What has happened to nappy changing?!?

[elvini]

DD is 15 months. She has always been intense (best word I can think of). Never been a baby I could leave to play etc, needs lots of stimulation. She crawled at 5 months and walked at 9. Since she's been able to move about she has become a lot calmer. Sleep was an issue for a long time but we seem to have just cracked this with a very gentle sleep training approach (fingers massively crossed here).

Everything feels so much easier and I'm very grateful. I struggled hugely with her first 6-8 months or so.

BUT for the last 2-3 weeks she will not abide having her nappy changed. It is a fucking nightmare. As soon as she's on her back she squirms and gets up. She screams her head off if I try to gently hold her in place. When I say "we need to change that nappy now" she starts running away from me and literally hides (all whilst laughing). As I go to put her on the mat she hooks her legs around me tight or manoeuvres them so she can't be put down.

Eventually I find something to distract her - the same thing never works more than one. She will then lie and let me do it. So at least I know it's nothing physical / pain related to lying on her back. The whole thing can take up to half an hour.

Any ideas what the hell is going on and what I can do? Is it another thing that will just pass? When things get to around the 3 week mark I start to lose faith that it's "a phase". My mum says I should potty train her but surely 15 months is too young for that?!

Oh God all toddlers do this, it's annoying but it's the way it is.

Switching to pull up's can be a help, as can distraction.

It's a pain but it won't be long till you can toilet train. DD1 trained at 20 months so hoping the same for DD2 who is 16 month's now.

This seems almost universal amongst the toddlers from my antenatal group. Strategies for tackling it are either giving something to distract them as you're doing, or to master standing up nappy changes.

She's getting more independent - realising she can exercise her own free will and lying down to have her nappy changed just isn't fun!

I suggest potty training is bestleft until she can tell you when she's about to do a wee before the wee comes.

If she's sturdy on her feet, try standing up nappy changes with a pull up. Get her to touch her toes and rip the nappy on either side, then clean her up, pull up nappy and go. I work in childcare and this has always helped the more active of children.

Totally normal whatever the temperament.

Pull ups
Standing up changes?
Dd2 potty trained at 18mo...

DD1 did this. She also raised merry hell when I tried to strap her in the pushchair or car seat. Pull ups helped with the nappy battles as I didn't need two hands to put them on and I could yank them up as she twisted and turned.

Oh yes. I remember it well.
Yes she's far too young for potty training.

Do you really have to have her on her back every time? Probably yes for the really messy poos - for those it's probably best to hold her down gently and ignore the screaming. But for wet nappies and fairly non-squishy poos you can become adept at the standing-up nappy change quite quickly. (Toddler reins may be needed if standing still enough won't happen otherwise)

This is exacly like mine. Unfortunately he's 2 and still the same.
If you have a shower hose attached to the bath, I descovered for messy poos it was easier to hose him down and soap up rather than him kicking off on the matt. He happened to find that very enjoyable and got to play with the water.

Tgen you can dry off in the bathroom and put the nappy on with baby standing up holding on to tge bath.

Wasnt doing this every time but worked for the messiest of nappies.

Sticking the telly on or putting Peppa pig on a tablet/phone and letting him hold it made for good distraction...

Getting DP to literally hold him down restraining him also worked...

He did get a bit better but god I'm looking forward to potty training!

It's completely normal, my toddlers are the same. Every nappy change is a wrestling match/battle of wills. I think they just see it as a great opportunity to play and get extra attention. Distraction with a small toy works best I find.

I agree it may be a little early for potty training but it won't hurt to introduce her to the potty or pull up pants and see what she thinks of them.

It's is normal (although frustrating) OP, yet another stage that too shall pass .

I would potty train. Ds1 was fully trained by 15 months, ds2 by 18 months so defiantly not too early

Definitely common if not universal!
I'm afraid though I also used distraction, a firm forearm on the chest helps. Though luckily both of mine liked a wipes packet 70% of the time.
The other option is a mat with straps - DS is a bit hypermobile and would body pop off the mat if I reached for a wipe which was massively dangerous so this was a lifesaver. Rabbit brand.

Both of mine were like this so as soon as they could cruise we changed standing up and and as soon as they were a big enough size we used pull ups! We used nature care eco Nappies and their pull-ups and quite thick still.

Thank you for the reassurance everyone. No prizes for realising this is my first and I've had zero experience with children before her!

We use cloth nappies so I don't really want to be buying pull ups. I didn't even think about needing them for potty training, oops. My mum has a potty for her there - she knows to go there when she's doing a poo but if we show / tell her she needs to sit on it she looks at us as if that's the last thing it should be used for!

I will persevere with various distractions. Helpfully there was a spider on the wall last night, just above where I change her. First time I've ever been thankful there is one in my house!

Use each of your legs to pin down each of her arms so she can't escape

We use cloth too. We didn't use pull ups on the way to potty training. Just did it.

We used cloth, no pull ups. The advantage with cloth is if nappy on and clean you can uppopper or Velcro, them on toilet and then back on if needed. But when actually training go straight to normal pants

Oh ok, thanks for that. I guess it'll be a whole new thread when I start with the potty properly.

We also use cloth and with no 1 we used training pants but with no 2 we had dress without pants round the house (summer) followed by just pants with a dress and then pants and trousers. Still getting tights right - they are harder to take down.

If you really, really can't get your DC to lie down and do want to do stand up nappy changes, a poppered nappy, very slightly loose, will pull up and down like a pull up if you do it up in advance. You can't use a liner though as they just move to the wrong position when you put the nappy on. We got some Little Lamb size 2 pocket nappies and did this, and they are also pretty good leakproof nappies - we now use them for nap time.

Have you tried changing her on your knee rather than a changing mat I find it quicker and easier that way