Diaper decorating

[monkey971]

My just two year old daughter continually takes her diaper off (during her afternoon nap) & proceeds to decorate her crib, bedding and self with her poop. I have put her on a potty with no luck as of yet but I cant seem to get threw to her that pooh is NOT fun to play with OR clean up! HELP!

[Le Chat]

You could try switching to the pull-up type of nappy. They can only be pulled down rather than un-velcroed!! I have done this with my 20 month old and it has worked!! Also, if she is wearing shorts or trousers, it will be even more of a task, by which time she may have given up and be sound asleep!!

[EssJay1]

Odd.  It's as if she's uncomfortable in her poo.  So, when is she pooing?  Before she naps, or when she wakes?  If it's when she wakes, you may need to get to her as she wakes and stick her straight on the potty.

[monkey971]

It is when she wakes from her afternoon nap. I do try and get in there before anything happens but I am not always successful. I have tried turning her jammies inside out and backwards, she still manages to get them off. She likes to take her clothes and diaper off all the time.

[tigerthecat]

My experience is this is just a phase for her and she is just exploring the world around her. Its not much fun for you though. As far as I know the only answer is to sabotage her ability to get the nappy off. Put it on back to front with pants on the top and/or those vests which do up at the bottom. After that if she's doing a mission impossible (when you don't hear her) I'm struggling for a suggestion. Don't forget it will stop and it's only a phase. :-)

[boobesque]

i used to do this as a child, i would poop in my potty and proceed to dip myself and my barbies in it, i used to go to a childminder and one of the other children, a friend of mine, was black and my mum remembers me telling her i wasnted to be like christopher, does your daughter go to nursery or anything?

BTW i stopped after about 4 months mum said, sorry!

[EssJay1]

Maybe you need to wake her before she wakes - or is she ready to drop her afternoon nap? The payoff would be that she might go to bed a little earlier.

[Liza B]

my daughter did the same, none of the other four did, I tried pull up nappies, made it even easier for her to take off, in the end I cellotaped it a lot and made sure the join was at the back, as she could some how open it other wise, it worked a treat until she came out of nappies. good luck, cleaning up the mess is not a fun job.lol!

[Clare A]

It's a dirty protest. Have you not yet negotiated about the extra jam sandwiches?

[Lillabet]

Children love getting attention and, especially when they are very young, they don't differentiate between good attention and bad attention.

When she does this do you spend a lot of time talking to her and interracting with her as you clean up? Your question implies you have spent some time talking the issue through with her. If so then you are - however inadvertently - rewarding her behaviour.

Also if she is taking off her diaper it suggests that she isn't asleep. Maybe her nap doesn't need to be quite as long as it is at the minute. Does she have anything she likes to play with in her crib? If not she may be playing with her diaper simply because she is awake and a bit bored and it's the only thing she has to do till you come in. Check she can sleep and is napping - room the right temperature, quiet, darkened, relaxing conducive to sleep etc

I'd suggest that if she does this you take her and clean her up but do so silently and try to avoid eye contact. Then put her safely and quietly out of your area of activity - perhaps round a corner or in the next room while you clean up.

In contrast if she manages to not make a mess then when you change her / pick her up from her nap tell her how good she is for keeping her bed so clean and give her lots of fuss and cuddles.

She then will hopefully learn that making a mess with poo leads to less attention from Mummy, not more. Whereas good clean girls get more attention.

[Raffles]

I would try putting the nappy on back to front or use a vest that buttons underneath and then fasten with an ordinary nappy pin.  Hope this helps.

[Cathy]

My little boy likes to take his nappy off, but he's in reusable nappies, so I've got wraps with poppers on. Although I guess you're using disposables you could still put one of these over the top. If you do a search for reusable diapers you should find a site that will help. I used thenappylady.co.uk, but I'm assuming you are in the U.S., so I don't know if that will help you.