HELP!!!! How can I stop my 2yo DD doing 'dirty protests' in her cot?!

[Pavlovthecat]

She keeps putting her hands in her nappy and spreading the contents of it over herself, her cot and the walls.

Sometimes she takes the nappy off first, sometimes not.

This morning DH got up to find poo smeared everwhere, he spent ages cleaning it and DD up, put her down for her nap after lunch, and when I returned got her up and she has done it again. Not the walls this time. But all over her.

She did not wake up calling for us, crying or otherwise, we did not know she was awake, we went in to wake her as she had been asleep ages. Or not, as it turns out.

Background:
She is 2years and two weeks old. She has been tentatively potty training for a couple of weeks, but taking her nappy off has been a fave past time for a while now. The cot is often wet in the mornings where she has taken the nappy off, but only recently has she started spreading poo everywhere.

She has now got to the stage with her potty training where she is almost there. She asked to go to the toilet for the first time yesterday without prompting and had a wee(had taken a wee twice before in potty) and
since then has used it about 3-4 times.

She is in pull up nappies but at night time we have been putting her in night time nappies to try to stop her taking nappy off.

Help please?!!!

Bumping out of desperation...

I am off out for an hour and look forward to lots of solutions and suggestions from everyone when I get back

Thank you

I have no suggestions Pavlov but wanted to bump your post.

Can you put her in a sleepsuit that she cannot get out of at night? The ones that zip up? That is my only thought. I would try to prevent her access.

I had this stage with my DD's, I tried putting them back in poppered and zippered bodysuits for naps and sleep time which helped. Is she in a grobag still? Can she take her grobag off?

During the day we realised that our girls had outgrown their lunchtime sleep and it was easier to cut it out (aged just gone 2) than spend hours cleaning up poo.

I sympathise it's not fun!

oh Pavlovthecat - not really much in the way of solutions here but some sympathy from someone who has experienced this and knows how desperate it feels. I think it is more common than you imagine and people just don't tell anyone about it. From what I have heard it is important not to freak out as it might give dd "issues" about poo but I do think you have to try and make it clear that it is not a good thing to do. It is not abnormal behaviour just toddler curiosity. Other suggestions I have seen involve putting a sleep suit on back to front so they can't reach the nappy. If you read Jules Oliver's book she starts with a description of Daisy's poo smearing efforts and that is really comforting as she makes it sounds so normal. Good luck - I hope you get the message through to her - remember, this too will pass.....

child's swimming costume with a poppered vest over the top.

I know someone who resorted to stitching her child into the baby grow every single night! Admittedly less work than scrubbing poo out of a mattress

Get a zip up sleep suit and sew the zip shut at the top@?

If you are using a zip up suit cut the feet out and then put it on back to front so they can't get at the zip. Good luck!

Flamingtoaster - I have a zip suit with feet already cut out. Perfect! it has a little popper at the top too, just in case. The zip goes right down the back then one leg, no access!

Its a little pink and white stripey one, she looks like a criminal in a straight jacket!!!!

She is not getting anywhere near her poo tonight!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions on how to avoid the mess. I like the idea of sewing it shut too!!!

but why is she doing it? I understand the psychology of her going through the 'anal' stage to an extent, but seriously, she seems to enjoy it. She is never upset, this afternoon she was just casually playing with it like it was yoghurt, or a bear! 'oh, poo, on blanket mummy!' like I had not noticed!!

So, some insight would be good too, just so I know how she is ticking right now...

Put her in a big girl bed so she can get to the potty!

good luck !

if you need more ideas - putting a zip up grobag/sleeping bag on inside out makes it impossible for them to unzip. bit tricky to zip up too! but you get the knack

The back to front body suit with zip and no feet, works a treat! .

She has sodden nappies but at least no poo!

She can now climb out of her cot, and is asking to go to the toilet all by herself on the odd occasion so we are buying her a bed this week and will see how that works, then we wont need to put her in her suits back to front.

Funny thing is, she seems to like it. When I take her suit off in the morning, instead of lying down on the bed face up, she faces downwards automatically for me to unzip her!!!! Bless.

Glad it's worked - love that she lies down the right way for unzipping. Good luck with the bed.