Seth has become terrified of the bath. Usually he loves it: he splashes merrily away and enjoys the routine of washing, drying and getting dressed in his pyjamas, ready for bed. Then at the beginning of the year I tried to give him a shower which he hated and screamed blue murder. For a few weeks after that he started to scream when we ran the taps for his bath. So the experience obviously had a profound effect on him. But eventually he got passed it.
Then Thursday night I lifted him into the bath and as soon as he was in the water he just started to scream as if he was being boiled alive. It was horrific. I lifted him straight out and Craig came rushing in and put his arm in the water. He confirmed it was simply luke warm. Seth continued to be extremely upset and his arms came out in a mottled red rash.
Seth gets very dry skin and suffers from eczema so we use prescribed emollient cream instead of soap. It was almost empty and quite old so I threw it straight in the bin and replaced it with a new tub of different branded emollient cream.
Seth didn't have a bath on Friday night but on Saturday as we got into the bathroom he started to get upset. He was very tired so I figured he just wanted to go to bed so I quickly gave him a 'strip wash'. Sunday night Craig attempted to give Seth a bath. He rinsed the bath first and used the new cream but, again, the minute Seth was in that water he just started to scream and his arms grew red.
Tonight I didn't put any cream in the water. I tried to prepare Seth by getting him to walk up the stairs and for the first time he cringed away from the first step. I carried him up and he started his terrified screaming (goodness knows what the neighbours think we're doing to him!). I persisted in undressing Seth trying to reassure him the whole time and then just got him to stand in the bath. But that was as far as I could bear to go and I just held him as Craig quickly ran a wet flannel over him, with him screaming the whole time.
What so we do? I have no idea where this has come from. I can't think of any bad experience he's had in the bath that could cause this. Do I persist like I did before and hope he gets over this fear? Before though it was the sound of the running water and once he was in the bath he enjoyed it. & what if it is actually hurting him? Can his brain damage be causing his nerves to send the wrong messages to his brain? In which case there is no way I will put him through that, but how do we know? The rash was only on his arms and could well be a reaction to his severe stress and not the cause of it.
Sorry to hear about your troubles with the bath as water can also have such a soothing effect. Concerning the rash I would think that there is relevance in how quickly it subsided and whether he has any rash anywhere if he is exposed to water in the sink (both hands in?) or the cream directly on his skin.
ReplyDeleteAnother aspect is you might want to see if you can get him into an empty bath and just put a pail of water and then let him/you scoop out some water in a cup and not put it on him but rather spill it into the bath. In other words, no more actual bathing, just playing in that specific environment.
The neurological aspect could also be relevant, hypersensitivity that has developed as can side effects of medications.
Final thought is, what do you use to clean the bath with, although his arm does not remind me of contact dermatitis.Wish I could be of more assistance.
Thank you so much for your response. I like the idea of just putting Seth in the bath and playing with some water to try to break down the fear. Hypersensitivity does seem the most likely rather than a rash because it disappeared as he calmed down but we haven't changed his medication; unless it's something that he's been taking for a while and prolonged use is causing it? I'll take a look at the small print!
ReplyDelete