Fights during diaper changes?

[Italiamom]

DS is 15 months old, and has never particularly liked being changed. But as he gets older, it's getting worse. Gee wiz that boy can fight! As soon as we get to the changing table, he starts crying. By the time pants come off, he's screaming and thrashing. It takes a considerable amount of my strength to get him to untuck his legs so that I can take his diaper off. He fights even harder having the diaper put back on, flipping over with all his little might (which is surprising, really, considering his size compared to mine). I've tried giving him all kinds of toys, singing to him, really anything I can think of to soothe him. It can sometimes be literally impossible to change his diaper, and when DH is home we most often "tag-team" change him, where I'll stick a boob in his mouth in an effort to distract him while DH changes him.

As soon as the diaper is back on, total calm. No problems with putting pants back on. He's uncirced, so no genital trauma response. No rashes to speak of. Everything down there is happy and healthy as best I can tell. Any ideas of how I can make diaper changes quicker and less of an all out brawl?

[j_p_i]

My DD is 13 months and also not a fan of diaper changes. DH and I have done the tag team method, like you said, but this is not always possible as he works and I'm at home with her most of the time. I tried soothing at first and that did not work... and there is nothing worse than a poopy toddler flipping around while you desperately cling to to them and hope you and your carpet are not covered in poop by the time this is over

So what I do now is get her to laugh. There are so no-fail things that work for us, like sniffing her feet and pretending they stink. That always gets her to laugh and then she lays there while I change her. I don't even attempt the diaper change until she is laying quietly or laughing, which sometimes takes 2-3 minutes. I wait until the frustration has passed. She also likes to hold on to the clean diaper and wipes while I change her, and hands them to me as I need them (she feels like she is helping).

HTH, good luck!

[Super~Single~Mama]

BIG

Making DS laugh is the ONLY way to get him to lay still for a change. It's ridiculous! I don't use a changing table (don't have one) so I change him wherever he is laying still. Sometimes pretending that his dirty diaper is the diaper monster helps, "Oh no! We have to get rid of the big bad diaper monster! He's BACK!" or some really well timed raspberries on his belly while singing a peek-a-boo song works (I make it up as I go when I sing). Some of his fave silly words work too - Moist, Toast, Silly billy, umm...his last name makes him laugh too but I can't put that online... Anyway, I start the laughing, and by the time he's laughing hard enough he can't move to fight the change anyway so its pretty easy! The gross poopy diapers are harder, but we make do!

[marispel]

I try to hand my DS different objects to hold. Try going to the dollar store and picking up random things that you can hand him. Then keep those items for diaper changes only. You'll need to rotate the items every couple of weeks, but it worked well for my DS. Some of the items I purchased

Refrigerator timer (he loves to push buttons)
toy car phone
toy cars
paper clocks
measuring tape (with a button that reels it back)
plastic clapping hands
a hand mirror
a new book

[Astraia]

Sometimes knowing a diaper change was coming was enough to set Nigella off. No amount of tickles, games, or interesting things to play with/eat would calm her down.

So I'd do it in stages- pull of her pants, let her run. Diaper/wipe (if she was poopy) and let her run. New diaper, let her run. Pants, let her go again.

She peed on the floor sometimes if I couldn't be bothered to put another diaper on for a while... which happened a fair bit... but hey, now she's 19 months and potty training so I can deal with that!

Changing the scene can help too. If you usually do a change table in your child's room, try the kitchen floor or the couch.

My list of good toys: things wrapped in saran (like a cracker or something), a head of garlic- lots of mess, but it's interesting mess- bells (dollar store), pipe cleaner.

I'd also often give her a cloth and she'd help wipe- usually wipe her legs or feet, but whatever

[sweet~potato]

My ds has been fighting diaper changes since he could roll over, about a year ago. For a long time i gave him something to hold that normally would be off-limits, but in the past few months that hasn't been working anymore. I mostly cloth diaper but for those really trying times, I use pull-ups. He is so much happier being changed while standing up, and I just can't snappi a prefold on him when he's standing.

[Comtessa]

I've figured out a way to pin one side of a prefold so that I can slide it up onto DD sort of like a pull-up, then I just distract her while she's standing up long enough to pin the other side. I have considered getting a set of cloth pull-up diapers for this very purpose! Cheaper than disposable Pull-ups, in the long run, especially if we have more little ones later.

Astraia and Marispel, your diaper-change toy lists are brilliant! I'm going to take a head of garlic upstairs with me for the very next diaper change!

[j_p_i]

Garlic! Good idea. I've given DD an onion to play with before... and she bit into it like an apple!

In this heat we're having on the East Coast, I've definitely been letting DD run around diaper free. She has peed on the floor a few time, but mostly we are outside on the deck so no big deal.

Other toys that have worked include anything that belongs to the dog, the remote or a phone, another diaper, or a page from a magazine.

[Blueone]

My son has been doing that since 10 months. For the most part I'm able to distract him with a toy or talking about animals (especially kitties, he loves kitties). But every so often it's really bad and if no is around to help, I gently but still enough to catch his attention slap his thigh. He protests then stays decently still. I don't like doing that, but there are times I just can't keep him still and it's making it even harder to put the diaper on prolonging the misery. It's never left a mark and so far it's only been a maybe once a week event.

[sweet~potato]

Originally Posted by Comtessa

I've figured out a way to pin one side of a prefold so that I can slide it up onto DD sort of like a pull-up, then I just distract her while she's standing up long enough to pin the other side. I have considered getting a set of cloth pull-up diapers for this very purpose! Cheaper than disposable Pull-ups, in the long run, especially if we have more little ones later.

Thank you so much for posting that website! I've been looking for a cloth pull-up diaper with no luck until now. Yay!

[lkmiscnet]

I think you are doing this, but I just discovered a couple of weeks ago that if I nurse our 13 mo old DS over our long dresser that we use as the changing table, that I can then change his diaper with both hands free. Luckily, I'm average height and the changing table is not too high. Also, it has the mirror attached, so I am able to stand him up after to look at himself while I pull his pants on.

I've tried keeping new toys, books, etc, for him to play with only at diaper changing time but he gets in a mood where he just wants to throw everything over the side and flip over and try to crawl off (one of my fears). Sigh...

[treeoflife3]

I only change my kiddo's diaper in her bedroom. She loves to run to her room when I say 'do you need to change your diaper?' but she usually just wants to go in there to read the books she has in there.

I just change her on the floor so I'll get everything ready while she goes through her books and take a seat and encourage her to come to me. Sometimes this means her offering me a book and being goofy pretending to give it to me from too far away til she comes close enough for me to grab her and sometiems this means me offering something to her to come play with... which leads to the goofy her pretending to try and take it from too far til she finally inches close enough to get it and me grab her to change.

Usually the things I offer if she won't come with a book are the snappi, the thinger of lotion, a watered cloth wipe, or the thinger of diaper cream. None of them are things I want her to play with but they are the only things left that work. No other toys or laughing or songs etc will at this point. I give her body items closed and she works on opening them (flip tops) and I'll just reach up and close them again when she succeeds so nothing can go in her mouth (although none would hurt her in a teeny amount.) She likes the challenge of opening them so she doesn't mind that I close them as soon as she succeeds.. just means she gets to try again!

I also let her run naked for a few between diapers. If she was just wet, I'll take that off with her standing and poopy usually means using something mentioned previously. Then when I put on the clean one, either she'll continue playing with said items or by that time she is ready to lay nicely with a book she has brought to me (she plays with the books naked in her room between... she seriously loves books haha)

Its taken months but that is the only thing that works and she doesn't like a change from the routine unless she is in a really good mood. She is a routine girl... she needs one for food and sleep too haha

[Comtessa]

report from the trenches:
A head of garlic worked like a charm.
I had a perfect little angel baby through the entire messy diaper change.
It was brilliant.

Astraia,