16 Month Old Is Undressing at Night, Waking up Cold or Covered in Poop

Updated on October 28, 2008
M.G. asks from Fort Collins, CO
32 answers

My 16 month old (youngest of 3) finds a way to get out of her pajamas every night. We've tried onesies under jammies, zip up jammies, snap-up jammies. She finds a way out of everything. We end up going into her room multiple times throughout the night to "re-dress" her because she is cold. We all end up more tired than we'd like the next day- but this is really just an inconvenience. This past week, we entered new territory as we've gone in to find her naked and covered in poop. At this point, we are beyond "inconvenient" and well into the health hazard category. Has anyone experienced this and found a solution? How do we keep our little girl from undressing so that she is warm and clean through the night? Thank you!

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C.M.

answers from Boise on

Get the jammies without feet and put them on backwards!! You can also put her diaper on backwards as well!! I too had a "hudini" who could get out of everything!! He realized that I had won!!

Good luck!!

1 mom found this helpful
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S.M.

answers from Fort Collins on

Use the zipper PJ's and then safty pin the zipper to the top of the pj's to make it so that she can't unzip them. If that doesn't work then you could try the same trick with seperates only pin the top to the bottom.

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A.B.

answers from Denver on

Hi!

At least one of my 3 was a stripper child! I used to put their diaper and onesies and jammies on backwards. That fixed the problem. You may have to modify a blanket sleeper by cutting the collar a little if it chokes when put on backwards.

A.

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D.G.

answers from Albuquerque on

try zipper pajamas put on backwards so your little one can't reach the zipper. you might have to cut the neck part so it's not scratching the neck, but a Ruined jammie has got to be better that what you're having to clean up now. good luck

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S.T.

answers from Provo on

My suggestion is like the others. Diaper and jammies on backward, tape on the diaper if still needed with the backwards attire, and do a diaper pin at the top if the zipper. I found the diaper pins are stronger than regular safety pins and less likely to come undone and poke at night. Good luck with everything!

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A.C.

answers from Colorado Springs on

I had to put jammies & diapers on backward. And duct-tape diapers to my nudist for a few months. Maybe stitching some ties to special bedtime onesies & tying them shut w/double knots will keep her from unsnapping herself-just keep the ties short so there's no strangulation hazard.
And if she still manages to get out, buy a small space heater. They make them super-safe now. Ours kicks off if there's not enough air flowing in front & back of it, plus if it tips over for any reason. Plug it into a safe plug, then staple the cord to the wall & figure out how to mount the heater to a shelf (ours also has a temp setting that will kick it on if the room gets below a certain temp, at either high or low heat).
Good luck!

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L.J.

answers from Salt Lake City on

What worked for our little girl is to put the footie jammies on inside-out (not backward - I don't think I could make myself cut the feet off a perfectly good set of PJs). Although she could reach the top of the zipper, it was impossible for her to zip the zipper DOWN on the inside...Believe me, she tried! :) Also, she liked having the soft fuzzy part of the jammies against her skin, rather than the rougher side that is usually on the inside. It's no fun having to clean up poop finger paint every day! Good Luck to you!!!

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K.B.

answers from Provo on

My son was undressing himself a lot for awhile and it was a huge pain. We finally took some zip up jammies and cut the feet off and put them on him backwards so the zipper was in the back where he couldn't reach it. It worked amazingly. Some days we just left him in them all day so he would stay dressed. He looked a little silly, but it was better than the alternative :) Good luck!

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A.V.

answers from Denver on

We had the same problem - We actually used a safety pin to pin the top of the zipper to her jammies so she could not unzip them - this helped. When she was not in zipper jammies, we pinned her PJ top to the bottoms with about 6 pin (I used the baby pins with the heavy plastic tops on them)

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K.K.

answers from Denver on

My daughter did the same thing. We wound up using duck tape all around her diaper (being careful that it didn't touch the skin)and we put her zip-up pajamas on backwards too. Good luck!

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D.K.

answers from Denver on

Put the zip up jammies on backwards. Or the never fail duct tape on the diaper. This is a common happening for toddlers, the trick is to outsmart her. Try putting clothes at night on backwards and see if that helps. Then I strongly suggest duct tape around the waist of the diaper just at night. You may have to use scissors in the morning to change her, hee hee.

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M.M.

answers from Denver on

Put her in a zip up footie pajama. Take a safety pin (I used diaper pins) and put it through hole in zipper and through top of PJs. She will not be able to undo the safety pin and the zipper will stay up and closed safely around her neck. Worked like a charm with my daughter. Best of luck!

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A.H.

answers from Provo on

When we had this problem we would put on the zip up pj's backwards so they couldn't unzip them, I've also heard of people duct taping the diaper on at night, we thankfully didn't have to do this since the backwards pj's worked and eventually we were able to put them on normally again and they stayed on all night.

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C.Y.

answers from Grand Junction on

You can try two things. First, put the footie jammies on backwards and then zip them up. The other that sometimes works, but not as well is putting duct tape around her diapers. Obviously not too tight. Hope one of those works. Don't feel too bad, my 18 month old niece and 22 month daughter just had a grand old time in poop yesterday!

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A.J.

answers from Provo on

Hey - this is the BEST advice. Buy a bunch of those zipper up from the leg PJ's. Cut off the feet. Put your toddler in them BACKWARDS so the zipper is in the back! Make sure you buy the ones with the snap cover that goes over the zipper too. I haven't seen a toddler that can get out of that outfit yet! good luck.

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A.F.

answers from Salt Lake City on

Ohhhhh.... I definitely feel for you. I'm still having that problem with my twin boys. I had to start taping their diapers on so they wouldn't spread poop all over the room and each other. I started with masking tape so I wouldn't have to cut it off (at 18ish months, they're not very good at holding still for diaper changes), but when they figured out how to get out of that, I had to graduate to packing tape. Mainly because I had that and I didn't have duct tape. I'm still using it. (They're 28 months now!). As far as undressing... mine still do it once in a while and I have to go redress them. But I have resorted to taping their clothes on a few times. I've wrapped it around their waist like a belt so at least if they get anything off, they'll still have pants on. When I first started taping, once they figured out that they couldn't get out of it, they stopped trying for a while. Then I ran into trouble when I would forget or just neglect to do it and they noticed that it was gone. Anyway... I don't have much help other than that, because mine still try to undress and take their diapers off at naptime and sometime during the night. Good luck!

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K.I.

answers from Denver on

The diaper pin trick through the zipper works great!

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A.S.

answers from Salt Lake City on

Put her pajamas on her backwards ( so the zipper, snap or whatever is in the back). My 2 youngest did the same thing and putting their pjs on backwards has stopped them. afer a couple of months I was able to put them on normal again.

Good luck.

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J.C.

answers from Casper on

If you can prevent her from getting to the diaper then you might not have a problem. We have undressers too and found that if you put them in the feety pjs with a zipper and then safety pin the zipper at the top, they can't get the zipper down far enough to get out. And with winter on the way, those pjs will be great for keeping her warm. Duct tape on the diaper sounds like a good suggestion, or even putting the diaper on backwards--that might stump her for a while. Good luck.

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J.L.

answers from Pocatello on

Have you tried putting zip-up, one-piece pajamas on backwards so the zipper is in the back so she can't reach it? You could also try button up pajamas that button in the back. I also tried putting my sons onsies on backwards because he couldn't quite manouver to get the snaps when they were at the back of the diaper instead of the front.

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C.M.

answers from Denver on

Put a Halo sleepsack over her pajamas. It's a wearable blanket and the zipper is at the bottom. She will not figure out how to unzip it. My children didn't know how to unzip it until a little over 2 years old. Use this instead of a blanket.

You can buy them at Babies-R-Us or many websites. They're great! Good luck!

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A.R.

answers from Missoula on

M....this one made me laugh because it reminded me of one of our sons. I solved the issue by being willing to cut the feet out of his blanket sleepers and put them on him backwards when I dressed him. He wasn't able to unzip them because the zipper was in back and the little flap at the top snapped and covered the zipper. (I can't remember what brand it was) I also had one that was houdini and was constantly slipping through the belt on shopping cards...till I started tying his shoe laces together once he was seated and buckled in.

azure

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K.D.

answers from Denver on

Is it an issue with the jammies? Last winter our son, then about the same age, hated the jammies with feet. We let him choose some other jammies, still really warm and then wear socks. Sometimes the socks stayed on, but the issue seemed to be, and still seems to be that the footed jammies made him too warm, and that was why he took them off, and yes, then was cold. GL!

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J.P.

answers from Colorado Springs on

We have been through this. We put onesies on my daughter BACKWARDS. You have to find the kind that snaps more towards the stomach, under their belly button, and not right between the legs. If you get the kind that snaps right between the legs then turning it around wouldn't do anything. The kind that snaps higher puts the snaps on their lower back which is much more difficult to unsnap. Get them as snug as you safely can so that she can't pull it from the front and reach the snaps. Having to twist around to reach them is a lot of work. Our daughter could never get out of it because she could see or feel the snaps. I believe it's the Gerber brand but it's been so long I can't remember. You might have to open packages to figure it out! You can put jammies under the onesie with the onesie backwards. That way, you trap the jammies and she can stay warm. The only issue is that it makes the neck on the onesie higher but it's still better than poo poo! Oh, you've brought back some memories!!!

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S.F.

answers from Denver on

My cousin had this same problem with her daughter. She solved it by putting her pajamas on backwards. It looked little funny, but took care of the issue. Good luck!

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S.L.

answers from Fort Collins on

Oh, I'm sorry I'm laughing - this just brings back memories! We wound up duct taping our daughter's diaper on during naps and before bed time. That worked quite well, but was understandably inconvenient.

What we finally settled into was to safety pin her sleeper shut. We used zip up footed sleepers. I ran a safety pin from the inside of the sleeper, across the zipper (going through the little hole in the top of the zipper pull), back through to the inside of the sleeper and pinned on the inside. Because it was insider her sleeper, right under her chin and took more manual dexterity than she had, she was never able to undo it. If you can find real diaper pins, they have a safety lock that slides over the head of the pin. It ensures that the pin will not pop open and poke baby. They are made by Dritz, and you can probably find them at a Babys R Us near the Gerber cloth diapers.

Best of luck,
S.

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M.A.

answers from Denver on

My daughter also used to take her diaper off at this age. We would use electrical tape around the waist of her diaper at night. No more problems! Good luck.

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M.G.

answers from Grand Junction on

We went through sort of the same thing with a toddler that would not keep jammies on. We found some jammies that either snapped or zipped and put them on backwards, that way they can't reach the snaps or zipper. We did the same thing with the diaper too and it worked really well. Good Luck!!

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N.P.

answers from Salt Lake City on

About the diaper part, my friend put duct tape over the tabs of the diaper. Worked great! lol. In the morning she did have to cut the sides of the diaper with scissors, but it was better than having poop all over.

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N.R.

answers from Billings on

Get big enough blanket sleeper that you can twist the feet around to the back - put them on backwards and zip up the back.

Never had to try it but I heard that it works.

I'm sure "this too will pass."

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M.P.

answers from Grand Junction on

Our son was a "stripper". We ended up using the big diaper safety pins....the ones that are really hard to get undone because of the plastic covering the top of the pin.....we pinned his shirt to his pants if he had on seperate jammies, or we pinned his zipper closed by sliding the pin just under the zipper so it couldn't be pulled down. It worked like a charm. Good luck.

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P.W.

answers from Provo on

After reading all your advice, I vote for the diaper pin through the zipper trick!

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