Toddler Tricks - 13

Ways to trick your baby:

Problem:  There are crucial times in babies' growth cycles when they seem to be fitting in the diapers you've always used, but they start overflowing them at night.  Each morning, or sometimes even in the middle of the night, you're greeted with cries of distress and discomfort instead of smiles and hellos.

Solution:  Go the next diaper size up.**  Even if you think they will be way too big, they're usually not, and they have the extra padding and space to absorb more.  Some people try putting the same sized diapers or the bigger diapers on backwards.  I've not tried it, but it's apparently pretty successful.  What I've found myself doing lately (because even the bigger diapers aren't doing the trick) is going in for an after-midnight diaper change.  The babies sometimes do wake up, but I just explain to them what I'm doing, and they usually let me and fall right back to sleep.


Ways your baby can trick you:

Problem:  Once your toddler is old enough, he or she may take the diaper off completely.  You'll end up with wet sheets, wet pillows, wet beds, and wet babies when this happens.

Solution:  Use a zip-up footie pajama style so they can't get in there.  Eventually, they'll figure out how to unzip that, and you'll be back at square one.  Buy bigger-sized pajamas if you have to and put them on backwards.  It's incredibly hard for a toddler to unzip from the back.

(**This is for people who use disposables.  It may be the same for cloth diapering, but I don't know anything about it, so it could be totally different.)

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