Toddlers taking their Diapers Off
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Toddlers taking their Diapers Off
May 2008
My soon-to be 2 year old took to taking his diaper off in the
morning and pooping all over the crib. Its disgusging! He
smears the poop all over himself, matress, crib tent and the
crib. We tried being upset with him, not being upset, showing
him to a potty (on which he refuses to sit, even though he is
mimicking his older brother whenever he pees); we even put
scotch tape around the diaper before her goes to bed - nothing
works. What do we do? I dont think he enjoys it as he starts
crying whenever this happens but keeps doing it anyway.
Signed: anon
I worked in a summer camp for special needs children. We had an
eleven year old camper that would do the same thing every
morning (he functioned on a two-three year old level) We tried
everything - even duct-taping his diaper. Eventually we found
that the best method was to put on a Carters full body
jumper/sleeper with attached feet *BACKWARDS* so that he
couldn't access the zipper (which now went down his back) to
get at his diaper. I don't remember having to do any major
cleanups after that.
anon
We had this problem recently too. We put a onsie on her every
night under her pjs and this has done the trick!
Leslie
Sept 2006
My 22 month old daughter is removing her own diaper at nap time
and sometimes in the morning when she wakes up in the crib. We
have not really done any formal potty training- she has a potty
and likes to sit on it every couple of days but nothing has gone
in it yet. We've also read a book about the potty several times.
She doesn't show many signs of readiness for potty training and
I think the way she's taking off the diaper is more about ''Look
what I can do by myself!'' than about being ready to nap without a
diaper. Still when she removes it, sometimes I'll have her go
sit on the potty to see if she needs to go, then put a diaper on
her again and put her down again for her nap. I don't want this
to turn into a game for her- we need to nap! Any advice?
Not ready to Potty Train Mom
You could try putting the diaper on back-to-front or putting her
in pull-ups, which are harder to undo, at naptime. What about
dressing her in a onesie? Or what about putting her in a
sleepsack to nap? That has the advantage of her not being able to
climb out of the crib, too!
anon
Sorry to break it to you, but your daughter may be ready to potty train.
However, you are right, taking the diaper off has nothing to do with it. To make
this distinction, just dress her in something she can't take off, for nap time.
You can try putting the diapers on backwards, or do a onesie plus pants or
whatever it takes.
anon
June 2005
My 22 mo. old son takes off
his pants and diaper any chance he gets. If we're up and playing
in the house, it's fine. But what do people do when their kids
are pulling their diapers off in their cribs all the time? He'll
wake up from his nap (or in the middle of the night) and (super
quiet) go crazy with his diaper. I feel like I'm hovering by his
door all the time now while he is sleeping so as to catch him
before the diaper comes off. And yet, he still seems to get if
off and make a mess. Suggestions? I'm really tired of picking up
poop.
anon
What an annoying phase, huh? All kids go through it to some
extent. It sounds like you are doing the right thing by letting
your child run bare when you can supervise, but even parents
need some poop-free sleep! Try finding a zip-up one piece
sleeper, and putting it on backwards so the zipper is in the
back where little hands can't reach it. You can cut the feet and
arms off for summer if your baby gets too hot (just don't cut
into the zipper.) I have found that The Children's Place has
really great one piece sleepers and they sell them 3 for $25
whereas the Gap charges $22 each. Target will sometimes carry
them, at about $5 each, up to 2T, but they run quite small. Hope
the poop scooping ends soon!
Toddler Mom
Both of my boys did this and I used duct tape around the diaper
to keep it on. Not proud of myself but it worked.
It is just a short phase.
A friend of mine had this problem during her twins' naptime. Yep,
two times the poop smeared around the crib. Her pediatrician
suggested duct-taping their diapers around their waists. Yep, an
entirely duct-taped waistband, which she cut off after their
naps. This Dr. also suggested the kids sleep in sleepers worn
backwards so they zip up the back, which the kids couldn't unzip.
A friend's been there
Oh, I could have written your post a few months ago!
My son did exactly the same thing! What we did was putting him in
overalls (that didn't have snaps for diper change - otherwise he
was still removing his diaper) for naps and night time. At some
point he managed to take his overalls off anyway, so we were
doing all kind of tricks with the overalls' buttons.
One day it got to the poing when I wanted to put anything on him
- diaper, pull-up, underwear, but everything was coming right
off!!! I was so mad, I left him naked for a few hours.
To my surprise, my boy was going potty every time he needed to (I
did introduce him to the potty a couple of weeks before, and was
putting him there between changes)!
So, he has potty-trained himself at 24 months, and I guess might
have done it earlier if I would leave him naked before :)
So, may be, your son is also ready?
Try it, and if it's too early, you might want to try to find
overalls without snaps for diaper change (though, I noticed that
those are not easy to find).
Good luck and hang in there.
Used to be tired of picking up poop too :)
We went through this with our daughter at the same age. Our
solution was to put her one piece (footless) pijamas on
backwards. That way, she couldn't get herself out of the
diapers. We would put her in pj's for naps, too.
We also took this as a sign that she was interested in learning
to use the potty and started talking about it with her. She
trained herself within two months. Between these two things, the
diaper-removing behaviour stopped pretty much immediately.
good luck!
Ruthie
You may get advice to put his clothes on backwards, but that was
often uncomfortable for my kid or unfeasable for me (like when he
wore two-piece pajamas). This may sound crazy, but it really
worked for me. I comfortably wound masking tape around his
diapers every night - a couple of times, and he simply didn't
have the dexterity to undo that. I did this for a few months,
and by that time, the phase had passed.
been there
You've probably tired this, but keep him in onesies that snap at
the crotch. There was also a recent post asking for sleepers that
don't snap at the crotch- but have a sewn inseam.
JM
I know it seems early, but maybe it is time to toilet train him?
Our 22 month old boy hated diapers, too, so we just left them
off and put him on the potty every half hour or so. To our
surprise, within a couple of weeks, he was completely toilet
trained (day and nght)!
-diaperless
May 2006
Has anyone else found their toddler taking off their diaper and
pooping or peeing in the crib? This started with my daughter
recently and for the past week, it has happened either at the
beginning or end or her nap every day that I've been home with
her (the 3 days she was with her nanny it didn't happen).
One day I was just in the next room and went in as soon as I
heard her moving, and found she'd pooped - atleast that time
she didn't have a chance to throw it out of the crib or wipe it
on the wall.
PLEASE! I would love to hear any ideas or advice on how to
handle and stop this behaviour!
Sick of the smell, Tired of the laundry
Two words that will solve your problem: duct tape.
Our daughter went through the same phase for a month or two - it
was awful! Finally we put some duct tape over the velcro on her
diapers, making it extremely difficult for her to take them off.
We would do this before naps and bedtime. She quickly outgrew
the behavior
Ah - This only happened to us a couple of times (''The Great Poop
Incidents of '03'') but I understand most kids go through this.
An easy solution someone told us is to put your child in a
BACKWARDS diaper AND onsie at naptime. This way it is double
hard for them to get access to the poop. Hope this helps!
jennifer
I had that issue times two with both my girls. Looks like you
are ready for potty training. I don't know how old she is, but
that what it looks like. My oldest was doing that at 3yrs old
and she was ready to train to potty and my youngest did that at
2yr. old. No joke they both were ready and trained in less that
2 weeks. If you need a good potty video, check out ''Potty
Power''. That was my husband and my life saver.
Oh, now that I think of it, my nephew did that when he was 4
and it was b/c he was experiencing arguements between his
mother and father. He was already potty trained, but was taking
his pants down and making his mark throwing it across the room.
It was his way of expresssing want for attention and anger. It
would only happen when my sister or my bro-in-law were home.
Never with me. But I sure helped clean the results.
Either way, I wish you the best
anon
I can't remember if you mentioned your child's age. But, it may be time to see if
he/
she can be potty trained. Some kids, however, are just enchanted with their poop
and pee but eventually get tired of the novelty; it's gross, but it's normal
anon
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