My DS doesn't want to sit still anymore. If I lie him down for a diaper change, he flips over and crawls away. I can usually get his diaper off pretty quickly, it's getting the new one on that takes forever. Sometimes he will be distracted while standing up so I can change him that way, but often he just wants me to leave him alone. I usually insist on getting the diaper on at least, and sometimes the cover (if I want to go next door), but I give up on the pants these days.

What do you do in that situation? It's getting really frustrating for both of us. He's like this in other situations too, so it's not just diapering. :(

I am in the same situation with my DD who is 2 days younger than your DS! I'm hoping it is just a phase and will get better but for now all I can do is distract, distract, distract.

I posted about this situation on another discussion board recently and the best bit of advice I got was to get together a stash of interesting things that babe does not normally play with and give them to him/her at changing time. She said things like a baggie or q-tips will go far! I've started collecting some little interesting things and I keep them close to her bed (where I change her). It doesn't work ALL the time but it is an improvement!

Good luck!

I was going to say the same thing as Jillerina. Some friends of mine give the baby a tube of diaper cream (the plastic kind) or lotion, or something unusual or even taboo (as long as its safe enough for baby to play with while you're watching him). I use my little burts bees sampler kit - it's a zippered little plastic bag with a few little sample items inside. It helps maybe 50% of the time. Need to get creative and find something else to give him.

I was just coming here to post about this. Ds went through this last year too and I used the forbidden items route. He got better about it as long as I was quick. He is up to it again and I am sorry to say it is 10,00 times worse. I just changed him and he was flinging his upper body off of the couch. I finally had to put a leg over him to finish up. He thought it was funny, thank goodness. He has been having awful loose poops lately and it is so hard to clean when he starts doing this. I'm tired of the loose poops and the squirming. I just fed him a banana with breakfast and one with dinner last night so hopefully it gets him back to normal.

We do the wiggle worm change, too.

Basically, we praise her when she lays still - she loves the attention.

Try singing a song, and encouraging him/her to clap their hands.

Distraction toys are good - take a special toy to the changing table with you.

We reserve our Bumkins AIOs for the wiggliest changes. :)

And, minimize the amount of time they have to lay still. Dress them in a diape and t-shirt (non-onesie style). When it's time to change, have everything ready before you get there with the babe, take the diape off, wipe, immediately put another one back on. Deal with the dirty diape and the clothing later. :)
This helps tremendously!

Thanks for all the tips!

I was letting him play with the squirt bottle of water, then the burt's bee's tube, but both have lost their appeal. I'll have to come up with something better. He's just recently figured out that arching his back makes lots of things impossible for me: diaper changes, going in the car seat. It's exhausting!

I'm dismayed to hear it gets worse. :(

The car sat is also a problem for us... my DS is 5 months older than yours... at this age- I am changing diapers standing up in "mid run" or "mid climb." No more laying down with a forbidden object, or even laying down for a diaper change. I have gone to all fitteds and no covers at home. I snap quickly and then chase him and snap the other side.

Like a lot of mamas, I have this problem too. It has really gotten bad over the past week or so - luckily he can't walk or crawl yet (although we're getting close to the crawling) but he does ROLL, and wiggle, and arch his back and everything else he can think of to make my job more challenging. :rolleyes: I finally started using my bean instead of trying to restrain him physically and am now using the "interesting new toy" trick myself. It works long enough for me to get the old one off and the new one at least partially on. I have also found that he thinks it's interesting when I whistle and will usually stare at me for a few minutes if I'm whistling some tune. I'm sure THAT won't last long though.

Yet another reason to use cloth! :D :diaper :D I still use sposies at night (hangs head in shame) and let me tell you, it is ten times harder to get those on my wiggle worm than it is to snap on a fitted!

Monica, it doesn't get better soon, huh? Darn!

Originally posted by famousmockngbrd
Yet another reason to use cloth! :D :diaper :D I still use sposies at night (hangs head in shame) and let me tell you, it is ten times harder to get those on my wiggle worm than it is to snap on a fitted! That's actually good to hear. I had been thinking that disposables might be easier to fasten. It's almost a relief that they're not. ;)

I often resort to "The Leg." I lay the kid perpendicular to me w/ his head on my left, then I put my left leg over his chest and pin him down. Sounds cruel, but I get so tired of trying distraction!

Yes, I'm an evil evil mama... :sinister

You're not the first to mention that to me. I might have to try it.

as soon as my baby got strong enough to try and fight it, diaper changing became a very unpleasant time at my house (and my son used to poop 4-5 times a day, so we had to do a lot of changes).

i'm sure you all are familiar with the phrase "pick your battles." well, in this case, i decided this was indeed a battle i wanted to pick. i was just not willing to go through this.

so, i started saying "no" in a very firm voice when he struggled. my mantra became "you may not get up until mama is finished." of course, a lot of the time, he ignored me. in these cases i just held him down. i didn't try to finish with the diaper. i just calmly held him down and looked right into his eyes and said, "i know you want to get up, but you may not get up until mama is finished." that might go on for several minutes. but i always waited to do the diaper b/c it was REALLY hard to hold him down and change the diaper, and chant my mantra. eventually he would settle down. (of course, i had all the taboo toys and such.)

things probably went on like that for a couple months, with his sometimes lying still, and sometimes not. sometimes i thought it was sinking in, at others i thought he'd never "get it."

i can't remember when he finally "got it" but he did. he is fine now. he lies still. in fact, just today, he was holding some money while i was changing him. he dropped a coin by his neck, and immediately rolled to reach it. then he realized what he was doing, and he rolled back on to his back!!

lots of mamas are willing to let it go, and change the baby when he/she is more willing. i was not. this was my battle (that, and putting shoes and socks on). interestingly, i am incredibly laid back about so many things, but there are a few "little things" that are just not a choice: it's my way, or the highway!

Francy, thanks for sharing your experience. I think this might be a battle I have to pick too, because it's really making me nuts.

I see you're in No. CA too. Where 'bouts?

The only thing that works for me getting DS to stay still is to sing a song or make animal sounds (moo moo, woof woof, etc). The trick is to keep eye contact as much as possible for us. I do this when I need to apply ointment or change a messy poop. Otherwise I change him while he's running away - remove dirty diaper while standing, then he runs away so I chase him down and put on his new diaper while he's standing.

Who knew that I would need to catch my breath after a diaper change??:rolleyes:

My almost two-year-old hasn't got time to lay still for diaper changes quite often. Round here we call it alligator wrestling.
:LOL

Originally posted by francy
so, i started saying "no" in a very firm voice when he struggled.

I actually tried this - it was the first time I had ever spoken sternly to him (he's only 6 mos. old) and he did stop for a minute, but only to look at me in wonder and then he went right back to wiggling! He wasn't intimidated at all - he was like, "Hmm, this is something new and interesting" and then went right back to what he was doing. :rolleyes: It made me feel bad to speak in that tone of voice to a 6 month old so since it had practically no effect on him I decided to just try to roll with it (no pun intended), despite my frustration. Apparently I need to work on my "serious" voice! :LOL

Oh here are a few other things I do

Kissing his stomach or zerbert always makes him happy and laughing so if he starts fussing and squirming sometimes I do that.

Taking a toy in my mouth and shaking my head (like a dog) - this makes him laugh too

Singing 10 little indians of which I don't know the words - please help - after you go through all the numbers of indians, what's the last little phrase "ten little indians >>>>>?"

<ten li'l Indian boys>

I am copying this from another message board I read. This is not my idea, but another mom's -- but it sounded like a great one. I hope whoever she is she doesn't mind my sharing it with you. BTW -- it is for prefold users, rather than fitteds.

here it is:

We have just the same experience with our 9 months old, and I agree it is due to her recent starting to crawl. Actually, I wouldn't want to be forced to ly down and stare at the ceiling while someone fiddles aouround with my cloth either. Especially after working so hard for several months to be able to turn overwhen I feel like it, and to move around as I like.

We had some luck with distraction with objects (favorite toys or whatever interesting new object was handy) and sounds, but there was still more protest than I could handle. I didn't want so much time of my daily life becoming a struggle. I didn't want to end up having my nose kicked as a friend of mine.

So, rather than searching for the best ''q steps to get my n months old to do xyz'' strategy, I changed our changing style. While some people change from cloth to disposable for this reason, I found cloth diapering to be more adaptable to a moving baby. No textbook diapering anymore, instead we try to avoid undressing and change in a sitting or tummy position rather than lying her on her back, and use a method which works extremly quickly and can be completed while she is already moving. Here is what we do; everybody can develop her/his own simplified methods depending on what kind of diapers are used. (We have diaper service diapers and wool covers with snaps and elastic.)

At home - minimal diapering:

No covers, no pants. Baby wears just a T-shirt (maybe also a pullover) and socks, and a diaper squeezed under an elastic width 1/2 inch) around her waist. To my surprise, it really works; we have been doing this for a couple of weeks now, and she never dropped anything out of her diaper.
She keeps the elastic on her waist all day (not tight, just enough to hold the diaper up). Just pull a wet diaper off while she is crawling. (If she pooped, it's obvious, and then you want to do it carefully or bring her on a ground that can be wiped.)
To get a new diaper on put it 3-fold on the floor, we sit her on
top of it and squeeze the front and back under the elastic. That
takes about one second, and she would already be crawling away by now - just the right position to spread the back part of the diaper all around her bottom.

Outside the house - squeeze in style:

Covers and pants a usual, but we don't take her pants off to change the diaper anymore. We just fold the cloth diaper 3-fold as usual, plus fold the whole diaper in the other direction, too. I squeeze the diaper into the cover from the back while baby is on her tummy on my legs. The I sit her up and reach in the cover from the front to unfold/pull the diaper over her tummy. Spread the back part of the diaper around her bottom whenever you get he chance, best when she is on all forth. Works especially well outdoors.

At night - as free as possible:

Two layers of diapers under the baby instead of any diapers around the baby. Plus a folded woolen blanket under the sheet to protect the mattress. As a side effect, that helps my baby to not getting used to wet her nest. She is usually dry by now babies typically don't pee during their sleep, and during/after nursings I give her the opportunity to pee in a bowl I keep next to the bed).