My little one has always been the types who loooves water. Ever since she was born, she would love splashing in the bathtub or sitting in the bath while we pour water over her. I even remember when she was barely a few months old, we used to bathe her in her infant tub which had a sling and even there she would lie in peace enjoying the water. But all of a sudden last weekend she started howling and screaming while the nanny was bathing her as usual. She was shocked and called me to the bathroom and as soon as I showed up, poor baby started trying to stand and cling to me crying loudly with her eyes closed! At first I thought maybe she is just doing it coz I am home today and she wants to cling to me more than the nanny. But this is continuing everyday since then...even when I am not home during weekdays. Lord knows what got into her all of a sudden. I have been asking a few friends and they all tell me it is a phase...like everything else, this will pass too. Kids go through phases of liking and disliking water so this might be temporary. Either that she has grown up now and has started understanding her likes and dislikes more and so she has decided that she dislikes water now. Or that she has had some kind of a minor accident while bathing like slipping or soap in her eyes that has got her all worked up over something.
So what do my Desi-American friends suggest? Two things - try getting into the tub or shower with her so that she can cling to you and can gradually get over her fears. Or try distracting her with some toys to play with in the bath so that she enjoys that while bathing. And what does my Indian nanny say? Maybe kisi ki nazar lag gayi hogi (someone probably cast a bad spell on her). So we should utaro the nazar (remove the spell) by rotating salt over her head and letting it go in flowing water.
And what does the Indian-American mom in me say? Well I say...doesn't hurt in trying all of the above remedies. Who knows what might work...so here I am...this time willing to give everything a try - the scientific as well as the cultural remedies :-) Will let you all know in a few weeks how it goes.
5 comments:
haha..thats funny..
am sure the salt thing is not goin to work!!
but maybe the others will..bathing with her or distracting with toys.
my younger son and even the older one hated water on their face..they used to be fine whn i gave them body bath but as soon as i used to put water over their heads,they used to scream..for my older one it lasted till he was 3 i think..and now he is perfectly fine..the younger one still howls(he will be 2 next month)..so as someone said..it cud be jst a passin phase.
Mufs - I can't believe this hapenned but I sent you an email and deleted your comment from my post. But I did not get a copy of that email myself so am not sure if you got it or not. And now I have lost your email id as well :( Can you pls drop in a line if you got my email?
Cool...see there is so much support out there. Its encouraging :)
Hi Divya, I just read your comments on Chitra's blog about the bombings here in Bangalore. I just have to reach out and tell you that Bangalore is a wonderful city. We moved here from Santa Clara almost 7 months ago and everyone here is incredibly friendly and warm. Chitra is right- the goodness of people is everywhere. Don't worry, all will be well.
Sigh cindy...I do hope you are right...but one still worries if we are making the best decision for our children. Like today there were bombings in Ahmedabad - that was the city I went to for my undergrad. It seems to be such a bad coincidence - first B'lore (the city we are moving to) and now A'bad.
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