Monday, March 28, 2011

Duct Tape & Diapers

Last Friday, I had a moms night out with a bunch of other women.  No husbands and no kids although the conversation turned to both more than once.

It also brought back memories of when Emily was 12 months old.

She was an escape artist when it came to clothes.  We packed up her two piece pajamas since they were asking for trouble.  New one piece zippered pajamas were bought.  We cut the feet off of them, turned them backwards, and yet she still got out of them or had the legs so stretched out she could get to her diaper through the legs.

"It's just a phase," everyone said.  A phase that lasted several long months.

Every nap time when I laid her down I knew there was a possibility I would be back up at some point probably changing her crib sheets after she had stripped down (diaper included) and then fallen asleep only to awaken with wet sheets.

One day after hearing her laughter and squeals on a particularly challenging day I went upstairs to find her smeared with poop from head to toe, holding her diaper, a brown clump in her hand.  She had decorated her crib, the wall, and even the floor with poop.

After cleaning her up, I made the decision that was to us a last resort.   After cleaning her room and sanitizing it, I packed her up and we drove to Wal-mart.  In the aisle in the back of the store they had a huge selection of duck tape in every very color you could imagine.  I choose white.

That night after bathing Emily we put her diaper on and proceeded to use duct tape to secure her diaper.  We were pretty smug.  Finally, we were getting one step ahead of our daughter.  I worried incessantly that night about what if she did manage to get the duct tape off and what if she put it in her mouth even though we had tested it ourselves and were pretty sure it would hold.  I could hardly sleep and kept checking on her.  She was fine.

The next morning when we heard her stirring we went into her room.  There she sat befuddled with her pajamas half off.  She had been struggling to get her diaper off as well, her diaper sitting on her hips slightly askew but the duck tape still held it together.

After a few days she still struggled to get her diaper off at naptime but to no avail.  One weekend my MIL offered to watch her so me and my husband could go out. I packed up her diaper bag including the duck tape.  When we returned, my MIL laughingly told us that when she was looking through the diaper bag she found the duck tape.  She hadn't thought we were serious about it until she saw it in the diaper bag.

Oh, but we were quite serious.

It worked though. Within about a month she had given up trying to pull her diaper off at naptime and in the morning if we didn't go into her room right after she woke.  She would even sometimes leave her clothes on.

Sometimes you have to do what you have to do to make life easier on your self even if it requires some creativity and maybe a little duct tape on a diaper.

12 comments:

Tina @ Girl Meets Globe said...

I never had to resort to duct tape, but I knew other moms that at! The great thing is, it works! =)

Lourie said...

That is quite possibly the funniest thing I have ever heard! LOL Sorry about the poopy mess. That is not funny. I think I would have cried.

KLZ said...

Now that right there, that's just practical. Thank God your MIL is more understanding than mine.

Unknown said...

I love the duct tape idea! The sweet potato spread was just baked sweet potato spread out of bread. I tried it too. It tasted great!

Shell said...

All it takes is ONE time finding them covered in poop like that and duct tape seems like a fabulous option.

Joy@TPMG said...

I probably should mention that the reason it brought back memories was because we were discussing how some of our kids refuse to leave their clothes on,mine especially,and we were swapping funny stories.

Sarah at The Stroller Ballet said...

Good for you for finding such a great solution! I've heard about people doing this. Luckily Peanut hasn't attempted to take her PJs off...yet. Ha!

Liz Mays said...

You absolutely do have to do whatever it takes! One poop fiasco and I would have bought the tape too!

Joey Lynn Resciniti said...

I'm amazed she could conquer the backwards blankie sleeper. I thought that was the last resort!

Tarja said...

The poop incident would have pushed me over the edge (although I think i was guilty of that as a baby). Way to solve the problem. I don't know if I would have ever thought of the duct tape.

Joy@TPMG said...

As sad as it was, we took to the internet to solve the problem. It's true you can find any answer on the internet. I would like to say we thought of it ourselves but the reality of it was we didn't. We read it online!

Joey-because we cut off the feet of her pjs she could also get her diaper off by stretching out the feet of her pjs and once she even worked the tabs off through the pjs. The diaper was half out of her pants leg when I walked in the room. She really was determined. Because of the weather, all of her pjs were of a lighter material to which made it worse.

Liz said...

If either of my kids tore off their diapers, I definitely would have taped them up. Kudos to you for doing so!

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