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.