Miss New Booty

If you notice, I rarely talk about my “Parenting Style” here on my blog because a) who gives a shit, really. b) I don’t really have a parenting style.
I take a “Whatever works” and “Hey! At least I tried” approach to parenting.
I don’t read “parenting” books, nor do I read parenting magazines. I secretly kind of hate people who preach a certain style of parenting as if that’s “The Right Way”. I’ve never allowed other women to make me feel inferior because I don’t make the same parenting choices as they do.
I’ve been doing this “Parent Thang” for 13 years, (since I was 22 years old) and judging by The Greatness of my children, whatever it is that I’m doing is right because, man, I have some AWESOME children.
There have been times where I’ve felt at a loss for an answer to problems my children were facing. like the time my son had a cold and one night, felt like he couldn’t breathe and from that night on was convince he was going to DIE IN HIS SLEEP and, therefore, REFUSED TO SLEEP.
But, most times, I feel completely in control and know exactly what to do in any given situation.
“Gum in your hair? SHAVED HEAD FOR YOU!”
However, right now I’m facing a problem with my daughter and I’m at a complete loss how to correct this problem.
While I’m a little scared to ask The Internet for advice, I’m more scared of having to clean poop off of walls, so, I’m going to take the risk and ask for suggestions.
The problem?

Girlfriend likes to take her diaper off. And not just at naptime anymore! I’m constantly worried that she’s going to take it off when she has poop. So far, I’ve been lucky and I’ve caught her before she’s ripped off poopie diapers, but the girl is FAST and it’s only a matter of time before it happens. It’s like, I turn my back for one second and “Helloooo Pachina!.”
My first brilliant solution to the problem was to put a onesie on her anytime I was going to lay her down for a nap. It worked, until she figured out how to unsnap the buttons.
Now? There is absolutely NO keeping a diaper on her.
I’m THIS CLOSE to whipping out the duct tape because, remember, WHATEVER WORKS.
However, if you have any other suggestions, or, any theories as to why my child is doing this (because, surely it can’t be as simple as “She hates the feeling of the diaper and feels more comfortable naked!”) I’d love to hear them. None of my children have ever “played with poop” and I’d like to keep it that way.

59 thoughts on “Miss New Booty

  1. Crystal

    I never actually resorted to this, but when my twins were BOTH poop-painting their cribs, a mother of 5 (including a set of twins) suggested the duct tape. Not a lot of it, just enough to secure the diapers. Honestly, it’s not that bad of an idea, I mean it’s just a step up from the tabs on disposable diapers anyway!

  2. Hed

    When I was a baby apparently those diaper tabs were pretty awful, and my parents did use duct tape around the waist of the diaper to keep it on, after checking it, so as not to waste a dry diaper.
    Could work, right? It’d be under her clothes, at any rate… who’d see?
    -H

  3. Hed

    As for my own kid, she was pretty conservative or something. I don’t know what the deal was with her, but she would get MAD when she got her diaper changed. Did not like being bare.
    -H

  4. Kristin

    I am also of the duct tape suggestion… harder to rip off. Or, and I am sorry, I don’t know quite how old your daughter is, maybe sister just needs to sit on the potty… which is a whole other nightmare… I have pottied trained boys, but my daughter? Meh. Not so interested in travelling down that road!

  5. stephanie

    I don’t have kids, so I’m really just totally guessing here, but maybe she is almost ready to start potty training? Especially since she only takes off clean diapers, so she knows the difference between clean and dirty and not to take it off when it’s dirty. I know she’s still pretty young, but you never know… if she takes off her diaper and then starts acting like she has to “go,” try whisking her off to the potty to see what happens.

  6. Sarcastic Journalist

    I think they do it because it is a power struggle. They are learnign what they can do and taking off a diaper is one of the things. It seems to be a girl thing.
    Also, I’m dead serious here. A diaper cover. (You know, for cloth.) one with some serious snappage going on will give her a run for her money. Hell, put it on over the onesie so maybe she’ll just give up.

  7. Jerri Ann

    I vote duct tape, however, I haven’t resorted to using it just yet but I have an escape artist on my hands right now as well….good luck!

  8. Rachel

    My girl is 2 1/2 and used to do that also. We did have one poopy diaper (nap time) and it was not fun. I tried the onesies approach, mine never figured out the snaps. You could try putting the onesie on backwards or putting on multiple layers (like a few bloomers, which aren’t bulky or hot). Hey, at least it will slow her down. I remember that my son did it also and I actually put his diaper on backwards. Both kids just got tired of doing it after a few weeks (months?), so mabye you’ll only have to do something for a short time.
    Good luck!

  9. Amy

    Can she pull the diaper down, if it doesn’t have the tabs? (You know, the “pull-ups” kind). A friend of mine put her daughter in those pajamas that have feet and zip up, but put them on so the zipper was in the back–though that would only work for nap/nighttime. Hmm. They sell “training pants” at target the pull up and are pretty big and bulky that might be hard for her to figure out.
    Girl, you got a nudist on your hands!

  10. danelle

    Do you laugh when she does it? You can’t have a smile on your face when you’re trying to change bad behavior.
    What are the consequences when she takes the diaper off?
    If there is no motivation to change (like consequences..same one every time..and unpleasant) then there won’t be any change.
    Love ya.

  11. RisibleGirl

    I used to get zippered jammies, cut off the feet (otherwise, they wouldn’t fit right) and put them on backward on my son when I’d put him down for a nap or nightime.
    He could NEVER get the zipper down when it was on backward.
    Then I thanked GOD when he grew out of that stage.
    Of course, that was a long time ago since he’s 23 now. 😉

  12. Jill

    Does she have a one-piece swimsuit? Put that on her under her clothes for however long it takes for her to forget about the diaper. I don’t think she’d be able to get the diaper off unless she figures out how to get out of the suit. Duct tape is also a good solution.

  13. Tracy

    Ok, when Kelsey was little, she went through a phase where she was kinda the same way – HATED having a diaper on, LOVED being “au natural”. So – we’d give her diaper free time right after a change – and made a big deal about it. She did wet a couple of times, which blew, because I had to clean it up- but that also got her in touch with the “feeling” of having to go. So, kinda helped in the potty training. I say let her have “free time”, and make it a big deal, but the rest of the time be mean mommy about needing to keep the diaper on – even if that means duct tape!

  14. Laura

    Ugh. We went through this too. Good luck. It was just a passing phase that lasted a few weeks, although we DID have a couple of poop incidents that involved lots and lots of Clorox wipes. I think I dressed the kids in overalls during the day and put their pajamas on backwards at night. Again – good luck!

  15. tonya cinnamon

    try panties with the diaper
    first with panties over them and then try them under a pull up or the diaper.. sounds like my youngest used to do he enjoyed baing naked heheh
    and i send her to potty every time she whipped it off :). i tried to toliet train my early YA RIGHT it was 4 beofre they were truly ready. but hey what ever works 🙂

  16. Oh

    I started reading it and automatically thought, DUCT TAPE! My SIL is going through the same thing with my neice right now. It’s just a stage some kids go through. Knowing my husband, my son will be one of those kids, just because he would prefer to be naked.

  17. Kathy

    I obviously have no clue since my kid is only 3 months old but… maybe she’s ready to learn how to use the potty? How old are kids when they start that? Girlfriend needs a little kid potty and some pull-ups?
    Or duct tape. Whatever works 😉

  18. Kay

    Oh I have dealt with this. I had to use pants like jeans that DIDN’T snap, my little homeboy had problems (read too lazy) to get them down and take the diaper off, for awhile anyway then it was back to step 1. I can’t remember how I finally got him to quit, oh yeah, 7th grade..LOL Just teasin’ hun. I hope someone has better advice!

  19. Katie

    I think I’m the mom of five (including twins) mentioned in the first comment. And yes, we used duct tape. I would be in a padded room somewhere otherwise.

  20. Heatherg

    My daughter did the same thing.
    I put princess panties on her over her diaper. (size 2T)
    It worked for us.

  21. CNL

    I vote duct tape. Worked for us. Though later on in life both boys developed a weird obsession with duct tape – they cover everything with it. (Comes in many cool colors!)

  22. trish

    Yeah, Heatherg’s suggestion is what I did. Make a huge damn deal out of “big girl panties” and put them over the diaper so she’ll be proud want to show them off. It even works on boys (at least it did on mine).

  23. Kris

    My great niece did this same thing, so my niece started putting her in pullups because she couldn’t figure out how to pull them down.

  24. Jes

    Must report, when I was a babe, I’d take mine off and then my sister’s (20 months younger), mom said she: started naked time and did the big girl panties bit. Only thing is, little sis loved the panties so much that we then had an issue with her changing them 10 times a day, as she wanted to wear ALL her big panties everyday. Supposedly that was more of a pain in the rear for Momma…anyways, naked time is fun for everyone, barring that, go duct tape, look into the varied colors thing. Y’know, she probably just sees her mom and knows how cute she must be and that she can probably get away with it

  25. geeky

    i don’t know how to fix your little streaker, but i wanted to say that if you DO use duct tape, you MUST take photos and share them!

  26. LotionBarBunny

    My kids did this same thing. 🙂 This is when I made it a big deal that we are going to go buy “big boy pull ups” for them. We made it a huge deal and a huge family affair the first few times to go to the grocery store and buy Buzz Lightyear pull ups. I explained that they couldn’t take these off because they are just for big boys and certainly you don’t want to wear baby diapers again, right boys?
    While pull ups are kind of gross with poop in them, this idea of now being a big boy and moving up in the world of “diapers” got them to stop taking them off.
    Girls train more easily and quicker than boys in the potty training arena. Once my boys started not liking the pulls ups (like a year later), I used the same manuver, except with “big boy underwear.” And then, they were completely potty trained. Voila!

  27. ben

    I was gonna say they make some pretty cool colored duct tape now (we have blue, red, and pink, in addition to the usual “duct” color) so you can make some really cool stuff with it.
    Also? My child likes to be nekkid, too, and keeps showing her little j-lo shaped bottom around. Hoping it’s just a phase.

  28. Tammy

    We used overalls. Girl Terror could not get them off. When it was cold, she wore tights and a onesie, but that just slowed her down. Overall style shorts, rompers, pants, everything. Eventually, she just quit doing it.

  29. Y

    See, my boys never did this, so to hear that other children do this, is comforting.
    These are great ideas.
    Today I shall buy a potty chair, pullups and some overalls. HA.

  30. Dawn

    4 years of daycare with 1-year-olds & you bet I have a few tricks up my sleeve! You can out the diaper itself on backwards–unless it ends up leaking on you, some babies had this problem others didn’t. You can also try dressing her in overalls & outfits that are all one piece. Especially ones like the rompers at Gymboree which maddeningly do not unsnap at the ankles–normally a huge frustration when attempting a diaper change but come in very handy for this sort of thing. If she can maneuver her way out of overalls, put them on her backwards.

  31. Heatherg

    Pull ups would be good too, i simply couldnt afford them at the time, i got more diapers, buying diapers vs. pull ups, and even the generic brand cost more with less in them, and generic pull ups suck!
    We had to use pampers when it was time so i could clean poopy without it dragging down his fanny and leg. (The pampers open up on the sides)

  32. Jennifer

    We went through this too. I totally ignored it (getting my kids to ignore it was not so easy.) I figured she just loved the reaction she got out of everyone when she whipped that baby off. Oh yeah. Poop did happen once. That freaked everyone out, but we lived through it, and apparently my 2 year old didn’t like the poop ordeal because she stopped taking her diaper off when there was poop in it. Now she tells me she’s pooping and I can change her diaper, “After I finish POOPING!” I guess I’m a little too eager to get those stinky poopy diapers off her butt for her comfort. She likes to make good and sure everything is all evacuated. Takes after her dad, I think.

  33. Jennifer

    People have warned me about this stage, I have yet to experience it! People have recommended duct tape (for real), putting the diaper on backwards and also switching to the training pants that have no tabs on them at all. Maybe some overalls might prevent her from getting to the diaper?

  34. Margaret

    I would go with Easy-ups (pampers) instead of pull-ups (huggies) Pull-ups have velcro sides that are fairly easily undone.

  35. Laura

    Good luck with the duct tape – my kids just pulled their diapers down like underwear, so unless I was going to make duct tape suspenders, that wouldn’t have worked for us.
    I seriously hope this means she wants to potty train, Y!! Wouldn’t it be awesome to catch a freakin BREAK for once??

  36. emily

    I worked in a daycare with infant-3 yr olds and there were definately some 2yrs who were starting to be potty trained. So I don’t think it’s too early to put that idea in her head. Gabby sounds really clever, so she could learn faster than average.

  37. Debbie

    How about a spray bottle with water in it? You could do like you do a dog or a cat and when she goes for the diaper, spray her! Ha!!!
    How did you know I’ve never won Mother of the Year? Who told you??

  38. jenny lee

    supernanny to the rescue. while duct tape is fashionable and convient (sp) i suggest 2 things that USUALLY work together. #1 put the diaper on backwards and #2 over the top of that diaper..put on some “pretty princess” underware! once those are on, say “WOW!! gabby’s a pretty girl in her pretty princess undies” and say how pretty she looks with them on, etc. that way, if you have to put pants on, you can still do that and if she takes off the pants……..underpants! let me know if i win the prize 😉

  39. melly

    I would get her a potty chair. Also the pretty frillie panties over her diaper, and let her go from there.
    The best suggestion was the pullup/potty chair combo. but It’s G-unit. She needs some frills 😉
    xoxo

  40. Tammy

    I think girlfriend is ready for potty trainning. My son did a similiar diaper strike thing and was just telling me he was ready to start using the potty.
    I dont like the duct tape suggestions.

  41. Christina

    I’m a first time mom, but I saw something at Walgreens that are like pull-up’s, but their by Pampers. I think the only difference is that their for smaller babies instead of big kids. But, I do like the duct tape. Gosh…hope my little one doesn’t start doing this soon. Good luck!

  42. Jen

    My youngest is two and we are in the duct tape stage right now. He absolutely REFUSES to sit on his “potty”, but he has no qualms about taking his diaper off, sitting in the recliner, and pooping there! Yeah, I took a picture. I’m just gross like that (and I look at it as future embarrassment for him, payback for me having to clean that mess up).

  43. Melody

    Goodness, I can’t even believe how there I am right now. My daughter has been going through this stage for a few months now, and it’s driving me nuts! I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve cleaned up poop off the floor (and my daughter)- and not always the solid kind. Blech! Last week? She came running up to me half naked (forget Pull-ups, she knows how to take those off) and looking at her finger saying “pee”- everything is pee. I realized she had poop on her hands and had pulled off her diaper down the hall. I have really been contemplating the duct tape!!

  44. dana michelle

    Your “Gum in your hair? SHAVED HEAD FOR YOU!” actually made me laugh out loud. Hee!
    And just because I know it will make you laugh, Y, I am going to admit that when I saw the sentence about the duct tape I thought you were (kiddingly, of course) threatening to duct tape the diaper TO Gabby. It took the comment section to make me realize what you really meant.
    It is so obvious I’ve never had kids!

  45. pookie

    The Mexicanos believe….(okay my mom only) says, that this is a sign that she is ready to be potty trained. Hmmm? Not sure…

  46. Mari

    My son is doing the same thing right now. Except, he shit a huge turd in my slipper the other day. And then proceeded to show me and go “eww” and laugh. I put shorts on his when he goes to sleep or sweat pants so he doesn’t pull the tabs off. But soon G unit and my son will be figuring out how to go under clothes and pull the tabs off, so I am going to be opting for Pullups very soon. And then, when Ryan figures that one out, it’s potty trainin’ time.

Comments are closed.