Liam has a new favorite game. He tries furiously to stick his hand in his soiled britches while I try frantically to keep his hand out of the soil, so to speak. Liam thinks that this is hilarious and laughs loudly until I firmly say “No” and pin his arms. At this point in our game Liam begins to scream and cry as if I were torturing him by, I don’t know, simply trying to get him to do anything he doesn’t want to do. Liam plays a different version of this game with Matt wherein he goes for the gold and laughs heartily and Matt, although very frustrated, laughs with him in spite of the fact that he knows it’s the kiss of death. Then Matt snaps back into Father Mode and firmly says “No” causing Liam to cry much like he does with me. I dread changing the kid’s diapers even more than usual these days. Whatever happened to tag, chase, and hide-and-go-seek?
You’ve probably tried this, but if not…buy him some new, very interesting looking toy. And he only gets to hold it (maybe buy 2!) when he’s being changed. Maybe he would get distracted enough to keep his hands, um, to himself.
Unfortunately I have tried that. It resulted in poo toy. Thanks for the suggestion, though!
Poo toy! LOL. Maybe it needs to be too big to fit between his legs…a beachball, perhaps?!
OK, I just had a brilliant idea. How about getting one of those giant dog collars you put around dogs when they have a hurt leg to keep them from scratching or tearing off the bandage? You could put it around Liam’s waist, and he couldn’t reach below it.
(And yes, I’m kidding. But just picture it…)
By the time I get to the third daily experience with wiping his hands off before they go directly into his mouth I might be up for that option, actually.
I can’t believe I am about to suggest this, but it seems to do the trick in our house. When Brady is particularly fiesty, I simply click on the TV and that seems to lull him into non-movement for as long as it takes to change the diaper. We have a lot of poo issues in our house, so when you get to the point where he is taking off his diaper and pulling it out through his pant leg, give me a call!
We may get there yet–there’s only one TV upstairs and it’s in our room–but a little more of this and I may very well be up for it…I do have the duct tape at the ready for the inevitable day when he begins taking the things off on his own. Oy vey.