shampoo and soap get in their eyes when you’re trying to rinse their hair. Get their eyes wet one too many times, and you could be dealing with the agonizing problem of bath time hating (I speak from experience).
It’s no wonder, then, that are all sorts of products specially designed to prevent this problem, from shampoo rinsers with soft rims meant to mesh to a baby’s forehead to bath time visors meant to shield eyes during rinsing.
Unfortunately, such products don’t always work (I also speak from experience here). This is why today’s hint covers four more frugal ways to avoid soapy eyes and make bath time fun.
1.) Simply use a washcloth to rinse away the shampoo, a trick passed down to me by my mother, sister and other experienced parents who have dealt with the bath hating phase. Here’s how it works: Wet a washcloth with clean water, put your little one’s head back, squeeze out the water from the cloth onto your little one’s hair, rub the shampoo out a bit with the wet washcloth and repeat until the shampoo is gone. And if you’re little one won’t let you put their head back, you can simply wipe the shampoo out with the wet washcloth.
As the parent of a toddler who recently went through the bath hating phase, this washcloth trick is a big part of what got my daughter back to sitting relaxed in the tub (vs. standing and screaming). Previously, I had been dumping water on her head with my soft rim pitcher, a cup of some sort or our hand-held showerhead. These methods all resulted in soap in her eyes.
2.) Try a sports bottle. A babysitter commenting on Circle of Moms mentions the clever idea of using a sports bottle instead of a cup to rinse out the water, noting that “sports bottles are much better than cups because the water goes just where you want it and the kids like to play with it afterwards.”
3.) Employ a dry towel or washcloth. Parent Hacks, meanwhile, mentions the tried and true method of putting a dry towel over your child’s face while you do the rinsing. In my experience, this is easier said than done with young toddlers who squirm when a towel is placed over their eyes, but I can imagine it would work great with older toddlers.
4.) Encourage your little one to get used to getting his or her eyes wet. In other words, quickly and gently rinse with any old method, and wipe your little ones’ eyes after. Eventually, perhaps, your tot will get used to wet eyes. As Michelle LaRowe writes at Momtastic Parenting, “don’t encourage your child’s fear of getting water in {his or her] eyes” by using visors.
To be sure, most methods are likely to be unsuccessful if you can’t get your little one’s head back. So to encourage looking up, here’s another fun hack from Parent Hacks: Put something fun to look at on your ceiling. I also love this similar trick I read on a Baby Center message board: Tell your kids to look up at the stars and have them sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star with you.
Finally, if you want to go the product route, it’s hardly surprising that there are DIY bath shield options you can make, like this one from Families.com, if you’re crafty.
What are your tricks for keeping your little ones’ eyes dry during bath time? How do you calm bath time temper tantrums?
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