Hunter LOVES his bath time, too, and gets mad when we get him out. Here are some of the things we do:

1) We don’t use a wash cloth. Just soap (the Weleda stuff you recommended!) and fingers.
2) We’ve never worried about getting water or soap in his eyes. We just dump the water on his head and he pretty much ignores it while he goes about the business of playing. The soap doesn’t sting his eyes as far as we can tell.
3) We have stacking cups with holes in different places, including some that make a little rain shower. He loves that so we’ll often “rinse” him with that.
4) He’s probably not that dirty. We get most of the crud off his face using a wipe after meals and clean up after diapers as well as we can, so we’re not that concerned about bath time being all scrubby, scrubby. We still look at it more as a nice way for him to unwind before bed. Cleaning is our secondary goal. So far, we don’t have the “stinky kid” so I think it’s all right.
5) Sometimes, my husband bathes with him. Chris gets cold but loves playing with him and can sneak in more cleaning this way. Plus, Hunter loves having someone in the tub to play with.
6) We think it’s hilarious when he splashes up a storm. I call it Hurricane Hunter. Throw some towels on the floor, grab my Flip, and get out of the way for a bit. Yeah, no real bathing goes on in those moments. But we get some priceless footage that keeps my Facebook friends in stitches.

Now, after bath, all hell breaks out. We often hold him up to a mirror and make faces for a while to ease the transition to the towel/diaper/jammies bit. While we’re getting him dry and dressed, we give him toys and sing to him. Sometimes it works, sometimes he just cries.

I just got the Happiest Toddler on the Block book and am starting to try Dr. Karp’s mirroring technique so I’ll say, “Hunter, sad, sad! Sad because his bath is over . . . but now he gets to play with Mommy and Doggie!”

It works occasionally. But I think I’ll try a shot tonight.

Good luck, Hon!

I have to say, the boys are great about being in the bath. When it’s time to rinse they will grouse a bit, and I tell them, nicely, too bad and told hold their breath and put their heads back if they want. When they started swimming lessons, they were the only kids who weren’t afraid of going underwater or getting their faces wet. Hah! My abuse paid off.

Nicholas used to complain about the tub. He wanted to play, and I let him for a while. Then, it’s wash time. Again, I didn’t care how much he screamed or yelled. If I say it’s time to wash, we’re washing. You do something enough and they get the message. Nicholas will still kick and cry sometimes (he could stay in there forever) but I ignore it. I may sound cruel, but really I’m not! My parents allowed us to walk all over them growing up, and as convenient as it was for me at the time, I vowed to be the boss when I grew up and had kids of my own.

A few things that worked for us:
-We have a garden tub in our master bath and one of us would get in with him. We had a little more control that way.
-Showers. We made Mason take showers with us and he LOVED it.
-We don’t bathe every day. **gasp** I would lose my mind.
-Jasper’s probably still a little young, but Mason loves those tub crayons by Crayola. They’re worth their weight in gold!

MY problem is that he keeps trying to drink his bathwater — and not b/c he’s thirsty! He just thinks it’s funny — maybe because I keep asking him not to do it… (sigh).

Our kiddo used to freak out during toenail clipping time too. I would tell him that it wouldn’t hurt because there were no nerve endings in his toenails (!) and then Dad would distract with bubbles. I probably bribed with some sort of post-traumatic experience reward of some sort too.

On the bath: I long ago gave up on giving actual baths. Do you have a shower hose attacment? If not, get one. That way he’s just standing there and you control the water. Also, fold a dry or damp washcloth to hold over his eyes to keep the water out while he leans back for the rinsing. That has worked really well for us.

Good luck!