Diaper Change Time

Of all the struggles that mother's have with their babies/toddlers, it is ironic to me that one of the biggest ones for some mothers is when it is time to change a diaper.  It becomes a power struggle between a parent with good intentions and a child that just does not want to sit still.  Some parents have such a hard time that it takes two grown adults to change the diaper of one toddler.

In all fairness to the wiggly babies and out there, it seems like it would be very hard to sit still.  I watch my son as he gets older and he gets extremely interested in things out off his reach and across the room.  Everything is amazing to him.  Earth is a new and exciting place with so many things to look at and touch.  So if I ask him to lay there and not move while I free him of a dirty diaper, that might not always go as planned.  Taking the dirty diaper off frees him of a main discomfort and makes him even more interested in getting to the interesting things all around him. So then I am left trying to figure out how to get him into the next clean diaper when he just wants to wiggle and roll over.  And let's not forget that he is a little ball of energy.  As he approaches being able to crawl the energy is building up, getting ready to take off.

I can win this battle though.

The trick though is winning without bodily fluids that are supposed to be deposited in the diaper ending up somewhere else.  This part of the battle does not always happen.  There have been several times that extra wipes have had to come out to wipe up the remnants of a rouge stream.

So I have to come at it with a good offense.  

My son has multiple toys that sit by the diaper changing station that are used only while diaper changes are happening.  The idea behind this is that maybe if I hand him a toy he hasn't seen for a few hours then he will be interested enough to be distracted.  Other times I talk to him while his diaper is being changed.  It amazes me how much more likely he is to relax and stay still if I ask him to relax his legs while I am trying to get them to bend.  And when all else fails, the best offense is a good defense.  Hurry and cover what might cause issues being uncovered.  Most of the time this means hurry and put a new diaper on.  But hurrying can only get you so far.

So I do my best and laugh when it doesn't go so well.  And I remember that he is little and doesn't really understand the importance of having a clean diaper.  I also remember that there are times in my life when someone asks me to do something I don't understand the reasoning behind and I want to symbolically wiggle and roll away.  But, just like I know better than my son does about changing diapers, there are people out there that know more about what is best for me.