Toddler HATES being changed

[muddlingthrou]

Hi, my nearly two year old has recently developed a habit of thrashing about like a maniac and crying hysterically when being changed. It's almost impossible to change her nappy solo as you need about six hands!

I'm hopeful this is just a phase, as she went through a stage of detesting us putting her arms through sleeves that has now disappeared. But any tips for pinning down/distracting her without hurting her? I'm sure the neighbours think I'm torturing her.

I don't think it's actual discomfort as she oddly doesn't seem to mind being changed on changing tables in public toilets (!). It's like there's so much going on in a new place she forgets to wail and thrash!

I can remover how frustrating that can be!

Do you think she's old enough for potty training?

I had the same issue with our daughter while she was 2-3 years old. It got to the point that I dreaded being alone with her as changing a poo was a two man job.

I distracted her with a YouTube video. ( dancing fruits, coco melon or bob the train ) Sometimes it worked sometimes not.

When my husband and I changed her together, we played a game to distract her. One person changed her while the other person was bending over her face and asked: where is daddy’s nose, ears, mouth and so on. Then she pointed to the body parts. We also asked her to count her or our fingers which she did.

Do you use nappy pants or nappies? Changing a wee is much more convenient with nappy pants whilst they are standing and it can be done almost everywhere. It is obviously more challenging with a poo as they need to lie down.

We also gave her exclusive toys she could only play with during nappy changes. However when the novelty wore off she kicked and screamed again.

Reward charts for good behaviour didn’t work when she was two but 8 months later. After each change she got a star sticker which she loved.

When she loved cars we also bought a box of mini wind-up toy cars and after each change she could pick one out of her box. This worked too

Good luck and success!

@Applecidercake - thank you for these tips, they're so helpful! We've been considering moving to nappy pants, but frankly I've been worried about the poo situation. I guess once she's cleaned up, pulling up pants is a lot easier than doing up a nappy, hmm...

She tends to throw any toys we give her and yell no really loudly 🤣 but the 'where's mummy/daddy's nose sometimes gives us a few seconds....

@SiouxsieSiouxStiletto - might be time to bite the bullet and start potty training, eek 😬 she does sometimes tell us when she's had a poo (though not beforehand), so maybe that's a sign. Maybe being lazy, but I was hoping to put it off until she was two. Any tips?!

No tips sorry but I found this book very helpful

@muddlingthrou our 18m dear daughter is exactly the same - but worse she hates those public changing tables!!

best of luck.