Does your young toddler keep their hat on?

[Snapdragon]

I just got my 19 month old a really cute hat- but the second I put it on him he rips it off! It is not itchy or anything, he does this with any hat. this one has under the chin ties but he would still rip it off.  I guess this is why they make lots of things w- hoods for toddler age? do your little ones let you keep a hat on them? I am hoping when the weather gets much colder so he really needs a hat, that he will find it more comfortable than being cold and let me keep it on him! Otherwise I am going to have to get some hooded things-

Just curious how other people's little ones do with hats and any suggestions for getting them to keep it on.

[Aufilia]

I don't know that i have any good suggestions, but my daughter hated hats when she was little and my son loves them to death. I think it's just a personality/expression thing, really. If DS has something with a hood on, he will have his hood up all day and throw a fit if I try to put it down again.  (And it's a good thing, too, because he STILL has almost no hair worth mentioning and he'll be 2 on Monday!)

[katelove]

She usually will if it's really sunny but it comes straight off when she's in the shade. I tend to just keep replacing it for her if she pulls it off, I'm afraid I don't have any magic solutions.

[chel]

Mine easily wears a hat when she doesnt need to, but often takes off a hat when she should. Not much of an issue with keeping a winter hat on. Sunhat are much harder for her to keep on.

[Erin77]

We live in Hawaii and my son has very light skin and hair so I basically never take him outside without a hat. My suggestion is get one that stays on well without ties and distract him while you put it on, and he might just forget it in a minute. He will often try to pull it off right away when I put it on, but if I'm handing him something interesting at that moment, he'll barely notice the hat and then it just stays on. If you use one with a tie, tie it way up under one ear- if you tie it under the chin they will pull the strings incessantly. 

[Buzzer Beater]

We started dd getting used to a hat very early on, and she has always known it as a condition for her to be outside... she loves loves loves going outside so it's a fair trade for her. If she refuses to wear the hat we come in, so it's not an issue.

[lovepickles]

Persistence is key. I just keep putting it back on. If it is obstructing her view i flip the rim up. DD is 22 months and we had some issues around 18 months but I just kept at it. If she was too fussy to wear she was to pretty much too fussy to be out and about. If she is in her stroller I keep the canopy up.

Sometimes hats get hot so on hot days I soak it with water and it keeps her cool.

[cyclamen]

The only kind of hat my DD will wear is a rather medieval looking hood that I make out of a thrifted cashmere sweater.  It is like a hood on a hoodie, but has a part that comes under the chin to keep it shut.  No velcro, no buttons, no ties, no brim pressing on her forehead....just a piece of fabric that comes under the chin.  See below for an extremely technical cutting and sewing diagram.  Basically you sew the top and below the curved face part.  The back seam comes from the side of the sweater, and you can round the top edge if you like or cut as a square for a pointy elf look.  Also, if you make the neck part stretchy and big enough to easily pull over the head they learn quickly to put it on themselves.  I hem the part that surrounds the face but it's not terribly necessary. Takes like five minutes to make

. 

.  I made one last winter and she wore it until too small, and made a new one this winter. 

[voca]

At that age the easiest way for us to get our daughter to wear a hat was that everyone wore one, and if it got taken off we came inside. The second by itself wasn't enough, but combined with the fun of picking a hat for mommy and a hat for daddy it worked.

[SunRise]

My twenty month old loves to wear hats. Will put on multiple hats, inside the house, and walk around. She switches her hats, trying on different ones. Even as we leave to go outside she will put on a hat. BUT once we are out side, the hat comes off!

[Perdita_in_Ontario]

If we're outside because we're waiting for the school bus with DD (who is also wearing a hat and I think that helps), I just keep putting it on.

If we're outside for fun, and putting it back on few times doesn't work, we go in.

[Quinalla]

Wearing shoes, hats, gloves and coat (as weather appropriate) are all rules for going outside. My DD doesn't like hats sometimes too, but usually it is shoes with her. She just understands now that she has to have those things as a condition of going outside and now that she is getting a little older she is starting to understand that a rain coat is for rain and so on and I try to give a quick explanation of why she has to wear X when she protests. But yeah, being persistent and then taking them inside when out for fun if they keep taking off the hat or whatever is the only way I got it to stick with DD.

And yeah, I also try to make sure that the items are all as comfortable as I can as I know I won't wear anything that is too tight or is scratchy myself.

[Megan73]

I agree with PPs that it just takes persistence with a toddler who may not yet grasp natural consequences. Pick a day and just put the hat back on every.single.time he takes it off. It might be 100 times but IME it gets old for them fast.

[cloudbutterfly]

You might try the occupational angle.  DS was always practical with hats...he'd keep them on only if they were immediately useful in a way he cared about.  Then at about 16-17 months, I sat him down in front of a mirror and explained that the engineer hat I was holding was what an engineer wears.  He is now famous for his hat wearing.  Mostly engineer hats at all times (he only wears clothes that have trains or engineer stripes on them, though he's starting to branch out a little), but he likes to wear his firefighter's helmet while riding his fire truck, his "straw" hat while playing with his tractor, and a beret while painting.  Fortunately, I found a couple of thick, double-layer jersey hats with wide stripes in engineer colors, so those will be warm enough until it gets really cold.

[hildare]

dd wouldn't till she got old enough to request that i make a particular color/kind of hat for her.  she wanted to wear THAT one when it was too warm for hats, even. 

otherwise, tying them on works pretty well, esp if it's cold enough to tie and zip up something over the ties.  (or tie + scarf it + zip it up)

[mommy212]

try getting big hats. My LO only wears adult-size hats (he's 2) . Toddler sized hats he takes off