Put cream on the foot
Cold cream against warm skin, and a foot that flinches at the slightest touch. That is often all it takes for a small step to feel like too much, so the visual support below shows the order your child can expect, part of the foot by part of the foot.
♂Cream the foot
A hand spreads white cream over the top of a foot.
About this visual support
The sole of the foot is one of the body's most sensitive surfaces, and light pressure can feel worse there than a firm grip. Add cream that comes out of the tube cold, and it makes sense that this part of the evening ends with feet pulled away. The discomfort is rarely about the cream itself. It is about touch arriving without warning, from a direction nobody announced.
Pictures make the order visible before your hand gets there: the top of the foot first, then the heel, then between the toes. Your child has time to prepare, and you do not have to explain anything mid-movement. One thing that helps specifically here is letting your child warm the cream in their own palm, and starting with firm pressure rather than light strokes, since deep pressure usually reads as calmer than a fleeting touch. Keep the pictures on the bathroom floor beside you while you work through the foot, so the number of remaining steps stays visible.
If you want the steps gathered in one place, you can build the routine in the Routined app and try it for fourteen days at no cost. The pictures on this page are free to download.