I have a 20 month old daughter. Sweet, curious, and incredibly tenacious. When I put her in her crib, for a nap or for the night, she gets ticked-off, bored, or both, and proceeds to remove her diaper. I’ve tried:
Putting her in a onesie. Worked for three weeks, then she figured out how to unsnap them.
Putting the diaper on backwards. Worked for five minutes.
Packing tape. I kid you not. Worked too well; I had to use scissors to get the diaper off. Plus, when she found she couldn’t remove it, she reached into her diaper through the leg hole and finger-painted all over the crib,herself, and the wall with what she found there.
Putting toys and books in bed with her to distract her. Works until she finishes throwing them all out of the crib, then the diaper comes off or the finger-painting starts.
Saying, “No, no! Nasty! Ucky!” everytime she starts to reach into her diaper. She giggles.
I’ve had to wash this child’s bedding five times in the last six days. And she WILL NOT go to sleep ANYWHERE but in her crib, so I can’t rock her to sleep and then put her down. This kid is relentless; once she makes up her mind she’s going to do something, she keeps at it until she gets it done. Which will serve her well later in life, but right now it’s a pain in the ass. And I think she’s really too young to potty-train. So I’m throwing it open to you, the Teeming Millions; DOES ANYBODY ELSE HAVE ANY BRIGHT IDEAS? HELP ME, PLEASE!!!
Have you tried Pull Ups?
My youngest has a nudist streak and would always take his off , too.The pull ups were a little harder to get off(no tape to just tear off) and he quit trying pretty soon.I guess not having the tape to tear took all the fun out of it for him.
Marlitharn:
You work at a truck stop in Fulton? I live in KC and used to drive to St Louis a lot. Is Fulton on the way?
Anyway, regarding your OP, you said:
**
My wife says…
[ul]
[li]Kids can be potty-trained anywhere between 1 and 2 years old, though it becomes trickier after 18 months.[/li][li]The real issue is not age, but rather whether or not the kid is ready. Its an individual thing.[/li][li]You should read Potty Training Your Baby by Katie Van Pelt. It’s not a great book, there is stuff in it we don’t agree with, but it is about just this issue and has a section about kids playing with poop.[/li][li]My wife recomends waking your daughter 5 minutes or so after she goes to sleep (post-poop) and changing the diaper then; this will prevent the poop-play.[/li][li]My wife now cautions me that the PC term today is “toilet-teaching.” :rolleyes: So, if you’re gonna look it up…[/li][li]Last reference: Parents Magazine, June, 2000 (132). An interesting point on page 138 suggests putting the potty into the crib with children who have this difficulty.[/li][li]Last Last reference 
:Parents put this article about potty-training how-to’s on their website.[/li][/ul]
Boy-o-boy… I’m just a bastion of potty-know-how, aint I?
Wife says, “Good Luck!”
sdimbert: Actually, the truck stop is in Kingdom City, right at the junction of I-70 and Highway 54, so yep, you’ve driven right past it. We used to be famous for our fried chicken…Anyway, great tips on that site. My oldest son is nine, and when I potty-trained him the conventional wisdom was to wait until well after his 2nd birthday, which I did, and he was master of himself in less than three weeks. Of course, he always kept his clothes on at all times. I keep being surprised by how much thinking has changed just in nine years. I suppose she could be ready, although I’m leery of putting a potty chair in the crib with her; I’m thinking it’ll just give her a convenient place to hold her poo while she plays in it. Still, she might be ready; she’s frighteningly intelligent, if I do say so myself. I haven’t tried Pull-ups yet, but I will definitely give them a go. I’m desperate. I just spent the last three hours online, searching for any store that might sell those old-fashioned long-legged union suits that button in the back. No luck. A (childless) friend of mine suggested a strait-jacket. It’s starting to sound feasible.
This isn’t going to help you now, but my brother had the same diaper-dippin’ tendencies your daughter has. Mom had to move the crib away from the wall to keep him from painting it a lovely shade of brown. He also sampled a pellet once (he spit it out pretty quickly).
Anyway, the point is that if you can survive this phase, and it WILL pass, you will laugh about it in the years to come. My brother is nearly 40, and we still get mileage out of it in our family…
Staples.
Boy, ya hang around this Board long enough, ya really start to learn stuff. Staples sells Baby Supplies? Talk about cross-marketing to appeal to the Boomers !!!
<<Snicker>>
Try the Pull-Ups. And ( This may sound weird, but…) use moquito netting draped over and around the crib, to stop her from “shitting” the walls ( that’s a prison term, for hurling feces. One learns SO much visiting prisons on video shoots…). It would at least…contain?
Good luck, this too shall pass (ahem). She sounds like a brilliant and delightful child. By the age of 4 she will be soldering her own E-Machine together. Montessori sounds perfect for her !!
Cartooniverse
Okay, am I correct in assuming this is your only child so far? Here I am, about to weigh in with the accumulated wisdom of having been through this 3 times.
You are in the preliminary rounds of what’s called the “Terrible Twos”. It doesn’t kick in magically at 24 months, it starts anytime around 18 months, and it sounds like you are in for it, babe.
This is a power struggle, but it’s one that it’s OK for you to lose.
I’ll repeat that, because it’s an important concept. It’s OK for her to win some. At this age she needs to establish some independence. It’s exactly like the teen years, except that she only weighs 30 pounds and doesn’t have a driver’s license and doesn’t know what MTV is (yet).
What you need to do is reevaluate a few things, mainly, just how important is it to you that she leave the diaper on? See, you’re getting involved in the unimportant details and losing sight of the Big Picture. So she finger paints with poop a few times–so what? Or pees all over the crib? You clean up a few messes without making a big deal out of it, other than to generally express your disapproval and disgust–“eww, that’s icky, why did you do that icky thing?” “we don’t pee on the floor, pee and poop go in the potty”, etc.
I think that if you just maintain a determinedly neutral attitude towards the diaper removal, after a week or two of experimentation (remember, at this age, she’s got a really short attention span), she’ll move on to something else, like climbing up on the kitchen counters, or eating the cat’s food, or saying “shit shit shit” into her toy phone.
Making her stay in the crib is the same thing. Is there a compelling safety reason why she needs to be in the crib? Are you raising pit bulls in the living room? Isn’t it just another power struggle? Stop for a minute and reevaluate things. Maybe she doesn’t really need an afternoon nap anymore. Most kids have a transitional period between “needing a nap” and “not needing a nap”, usually around age 2. Just another one of those awkward ages. You just have to grit your teeth and put up with it, but it’s not permanent.
So she runs around all day till she’s exhausted and then is too tired to sleep at night–here’s an important hint: she’ll grow out of it. It’s not permanent. She may drive you absolutely bonkers for a few weeks, but trust me, it’s not permanent.
Can you find someplace else for her to take a nap, or sleep? There’s no federal law requiring Twos to sleep in a crib. Maybe a special napping place in a closet? Or, here’s a thought–maybe she’s ready to move up to a Big Girl’s Bed? A promotion might do the trick. My advice would be, unless you’re really rolling in dough, not to waste the money on one of those half-size toddler beds, because she’ll just grow out of it in a couple of years. Go with a regular twin-size bed. Don’t worry about her falling out of it and hurting herself–that doesn’t happen NEARLY as often as the manufacturers of bed railings would like you to believe. Also, some of the bed railings can be dangerous–she can get her head caught in between the railing and the bed. Most kids figure out pretty quick how not to fall out of bed. Just make sure there’s nothing sharp or dangerous on the floor next to the bed, maybe put a big puffy rug there. Also, go for the special Barbie Doll sheets and pillowcases. Or Rugrats, or whatever.
Because, of course, Big Girls don’t poop in their Big Girl Beds with the Special Barbie Sheets and Pillowcases, and that may solve your other problem. If she makes a mess, just sigh regretfully and say, “Well, I guess if you’re going to act like a baby, you’ll have to go back in the crib,” and then stick to it–actually take the bed away for a night, and bring the crib back. I know it’s a hassle but it will work.
And remember to praise her lavishly when she DOES behave like a Big Girl, in whatever way. Maybe she helps put groceries away or empties the trash. Give her responsibilities the same way you’d give a teenager responsiblities. She needs to practice being a Big Kid.
Let us know how it comes out. We have been where you are.
Oops, sorry, missed the reference to your 9-year-old in your second post (glanced through it and assumed it was just truck stop chitchat).
Anyway, one other hint: don’t make yourself crazy comparing THIS kid with THAT kid or the kid over THERE. The minute they come out of the womb, babe, they are as completely different as peas in a pod are not. I have 3 and it’s never been the same two ways running, on anything.
Duct tape. Or safety pins.
Is Big Brother an adored, God-like being to her?
-
A couple of pointed remarks from the God-like Big brother, to the effect that it’s icky to play with poop, might make a difference.
-
Ditto Mommy pointing out that Big Brother doesn’t reach into his pants and bring poop out, or pee in his bed, or take his clothes off. (I’m assuming he doesn’t…)
Duct tape worked for us, with Thing 2. We did have to use scissors to remove the diaper. She started this habit at about 14 months, and we had her potty-trained by 16 months. It was quite an incentive to us.
Thing 1 never had this issue. She was very regular, and would produce a golf-ball sized rabbit-turd every 36 hours like clockwork. Thing 2 produced enough pressure and volume to have a plume shoot up her back to her hair on occasion. We have pictures which shall be used as blackmail when she is a teenager…
What Duck Duck Goose said and have your given her big fat crayons and BIG paper, yet? A friend used to masking tape sheets of packing paper to the floor and give the little dumpling a dark fat crayon. Art wasn’t so hot but neither was the smell!
Bought some Pull-ups. She pulled one out and put it on her head. Bought a potty-chair. She crammed the cat in it and shut the lid. Read her one of those potty books. She took all her clothes off, SAT ON THE POTTY CHAIR (YAAAAY!) and looked at it for two whole minutes. Then she dismantled the chair. It’s a step in the right direction.
Big brother spent the evening teaching her to raise one leg in the air and make farting noises. If she’ll copy him on that, she’ll copy him on anything. I shall turn him back from the dark side and enlist his aid.
Naps are a must or she goes into meltdown and I lose a little more of whatever sanity I’ve got left. And see, she’s got this blanky. And when she plays with the contents of her diaper, blanky must be washed. This upsets her very much, because blanky goes with her everywhere. And I can’t cut blanky in half so she’s got part of it while the other part’s being washed, because only ONE corner of blanky is the “right” corner. She’s like Linus; the thumb goes in the mouth and that one corner goes up to her cheek.
Since completely re-painting my son’s bedroom when he was three, I’ve had an extreme prejudice against crayons. BUT, now they’ve got those Crayola markers that only write on the special paper. I bet they’ll keep her hands otherwise occupied when she wakes up or is just going to sleep. Good idea, Jois!
I don’t want to put her in a big girl bed until she has her own bedroom. Currently, she is still sharing a room with us (which probably has a good deal to do with why she isn’t going to have a baby brother or sister anytime soon) because we live in a two bedroom house. And she needs to be old enough to understand that she needs to stay in her bed and not go wandering around. Child safety gates won’t hold her; I bought the tallest one on the market to keep her out of big brother’s room and she immediately climbed right over it. She hasn’t tried to climb out of her crib yet but sometimes I look over at her at night and she’s hanging her head over the crib rail, like she’s trying to gauge the distance to the floor. I’m wise to her ways, you see. She thinks things through before she tries them. When she learned to walk, she spent a few days hanging onto the coffee table, staring at her feet and kind of lifting them up and putting them down. Then, one day, she took off. I’ve lost 20 pounds since that day.
She is a delightful, extremely bright, curious and clever child, and lots of times I really get a kick out of seeing the different ways she comes up with to thwart my wishes. But it’s no joke to wake up morning after morning with that Godawful stench permeating the bedroom. Thanks for the tips, guys! I know, though I sometimes forget, that this too shall pass. But it’s still nice to hear from people who’ve been there. 
Two more things:
- If she is truly a wanderer, take steps to make sure that at least she can’t get out of the house, once she learns how to turn a doorknob. Just a hook and eye latch up high will do it. I have a friend whose 3-year-old was a wanderer. She managed to get out of the house one day, disappeared, and was eventually found playing on the railroad tracks that ran behind their house. Geez.
This identical thing also happened to some people who live in a farm town about 40 miles away. A toddler was found playing on the railroad tracks that ran behind her house, by the engineer of the slow freight train that managed to stop in time. He climbed down from the engine, picked up the baby, and went over the nearest house and knocked on the door. “Is this your baby?” he asked the mom. I know it sounds like an UL, but it was in the local paper and everything. Her (extremely shaken) mom hadn’t even realized the baby wasn’t in the house.
- They say you can tell how the adolescence is going to go by how the Terrible Twos go, and my personal experience so far bears this out. Sounds like you are in for a wild ride in about 10 years!
Marlitharn, I don’t have kids so I’m not claiming to be an expert or anything, but you mentioned how upset she gets when blanky needs washing after her artistic adventures… I’d need an actual parent to say if this would work or not, but could you make her see a connection between playing with the contents of her diaper, and losing blanky for the time it takes to go through the wash?
It’s been a long time since I’ve been around toddlers, but you did say she was extremely bright, so maybe she could recognize that not decorating the walls means blanky doesn’t have to go away.
You just explain to her in no uncertain terms that if she ever, I mean ever, does that again, you will take pictures and embarass her when she get older. Make sure she knows you mean it. If she stops, you win. But…if she doesn’t, well, you can tell her best friend about it. You can tell that boy she likes. While she is getting ready for her first date, you can point to the stain on the wall. It may be a little trying now, but what you have is a win-win situation, buddy.
I must say, I thought initially that the duct tape comments were insane. HOWEVER- go for it. One cautionary thought- go to a medical supply store, and buy CHEAP surgical scissors, the type of which are carried by EMT’s. They are curved on one side, and so as you cut off the foul and offensive diaper, there is ZERO chance of child being cut, and child’s fingers cannot be hurt either, due to their design.
My two cents. Good luck.
Cartooniverse
How about a footless sleeper (or a regular sleeper with the feet cut off) put on backwards? Or, if it’s too hot for a sleeper, a lighter-weight one piece outfit that either zips or buttons, again worn backwards?
…and I thot I had a “difficult” child. Have you considered a leather harness or restraint system or, perhaps, behavior modication employing the use of electricity?
Also, start educating your friends and neighors (and even local law enforcement personnel) of your plight so that in the future, when her hijinks become directed toward offending those outside of your home, they may be more sympathetic and less likely to hold you responsible for her behavior.