Monday, May 24, 2010

i'm seriously asking

Does anyone - anyone! - know how to teach a very nearly two-year-old to stop grabbing handfuls of poo out of the back of his diaper when it's dirty? The way I know he's poopy right now is that he BRINGS IT TO ME, and says, "Here Ma." Thanks Son. And have mercy if I don't realize he's poopy right away ... Sometimes he also says, "No touch the poo-poo!" very sternly as he offers me his discovery. Nice.

I'm not easily grossed out, but a girl has her limits. I need some ideas. I don't want to punish anything poo-related - Freud would not approve. But something has to be done.

How would YOU handle it?

10 comments:

Lisa said...

Oh my! I had this problem with one of my babysitting charges, and I have to say that I DID punish her...not like in the go-to-the-corner kind of way. More like in the chastising lecture "We do NOT stick our hands in our dirty diapers" kind of way. Actually, that emerged into a "No hands in pants" rule, which has served us pretty well. But she's a girl. I think I appealed to her "Little girls do NOT touch poop" side. Not sure how that would play out with a boy.

Valerie said...

Is this one of those times when all you can do is laugh?

Stephanie said...

Valerie, maybe it's one of those times when all YOU can do is laugh. I'm too busy scrubbing poo from under fingernails (AGAIN) to laugh.

Valerie said...

Sad.

Heather said...

Lord, I think I would make some consequences, Freud or no, so he realizes this is inappropriate. Time out or something. Yuck.

Buy really big onesies and put them under overalls so he cannot reach inside his diaper?

I'd probably start with a time out or a hand pop and see how persistent he would be.

Anonymous said...

I agree don't punish it. It may be more particular to boys than to girls. We always made a point of saying it was gross or Shoooey(one of the kids words for stinky) and not to touch. Every one of my boys has done it but with the middle and youngest though still gross not as bad because they seem to poop in hard formed lil balls....we actually joked about the middle one having rabbit poop for a long time.

youngest is 18 months and hasnt seemed to have the need to do this but once most of the time when he poops he will come bend over in front of you sticking his butt out and go "UCK" at the top of his lungs.
Steff

Jamie said...

I don't know...to me I think it is more of a safety and health concern. So, I would probably punish or make it VERY clear it is unacceptable. Sort of what Lisa said.
Good luck with this one, Momma!

Stephanie said...

I'm going to focus on keeping your hands out of your diaper, period. If I can break that habit when he's not poopy, then maybe I'll have a better shot at it when he is.

Thanks for the advice!

Brandy Thixton said...

Hi there, I popped over here from "It's Almost Naptime!!"

Our daughter would "paint" with her poo at this age. We tried everything we could think of to get her to stop. Finally, I started putting her in the shower (with a detachable shower head) as soon as it happened. I sprayed her down everywhere, all the while telling her "Gross! Yuck! NO! NO! NO!, and she HATED it. She screamed the whole time, but it only took 2 "showers" for her to get the point. We never had poo problems after that.

I hope this doesn't sound too harsh. We certainly didn't do anything painful (hot/cold water, spray her in the face, etc.)

But we did make sure it was an unpleasant experience for her.

Hope this helps!

Missy said...

We duct taped her diaper.
Maggie's of course.

She was taking it off at night and "painting" on her walls, crib, self.

During the day, onesies with shorts on top. NO ACCESS.