Wriggly baby - any suggestions?

[DippyMummy]

My 10-month-old DS has recently started wriggling, flipping over on to his tummy and getting up on all fours while I'm trying to change his nappy. We've just ditched the changing station because even though it had quite high sides he would still manage to fling a leg over and risk falling off. So now I try to change him on the floor, but it's even trickier because he can just roll away. I grasp his feet quite firmly but he just arches his back and twists and turns - resulting in a big mess if he's pooey! I guess he's just keen to perfect his crawling technique at every opportunity, and hates lying down. Anyone else have this problem? Any solutions? Is it "just a phase"..?

Annoying isn't it?
My dd2 (12 months)has been doing this for a while .Sometimes i can prevent it by giving her something to hold/look at but then other times she just wriggly as hell.

It is just a phase. If you can't distract him it's pretty difficult. I used to basically (gently) pin him down with my leg. Acted as a barrier, not a restraint, but sort of helped. That and perfecting the art of the very quick nappy change!

I shall add "pull ups" to the suggestions below. Expensive yes , but very useful. I use a mixture of normal nappies and pull ups depending on dd's mood and the situation and it has saved us an awful lot of stress I can tell you, worth every penny.

I'm getting this with ds2, he's 5mths, plenty of squirming but not crawling yet. Given up with nappies on my 23mth ds1, he's now being potty trained! I found giving them a toy or book sometimes helped, otherwise I'd have to clean them quickly then hold down one of his ankles between my knees, one ankle in one hand and put the nappy on one handed!
Good luck.

Yes I know this one with my 9mth old!!

Try changing standing up, Aph will happily stand/cruise at her changing table/shelf thing playing with toys while I change her(never ever used it as a changing table - far too wriggly - but came free with cot!). Mind you, it was easier before she learned to sit down as I had her captive - good for putting her clothes on too or nipping to the loo !!

If out, I tend to give her the wipes, my mobile or the tube of nappy cream (something she ain't allowed) to get her to lie still for 3 mins... songs work well too for some reason - row row row your boat...

3 miins? 1 minute!!

I haven't had this problem yet. But when I used to change my son, he would cry and cry. I found that distraction worked really well.

First I used a cot mobile above the changing table and now I've moved on to teething toys, as he loves putting things in his mouth. If we're outside, a muslin keeps him busy for about 5 mins.

Good luck!

How about asking a carpenter to make baby sized stocks?

Only joking... toys which make noises, one in each hand seem to do the trick for my very wriggly, wilful 15 month old dd

I used to keep a stock of small toys near the changing table, that only ever came out during nappy-changes, and only ever one at a time. Worked very well.

I also continued using the changing table because that way the baby couldn't get away from me! I've never had a child fall off the table, and they all go through major wriggling stages at one point or another.

I'd do my best to keep the child pinned down during the clean-up phase (though that sometimes meant that I was virtually dangling the child upside-down by the ankles), but allowed them to turn over if they wished afterwards - just put the nappy on in any case, so it ends up backwards, with the tabs behind them.

Thanks everyone. Have tried distraction with toys/tubes of toothpaste/socks but only seems to work for a short while. Meanwhile I read that cold baby wipes can make a baby wriggle. So I have tried cleaning up with washable cloths soaked in warm water and this seems to work to a certain extent (and coincides with me deciding that baby wipes are evil things, anyway).

That's a good point, DM. My 15wo ds2 tolerates (in a wriggley way) changes with wipes straight out of the packet, but positively purrs and lies completely still when I use cottonwool and hottish water. He likes the water as comfortably hot as I would like to wash my hands in, I find. And, as I now recall, so did ds1.

Oh I'd forgotten about that stage of wanting to stand up and walk around the changing mat from 8m on - with DS1. DS2 probably about to enter that stage any minute now, thanks for reminding me!!!