Screams at nappy change

[Beckabub]

Hello!

My two month old absolutely hates nappy changing time. Since the day he was born he screams as soon as put down on the mat until he is back up again. It makes it so hard to change his nappy quickly because he is constantly screaming and writhing and kicking his legs. He has proper tears streaming too which breaks my heart!! I've tried talking to him, singing, distraction, sensory cards placed around....I can't think of anything else. I just try to do it as quick as possible but it's getting worse. Will he grow out of this?! It doesn't matter if I do it when he's full, hungry, awake, asleep he always has the same reaction. I have a Muslin on the mat so it's not cold when he is on it. Any ideas or advice?!

Is he perhaps in pain laying on his back? how does he sleep OP.

Sorry you said its the same.

What does your Health Visitor suggest ? or GP ?

Time and a great deal of patience (for yourself!). Most likely he will grow out of in the next month as he gets much more interested socially. You’re doing all the right things so for now just focus on getting it done as quickly and painlessly as possible for you both

I sympathise so much! My now 4 month old was exactly the same. She was such a chilled baby except for nappy changes and bath time which would guarantee a melt down. Something that helped us was making sure she wasn't hungry during a change. As a newborn we had to change her nappy to wake her up before feeding. As she got older she was alert enough to feed without it so we switched nappy changes to 30 mins after feeding and she was so much happier. She grew out of it around 3 months, and will tolerate a pre feed nappy change now.

My son is nearly 12 weeks and he's exactly the same! Started screaming around the six week mark and it's now about 50/50 screaming/calm changes.

We were advised by a paed nurse that because babies hate being cold, the sudden exposure to their nethers is a bit shocking, so we put a towel on top of the changing mat and that helped a bit.

If it's a cold night, I'll actually grab a warm towel off the radiator before changing him, and we turned the heating up in the nursery where we have the changing table and again that's helped.

We find it worst after his bath- going from a lovely warm steamy room out into the rest of the cooler house really set him off, so now I take his changing mat into the bathroom and he gets dried and into his nighttime babygrow in there, much less squawking!

Mine was the same, she's nearly 2 now and still has her moments! It does get better though. I used to give her a contraband item such as a hanger to play with to keep her happy for the 30 seconds it took me to change her. I also noticed that she was better in the summer than winter, perhaps put a muslin cloth down on the mat first so it's not so cold for him and I used to put the wipes on top of the radiator so they were nice and warm when I used them.

@BlueDahlia69 thanks for commenting, he does have bad reflux and does hate being on his back generally. But his sleeping is now improving but no change at nappy time. HV hasn't said anything really, just some babies hate it!!

@MaMaD1990 thanks for the reply! The mat is covered with a Muslin and not sure if it's the wipes being cool that bother him as I changed to warm water and cotton wool for a while but still the same!

Mine did this too and he had reflux. He did grow out of it though after a few months. However he's started doing it again at almost 1yo and it's harder cos he literally crawls/runs away whilst screaming lol.

Mine went ballistic from day one until he could be distracted with toys or big sister (about four months). The IKEA changing mat with sides and towelling covers did help a bit, especially the stiff sides which stopped him flipping himself off the thing in rage.

Meanwhile my mother and aunts cheerfully changed him on their laps, with minimum fuss, possibly because he didn't know which end of him was up.

DD was like this; we actually set up a fan heater on the changing table (yes, I realise how nuts that is reading back!) and it really helped.

We also used warm water with cotton wool for cleaning her.