Taking clothes/nappy off at nap time - help!

[MamaMia100]

DD is 2 and a half. For the past few weeks she's been taking off her clothes and nappy during nap time and weeing all over the room (she's in a big bed with a stairgate over the door). We've tried putting her in all kinds of outfits that she theoretically cannot get out of (including an enormous baby grow on backwards!) and she gets out of all of them - she's like Houdini. Even managed to remove her nappy without taking off her vest last week! We are not potty training yet as she's not ready (quite resistant in fact) plus I have a 10-week old so couldn't face it at the moment! She is lovely with her new brother so I don't think it's a protest type thing. We've been trying a star chart (5 stars and she gets an ice cream) which worked for a couple of days then stopped working. I'm wondering if we need more immediate rewards (eg a sweet every nap). Thankfully she doesn't do this at night time (yet!). She only naps about half the time so would probably be fine dropping the nap, but I would really like her to keep napping if possible as a) I need the break and b) she's very hard work by late afternoon if she hasn't napped. Any ideas / suggestions??? Has your DC gone through this phase and come out the other side still napping? Thanks in advance!

[MumblingAndBloodyRagDoll]

Well it seems like a protest...because she doesn't really need the nap now. now how precious their naps are at this stage...but you could give her a "quiet" time instead.....with a blanky and a DVD for an hour.

[MamaMia100]

Thanks. Good idea, except that she is such a wriggler I doubt she'd stay in one place for an hour. She can barely sit still through a ten min cbeebies program! And though she doesn't always sleep, she does sometimes really need a nap and is super crabby if she doesn't have one. Has anyone else been through this?

[lindsell]

My Ds is also 2.5 and he went through quite a phase of this - think it was the fact he'd learnt how to take the nappy off that made him
do it! He now still takes his trousers off but not usually his nappy. My solution was to put him in a sleeping bag (back to front so he can't take it off) but he's still in a cot - not sure that would work for you. He could still just about get his nappy off if he tried hard but it wasn't so tempting iyswim.

Also because he was in a cot he realised he didn't like lying in wet sheets and as we are potty training he knows the consequences of weeing without a nappy on!

Have you tried leaving a potty in her room and explaining what it's for?

[sprinkles77]

also suggest a sleeping bag. the sort with a zip in the middle at the front, not poppers at the shoulders. put on back to front.

[thatsmygirl]

No advice, just solidarity. The 19 month old is starting to outgrow naps (aagh! no! noooo!) and yesterday took off her nappy in the cot after doing a poo. She was very upset. Today she fell asleep in the pushchair on the way home from lunch and all was well, so I don't know yet whether nightmare on poo street was a one-off or the start of a trend. If you come up with a solution, do share.

[Beamur]

It's tough when they get to this age and start to need the nap less, or it gets pushed later and can undermine bedtime. But, like all phases - it does pass. I found it was slightly easier some days to allow DD to nap later in the day and just push bed time later instead. Another thing I did was to try and time going out in the car (or pushchair if your child will sleep in a pushchair) around optimum nap time which usually zonked her out for a little while.
I was on my knees with tiredness when she finally gave them up, I was lying on the settee with my eyes half closed pleading with her to watch a bit of TV while I had a little quiet time!