You’ve mastered your bath time routine and your baby loves bonding with you while spending time in the tub.
But when it’s time to finish and get out of the bath, your baby cries and screams and can’t be consoled. You constantly ask yourself how to calm your baby after a bath???
Have no fear!
We had the same problem and did a bit of experimentation and trial and error and I found three tips that are really helpful for a smooth transition at the end of bath time that I want to share with you too. 😍
If your baby is always fussy at the end of bath time, it could be due to the temperature difference between the water and air as they get out. Try heating up a towel in the dryer so your baby is more cozy getting out of the water. Then snuggle and play to make this a special time for your baby. If your baby is still struggling, keep an eye out for other red flags and listen to your gut to identify other challenges with this transition.
Don’t forget to leave a comment at the end with your favorite tricks to calm baby after bath time!
Jump to:
🔥 Add some heat 🤗 Snuggle and play 👂 Listen to your gut 💭 Final Thoughts
Tip #1: Add some heat
Like many babies, our baby used to cry every time that he got out of the bathtub.
You’d see his little body shiver and he would clearly express that he was NOT a fan of being cold after leaving his warm bath.
So we started implementing one of our most helpful tips:
Before bath time starts, put your baby’s towel and clothes into the dryer.
Let it get nice and warm throughout bath time so your baby doesn’t have such a dramatic temperature shift at the end of their bath.
Related Post: How to Take a Bath or Shower with Your Baby (EPIC GUIDE)
After baby’s bath is over, ask someone to grab these for you.
Now you can wrap up your baby in a nice warm towel and get dressed in warm clothes.
This will help to ease the transition out of the bath because your baby won’t be so cold or have such a dramatic temperature difference in and out of the tub.
⭐ Pro-Tip: If you don't have any extra help at home during bath time, heat your baby's towel and clothes for a while before bath time starts. Then pull it out right before bath time so it can hold onto as much heat as possible until bath time is over.
Tip #2: Snuggle and Play
Now that your baby is wrapped up in a nice warm towel, spend some time cuddling and playing to help keep your baby calm and connected after bath time.
Sing songs, rock in your rocking chair, cuddle your favorite baby lovey, and play with your baby to help them feel safe and calm post-bath.
Wrapping in the warm towel and cuddling with your baby helps them to feel safe and warm as they transition out of the bathtub.
Likewise, playing and/or soothing your baby helps to associate good things with the end of bath time.
Because my baby loves bath time, he hated getting out of the tub. After all, who would want the fun to end?
By playing and snuggling after his bath, he knew that the fun didn’t end just because bath time did.
This tip isn’t just a great way to calm your baby after bath time.
As an added perk, spending some time without a diaper is also SUPER good for your baby. It is a great way to prevent or cure a diaper rash that might be bothering your baby.
We found that the easiest way to add time without a diaper was right after tub time.
We’d wrap our baby up in his nice, warm towel and then cuddle, play, and air out for 30 minutes or so after his bath. Not only did it help calm him down after his bath, it also helped us to finally get over the nasty diaper rash we had been struggling to get rid of.
Tip #3: Listen to Your Gut
As I become more confident as a mom, I’m also learning the value of listening to my gut. If something doesn’t quite seem right, listen to what your gut is telling you!
Our baby used to cry every time that he got out of the tub. And he would cry super hard for about 15 minutes.
We initially thought he just really didn’t like the cold. We joked that he HATED being naked and that his cold lotion drove him nuts. But we also wondered if it was normal for him to be SO upset.
After we went through our first bottle of baby soap, we moved on to our second, which was a different brand. Bath time typically goes amazingly until it’s time to get out. But that night he started crying before he even got out of the tub.
It seemed a little weird but we wondered if he was tired.
The next time he took a bath, it happened again. A few minutes after we added soap he started crying again. And now we really had suspicions.
I started wondering if that brand of soap and the lotion we used was bothering his skin.
We switched back to our first soap and stopped using the lotion. Almost instantly he started doing much better after bath time.
⭐Moral of the story: As a new parent, it’s so easy to assume that certain things are normal, but that’s not always the case. Listen to your gut and experiment a little with soap/lotions if your baby is extremely crabby at bath time or right afterward.
Final Thoughts:
Bathing can be enjoyable for you and your baby from start to finish if you start adding these tips to calm your baby after bath time.
If you jumped to the bottom, here’s a reminder of the three tips you can start using today:
- First, warm up your towel and clothes in the dryer while your baby bathes.
- Then, snuggle and play after bath time to make this transition fun and soothing for your baby.
- Finally, listen to your gut if something doesn’t seem right.