A short story, and a cloth diaper question

Summer really has reached Wisconsin, as the temperature has soared from wool-socks-chilly to Oh-my-GOD-it-is-HOT in a matter of a week. I packed away all of Jack’s warm footie pajamas and now he sleeps in just shorts and a cloth diaper at night. Which used to be just fine.

Usually Jack wakes me up no later than 6:30 on the weekends, so I was surprised that by 7:00 I hadn’t heard anything. I tiptoed past his room towards the bathroom so I wouldn’t wake him if, by some miracle, he was still sleeping. Since I can’t even fool a seventeen-month old, he of course stood up in his bed and said “HI!” as I tried to sneak by. Immediately I had reason for concern: when he’s awake in the morning but quiet, that usually mean he’s been up to something, but his options for mischief in his crib are pretty limited.

Or so I thought.

I found Jack in his crib, completely naked, holding his cloth diaper in one hand, over his head. And his comment on the whole subject?

“Uh-oh!”

Uh-oh, indeed, Jack.

***

Cloth diaper mamas, do your babes find it easy and amusing to take off velcro-fastened cloth diapers? He either can’t or won’t remove the snap diapers, but if he sees a velcro fastener, rrrrrip – off it comes and we have naked toddler time. Velcro closure diapers make up about half of our diaper stash. What can I do to discourage this? I try to communicate to him that I disapprove, but I’m not doing a very good job of that because it is so darn funny I just end up laughing when he does it.

What naked toddler time looks like: happiness.

6 Responses to A short story, and a cloth diaper question

Stephanie

June 5, 2011 at 4:14 am

Does he mainly do it overnight or after naps? You could stick to saving snap dipes for those times and only use velcro when someone's with him or he's occupied. I know it's warmer, but could you put a onesie/sleeveless onesie over the dipe but inder the shorts? I remember cutting the sleeves off some of Mare's onesies so make them cooler for sleeping in to keep her diapers on.

This is a concern of mine since I'm making all our fitteds with velcro. I'm thinking I will wait to put velcro on my Medium sized dipes to see if this is a problem, then I'll just do snaps instead if it is.

Melissa Vose

June 5, 2011 at 2:02 pm

Hey, I'm from NPN! Your sweetie is awfully cute! Yes, my toddlers did this lovely trick too, velcro noise AND a chance to be nekkid is just too much fun to resist.

I bought a few pull up kushies covers to go over the diaper, or used a onesie like Stephanie. Good luck! =)

Terri

June 5, 2011 at 3:38 pm

Hey Jenn, my son has recently discovered this fun trick too! It's SUPER hot here but I usually use a sleeveless onesie or shorts over the diaper if it's a velcro one. Happy days and challenges – is he into the climbing stage yet? Woah wait til that one happens!
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Melissa

June 5, 2011 at 11:36 pm

Thank goodness there were no solids in that diaper I remember a younger sibling painting the crib fairly regularly when we were kids!

Anyway, at night, I like the onesie idea, or the suggestion of saving snap diapers for nighttime. I'll add that my daughter often seems to need to go to pee when she is taking her velcro diapers off. She is a good bit older, and is also EC'd plus cloth, so that probably isn't the case here, but if you're interested in introducing the potty nonchalantly earlier rather than later, you might start offering it when the diaper has been taken off. If nothing else, it may become a cue instead of just a way to show you a trick or find a new hat!
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I Thought I Knew Mam

June 6, 2011 at 9:37 am

Ha! That is hilarious! What a clever guy

I think Baby will be doing the same thing in a few months. He tries to undo the velcro on his Bumgenius diapers whenever he is on the changing table. Luckily, he seems to forget about it once he is off the changing table!
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Tat

June 7, 2011 at 3:09 pm

Sorry I don't have a solution for you. My daughter would undo the Velcro even under the clothes! I ended up buying a snap press and replacing the Velcro with snaps.