Baby Z's Special Gift

Since my Precursor to Potty Training post, Baby Z's Houdini talents of getting out of his diaper have improved. After the first incident, he took off his diaper during a nap two more times after he had done a nice little Number Two.

The second incident is probably my grossest moment as a Mom, although I'm sure there are more to come. I should have know when I could smell the poo from the kitchen. When I opened the door, there was Baby Z au naturale from the waist down. Diaper? Plopped down on one side of the crib. Poo? Neatly discarded on the other side. In a CSI-worthy recreation of events, I believe he removed the offending diaper thus spilling its contents into the crib. After discarding the soggy Huggy, he proceeded to neatly pick up the pieces of poop and remove them one by one. This is exactly what he does with food he doesn't like- accurately pincering each piece and tossing them over the side of his tray. After what was probably a good fifteen minutes of work, each piece of poo, including the broken crumbly pieces, was on the floor. Baby Z celebrated this accomplishment with a little victory pee through the slats of the crib. The splatter pattern showed there was likely some play involved (perhaps he was trying to draw his initials).

When I got over my shock and realized Baby Z was putting his now dry-poo crusty fingers in his mouth, I grabbed an old towel, covered him and gingerly lifted him out of the crib and into the tub. We scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed some more and I tell you that Poo is more tenacious than garlic when it gets on your hands. I used a brush and wash cloth. I clipped his finger nails and rubbed the wash cloth under them. Still, it wasn't until the next day that I couldn't smell poo on his hands. Perhaps someone can recommend a poo-removing soap (kind of like Nature's Miracle for pets, but for kids?).

Well, so what is a Mom to do? After a quick google search, I found some good options. The first is to put him to sleep in a onesie, pajamas or overalls. You can also try putting the diaper on backwards. When the kid figures that out, you move on to duct tape. Or perhaps a combination of devices worthy of Houdini himself: the duct tape, the onesie, then overalls, then a heavy chain with rusty old locks?.

I thought I was doing fine with just the onesie approach until this weekend:

Guess that onesie had a little too much play in it. Baby Z just pulled the diaper out from underneath it. Zoolander would be impressed. Well, I may have to move on to the duct tape sooner than I thought. At least I can get it in a color-coordinating white.