Any ideas how I can persuade ds2 to wear a coat?

[coppertop]

Ds2 (2.8yrs) has always found it hard to tolerate wearing clothes. Thanks to lots of body massages etc he's now reached the point where he will now actually keep his clothes on while indoors for a couple of hours instead of just stripping off as soon as he gets home.
The problem is that he now absolutely refuses to wear a coat, no matter what the weather. This is a fairly recent problem as it has never seemed to bother him before. I suspect he just got out of the habit/routine of wearing one while over the summer and now just doesn't want the change.
Luckily the weather has stayed fairly mild so far but I'm all too aware that we are now almost into November and it's going to get a lot colder. A couple of weeks ago I even ended up taking him to fetch ds1 from school in the pouring rain wearing just a T-shirt and jeans (ds2 not me ). I'd been battling with him for 20 minutes trying to get his coat on but eventually had to give up as I had to collect ds1.
Strategies tried so far include:

• letting him choose a different coat to wear: failed miserably as ds2 didn't want to wear any.
• showing him a picture symbol of a coat as part of his going-out routine: failed misearbly again as he just screamed.
• brute force: will sometimes work but only if there are 2 adults. In any case I feel awful about holding him down to put a coat on him.
• bribery : " coat then taxi-car" (his toy taxis are his latest obsession. He loves the real thing too.) Again this has very limited success.

Even the lovely staff at the toddler group he sometimes goes to have had a try. They eventually conceded defeat when ds2 threw himself to the ground headfirst in a rage.
I can lessen the effect of the cold by just dressing him in warmer clothes but it's still not really a solution. If he were a little older I would try Social Stories but there is no way that he would be able to understand them yet as his language comprehension is still a long way behind.
To make it all even more confusing there have been 2 occasions where ds2 has actually walked over to me, held out his coat and said "Coat, Mummy" and fully co-operated with putting it on. I can't for the life of me figure out why those 2 occasions were any different to any others.
Help!

How about... a picture of a taxi car sellotaped to the coat? Not incredibly stylish, but might work?

That's a brilliant idea, Colditz! If I can find a couple of pictures I could even laminate them as a kind of badge for him. I'll try that one tomorrow morning when we venture out of the house.

This may be the most stupid thing you've ever heard (forgive me if it is, I only have dd who is 9 months and teach 7 year olds so no experience of 2 year olds I'm afraid) but is he old enough to like action hero, superman type people> I only say this because our nusery children love to put their coats on as capes, would it be possible to get him used to wearing it like this first? I know it's far from ideal but may be a stepping stone?

Could you get a pale coat and get the taxi printed onto the iron on stuff? It isn't the best looking solution, but if it were Sam he's just rip the badge off and take that with him, coat would remain where it was (usually under a wall somewhere miles away)

otherwise, just piles of layers!! Yellow Moon (online) do a paint your own umbrella set that would deal with the rain

(i'm being very non confrontational about these things at the mo)

Cool! GLAD YOU LIKE IT. lET US KNOW WHAT YOU YRY AND WHAT WORKS.

Ooop sorry!

Maybe try a body warmer. Will keep his body warm. Good luck!

would a lightweight waterproof (rather than a heavier coat) be accepted? even a waterproof cape, rather than a coat with arms? then just stick on layers / jumper underneath.

Is it the tightness of the cuffs? the hood? the heaviness / bulk of the cost? restriction in the armpits?

can you get those fleece tops that are practically waterproof in children's sizes? would that help?

how is he with hats? Probably awful, but if any good, can you get one with a big brim?
Put him in buggy with raincover??

I'm still looking for some taxi pictures to laminate so will be trying the badge idea asap.

This morning wasn't too awful - by ds2's standards anyway. Only about 20 minutes of screams and protests before he eventually gave in.

I've tried him with just a light Thomas the Tank Engine raincoat and he just wouldn't go anywhere near it.

The umbrella idea is a good one. The little monkey is good at helping himself to my umbrella when we're out so it's likely that he may be interested in one of his own.

Sadly he has gone from wanting to wear a hat all of the time (including indoors) to having a real aversion to them. He won't put his hood up at all either so I'm not sure the cape idea will work just yet.

It's really difficult to work out what exactly it is he hates about them. It doesn't seem to be the material or the weight as once he's actually inside the coat he's not too bothered by it. The only other possibility I can think of is that it's something to do with the heat/warmth. Even when he is wearing just a nappy and with no heating on his little body is always very warm. He doesn't seem to feel the cold at all and will even run out into the snow in just a nappy. Maybe a coat is just too much for him???

I think I will have to keep some layers on standby and put them on/take them off when needed.

Why is nothing ever easy?

DS1 used to be really funny about coats when he was little - anything "slippery" was totally unacceptable.

He did always like fleeces, though, although they had to be ones that zip up fully, not over the head type ones. Would your DS2 go for a fleece instead of a coat, coppertop?

Arrggh! I meant to add "Thanks for all of your ideas". Even the ones that don't work atm may well work in the near future. Ds2 changes so fast that it's hard to predict what he'll be like from one week to the next.

Ds2 seems to like fleecy material so a zip-up fleece could work. I've got an old one of ds1's that he could try on to see how he likes it. Thanks, Dino!

While the weather's not too bad would it be worth just giving up trying for a few days and then going back to it?

My Ds2 had a phase of making a big fuss about putting a coat on although like yours once it was on then he didn't really seem to notice it. I wondered if he didn't like the feel etc but tbh I think that he just got into a sort of pattern of behaviour with it and then couldn't get out of it again. He had a similiar phase with his shoes which I think started because an old pair had got a bit small but when I got some new ones for him it still continued for a few days as if he was going through the motions even without the cause anymore. If you could break the cycle he might forget he doesn't like his coat in a week or two especially if you then started afresh with a fleece or one of the other ideas on here.

my husband almost never wears a coat!

My DS used to make a big fus about wearing his coat - itried allsorts but in the end what worked was allowing him to choose some badges (mostly train badges) then choose one to waer on his coat each day. It only took an extra 20 minutes!!!!!!! sigh....

I've ordered a couple of the paint your umbrella packs myself- they were only a fiver! Sam loves anything that he can paint himself.

Sam also doesn't care less about cold or wet, just says he is always warm. If he does get cold, then it's hypothermic according to him. Loves to play outside regardless of weather.

I was nodding away to myself reading these great suggestions, got to aloha's post and it suddenly occurred to me that tbh I avoid wearing a coat whenever possible too. I'm usually the one still wearing a T-shirt while everyone else is bundled up in jackets and scarves. Now why on earth didn't I think of that before???

For the past couple of days the weather has been relatively mild so I've just been dressing ds2 in fleecey jumpers and he seems fine with that. I have an umbrella-buying trip planned for Friday so he will hopefully at least stay dry.