23 Month Old Not Napping and Stripping off All Clothes and Diaper!

This may sound crazy but put everything on backwards, it has helped me out a few times they can't reach the straps on the diaper or the buttons on the onesies if you have too duct tape the straps or try pull ups and footed pj's.

Duct tape the diaper on.
Warm milk and/or a warm bath before bedtime.
Pet her (from her forehead) to help her go to sleep... this works on my daughter and I. lol

For the evening you can cut the feet of a pair of the zipper pajamas and put them on her backwards. She shouldn't be able to reach the zipper.

Good Luck!

Try dressing her in jammies backward so the zipper is in the back. This worked well for a friend's child who was doing the same thing.

Your daughter is probably ready to give up her afternoon nap. She does still need the down time, and you need the time as well, so concider yourself lucky that she plays alone, and try to continue that habit by leaving her for a rest in her crib even if she doesn't sleep.

First, put footy pajamas on her backward. She will not be able to reach that zipper at the back of her neck no matter how hard she tries! You may need to use one size bigger than she is so you have extra material to turn the feet around the right way, or you can just cut the feet off.

It sounds like she's not only very proud of her new undressing skills, but she is probably a little bored in the crib too. Try to make more toys and books available to her while confined in the crib. Be sure that none of them are ones she can use to escape by using them as a step stool. Give her lots of cloth or bath books, small toys, stuffed animals, etc. You can purchase a soft cloth box to use as a toy box in there at the dollar tree. If she steps on that, it will just collapse.

Frustrating! It sounds like it might be time to work on potty training - just the low-pressure variety - if she takes her clothes off, offer her the potty, and talk about where pee & poop belongs.

If you think she still needs a nap, maybe (1) get her a toddler bed; (2) put a waterproof pad on it; (3) put a little baby bjorn potty in her room; and (4) don't react when she takes her clothes off. Just tell her that if she needs to pee or poop, she should use the little potty, and call you so you can empty it. Then don't make a big deal of it if she wets the bed (just change the sheets, and say neutrally that pee goes in the potty - let her help if she seems interested).

Good luck!

One of my 19 month olds just started doing this with the clothes and diaper. This morning I heard him start crying and yelling "Eewww!" So I went into his room. Yep. He'd removed the diaper and left me a smelly present in his crib.

I haven't found a solution that works (though I've been eyeballing the duct tape as a possibility and laughed out loud when I read that you've done this!) I just thought I'd let you know that you're not alone!

About the nap thing: My oldest stopped taking naps when he was six months old . . . but he's always slept twelve hours every night so I figured it was a fair trade. My twins still take one nap each day but those naps are getting shorter each week! I'll miss them when they're over.

I have three year old twins and we went through the getting naked phase too (only ours did it at night after we put them to bed). I tried everything and basically we realized it was just a phase that they eventually got bored of. We put plastic pads in the cribs so it wouldn't ruin the mattress and waited for it to pass. In regards to the nap, every kid gives up naps at their own time but I was told not to give up trying. We put ours in bed for nap time and made the rooms dark (they sleep apart for naps) and if they slept they slept and if not then we still gave them a two hour quiet time and then put them to bed at 6:30pm. Some kids give up naps temporarily and then the parents stop trying. I would just try not to react or act like you care and just give her quiet time anyway. She may or may not start napping again. I have a newborn and that two hour quiet time is heaven for me now!

My daughter was that age when she started stripping off her pajamas and diaper at night. After two times of cleaning her and her bed, I came up with a way to keep her clothes on. We made sure we put her in the sleeper pajames that were not too big on her and sewed around the zipper two or three times right before we put her to bed. In the morning we took a seam ripper, scissors, or clippers to the small thread and we were ready to go. This worked great! I didn't want to pay for different pajamas and/or alter the pajamas that we had. This was a lot less work and you would be able to leave her in the crib to play. My sister used duct tape on diapers for one of her sons and that worked for her.

Good luck and I hope that one of the solutions works for you. It is really hard not being able to nap when you are pregnant.

My boy did this for a while. We found these great pj's at Hannah Anderson that zipped up the side or back. He could not reach the zipper and therefore his clothes stayed on. I have not been to that store in a while so I am not too sure if they still carry them. However I am sure you could find something similar. Hope that helps!

I tried EVERYTHING with my youngest son. Clothes on backwards. Different outfits, etc. But that darn kid is just Houdini. It might take him a couple of days to figure out how to get something off, but sooner rather than later he'd be diaper-free and naked as a jaybird.

About two weeks ago, we started using electrical tape. (I didn't want to use duct tape because if it sticks to skin it can be pretty painful to remove.) Electrical tape is slender and it doesn't matter if it sticks to skin - it's easier to remove than a bandaid. It DOES however stick to itself quite well.

My son removes his diaper by undoing the sides - he has a narrow little waist so he can't pull the diaper down like underwear. So, what we do is to wrap the electrical tape around his little waist from the back. Removing the tape is fairly easy - I just have to peel it off.

Just a quick note: I would NOT recommend wrapping tape around the outside of a baby's clothes. Electrical tape does not stick all that well to cloth, so I would be VERY worried that a baby would be able to wiggle out of the tape and then have a noose in his/her crib. I'd rather have to clean up a naked baby and a nasty crib than find that my baby had been hurt or killed because of a piece of tape.

I just wanted to let you know I understand and you are not alone out there. My daughter, almost 2, has started doing both these as well. She will not leave her diaper on and she has dropped her afternoon nap. Her doc says it is normal for children her age to drop naps if they are getting enough rest at night. As for the diaper thing I have been told to potty train, but what I found that helps are G-diapers. They are cloth with a disposable insert and the tabs are in the back so she can't get to them(plus they are biodegredable:)
I feel for you not napping being pregnant, maybe you could find a mama's helper, a sitter just to watch her while you nap or get stuff done. That is what saved me during my second pregnancy, I would have someone watch my daughter while I took a rest.

Hi S.,have you considered potty training now? If she is taking off her diapers no matter what, maybe she is giving you signals that she doesn't want to be in diapers anymore. Maybe try to get her to sit on those little toilets and try to go then. I have heard that girls are easier to train than boys (he turned 3 in October, and still wets just a little bit). It could also be a great advantage to have her toilet trained before the baby comes! My three year old doesn't nap either, and when he was two he didn't really like to go down for naps. He also had a bed at a very young age because he hated his crib. We have a matrice cover that goes on that is snug and easy to wash if there are accidents. I go cuckoo also when he is home & doesnt sleep. He still wakes up a couple of times at night, and doesn't like to rest during the day. (This is just one of those days!). But, when I was pregnant with my second, we got onto a regular schedule. I found that getting him to bed between 11:30-12:00 worked the best. By this time he was tired and would sleep. Any later he was just too tired to go to bed. If we'd be outside or at the park it would be a struggle to get home, but then getting him to bed was even more of a challenge if it was any later than that. We also had a routine with a brush teeth and story time, and than helped a ton. He'd still wake up 6 or 7am, so I would get to bed when he did at night and we survived! Hope you figure it out! Best wishes! S.

I hate to tell you this, but you might have to give up the idea of a nap. My son stopped napping at 23 months when his sister was born. He also would strip and take his diaper off and pee and poop in his bed. After the fact I realized that he was acting out because of lack of control. All of a sudden he was not the only child in the house and the only thing he could control was whether he napped and whether he stayed dressed. Your daughter is probably sensing that she is not going to be the only baby in the house and acting out as a result. The good news is that it is just a faze and she will move on to something else eventually. I think my son did this for a couple months and then finally stopped when we stopped fighting him on napping. We tried putting his diaper and pj's on backward which worked for a day or two. My best advice is to try not to make a big deal out of the peeing in the bed and hopefully she will lose interest in it. When she does it just stay calm and change her sheets and move on. If she sees you getting emotional and angry about it she will keep doing it because she is getting your attention for it. Good luck!

S.,
I feel your pain. My son used to put his hand down his throat to make himself throwup when he didn't want to go to bed because he knew someone would come in and clean it up and delay him having to go to sleep! Kids are just so darn smart! That lasted about three months. But once we started potty trainning we had another issuse. He would take his diaper off in the middle of the night, a dirty diaper, but not wake us. So we started saftey pinning his zipper on his pj's and it has worked like a charm! You might try this while your little one is napping. Also, a high protein meal will only give her energy, so try to up her carbs before she goes to take a nap. Also she is at an age where she thinks she doesn't need a nap, so you may want to try putting on some classical music in the back ground and tell her that it is quiet time. I tell my son, "it's quiet time, you odn't have to sleep, but you have to stay in your room and be quiet." So I give him a couple of books and turn on the music and within 5 minutes he is out cold. I am like you, I am pregnant, just finishing up my first trimester and I would like a nap also! LOL! Good luck!

Have you tried putting the diaper on backwards, with the tabs in the back. Most kids can't reach around to undo them.

Hi S.,

Raising children does have it's challenges for I have raised 5 who are grown and am now enjoying 5 grandchildren. I remember those nap times and struggling to get my child(ren) to nap. What I would do, is put him/her in a regualar bed and lay down beside her (that way you get a nap/rest, too). When the child would attempt to get up, etc. I would firmly tell her this is her quiet time and she needs to lay down. Then I would just put my arm around her to snuggle and close my eyes as if I was asleep. Most days he/she would get bored enough to go to sleep and other days he/she would just lay there. What I feel is most important is that you let your daughter know (in a loving but firm way) that you are in charge and also, that you are consistant with whatever you choose to do, if you want results. Motherhood is not easy but it's the best occupation in the world!

Best wishes!
K.

Looks like she's just decided not to nap any more. Frustrating to you, I can imagine. Try telling her since she's such a big girl and doesn't want to sleep during nap time, that her body still needs rest, so from now on she will have 'quiet time'. Give her activities she can do that are quiet (books, coloring, quiet building toys i.e. Duplos) that she can do independently (so you can rest too), and let her know she can do these only during 'quiet time'. Bring them out during that time, and put them up and inaccessible when the time is over. Make it a big production by storing them in their own tub, and special place. She can help bring them out, and them put them back in the tub when time is up. It will take some adjustment probably for both of you, but be consistent and don't give in to allowing these items to be played with any other time. As for the stripping, I've known a few kids that have done this. Nothing weird, just enjoying their nakedness and ability to take their clothes off. Maybe use it as an opportunity to start potty training. "Oh look, you've taken your clothes off, let's sit on the potty and see if you can go." No pressure, make it a fun activity. I'd definitely deep six the duct tape. That can't be good for her skin if it comes in contact with it, and can be quite painful to remove. If it's just to keep the diaper closed, you've obviously discovered her ability to just pull the diaper off like underwear. Good luck!