Sensitivity to Water

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My daughter is 14 months old and has always screamed during bath time and in the pool. It doesn't matter what the temperature of the water is. It is not a sound aversion with running the bath water. As far as we know, she is more NT than anything else. We'll see.

My questions for the masses on WP.net are these:

If you are sensitive to the feeling of water on your skin, what does it feel like? Does it hurt? Tingle? Tickle? Do you have other sensory input that shouldn't be there?

Does it feel, for the lack of a better term, just plain wrong?

I'd love to get some information from everyone on this. The matter intrigues me to no end but I don't like to see my kiddo afraid of bath time, which of all things should be considered a fond childhood memory.

There's no need to worry. You'd be surprised of how many toddlers hate having to take baths (I know, I was one of them lol).

Anyway, to answer your question, I don't mind water unless it's too hot or too cold to the extremes, but I think most people are like that. I also hate getting rained on, but I tolerate it.

I cant remember what bath time was like when I was young.I love to swim ,except ,I get rashes from clorine and I dont like cold water....but I HATE the feeling of wet hair.I hate the way it sticks to my scalp.Once I comb through it and fluff it up a bit so it isnt smoothering my head,I am OK.I HATE getting water in my nose or eyes...I am a" big baby"about this, and having three older brothers, I got teased a lot.

As long as I'm completely wet, I love water. Anything less, I can't stand.

I don’t like the way my skin feels when the water is drying off of it, it feels sort of tight and uncomfortable.

I like the way it feels when hotglue cools off on my skin.

I was usually the "rotten egg" when I was a kid because I always balked at running into the beach for and usually the last one in. It was just my natural hesitation at getting wet.

I'm not sensitive to water, not at all, but I'll descride it to you anyway because it's fun doing that sort of thing.

All water, when it touches, is wet. Well, duh, when has it not? It's consitency however, can vary the feeling. If it is a bath or a swimming pool, the water feels has a nice flowing feeling to it, and for me it's nice on the skin. For cold water, it can feel a bit peircing, a bit like when you blow on your wet arm. For hot water, the flowing feeling dissapears to make way for the burning temperature of the water.

Rain is a bit different. Rain is like a bath, but in smaller, more concentrated, and more random points. A mist will feel abientic (is that a word? I meant it to be similar to ambience), and rain will be like little bits of flowy-ness feeling on me. Drizzle is a mixture of the two.

Maybe its related to chlorine, does she get in bath water okay? Perhaps she associates swimming pools with itchy skin as a result of the chlorine. Either that or the large expanse of water overwhelms her, I think you should just gradually introduce her to water and perhaps take in a toy to make her associate water with fun. Or get some story books with swimming pools in them and get her used to the idea.

Sorry just re-read your first post again she is sensitive to baths too, so it must be water. I think the thing to do is perhaps some kind of de-sensitising type work. See how she is say playing with a tea set with water, can she bear wet on her hands, just maybe introduce more water each day. This sounds like shes hyper sensitive, perhaps if you look into some books about sensory integration.

Here are some useful book titles they may have them at your local library or amazon:

The Out-Of-Sync Child by Carol Stock Kranowitz

The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun: Activities for Kids with Sensory Integration Dysfunction by Carol Stock Kranowitz

Sensational Kids: Hope and Help for Children with Sensory Processing Disorder by Lucy Jane Miller and Doris A. Fuller

Raising a Sensory Smart Child: The Definitive Handbook for Helping Your Child with Sensoryintegration Issues by Temple Grandin

Does she have any problems with sensitivity to light and sound or touch?

Odd question, but bear with me. Doyou know what the PH and hardness of your water is?

I have a problem with "soft" water, especially the artificially softened water in some homes. It literally burns like a mild acid. See if you get a different reaction when you are out of town or if you use distilled water. That may give a clue if it is the water, or just being a toddler.

Not an odd question. Some people are sensitive to the pH of the water or to some of the minerals that are in tap water. Distilled water is always a good thing for that.

As for personal sensitivities relating to water, I don't like the feel of rain on my hands or arms or washing my hands in warm water. It's not that I'm heat sensitive in my hands (quite the contrary- I've lost a lot of the heat sensitivity due to burning myself so many times in the lab), but using warm or hot water on my hands just bothers me.

Heres something i'm gonna say, sensitivity is nothing to due with asperger syndrome, its to do with the dyspraxic tendencies most ppl wiv as have. 18 months is still to young to suspect autism but dyspraxia is noticeable when they start to do coordinated tasks like walking.

My AS son went bizerk during a bath and it took 2 adults to get it done, he still does go crazy sometimes in the bath, and at the beach he will not go past his ankles, and has never been in a swimming pool, because he refuses. Three of my daughters like baths and the other one who has shown traits hates the water, looks shocked every time, and screams when it touches her.

I never liked bathing but I loved swimming when I was a kid.

Me too. Although as a kid, when I actually got in and was completely wet, I really liked the feeling.
But even now I'll procrastinate around bathing or showering up to most of the day if I'm staying at home.

Its the getting-undressed-and-into-the-water that I hate, because for a short time I'm half wet and half dry. Washing my hands makes me wanna pee because of it. And I run the water way too hot sometimes in the shower to compensate. Weird.