Halting Houdini (or at least slowing down little escape artists)

Some babies never try it. Once their diaper is on, they toddle off to resume their normal activities. But some... you never know in what condition you will find their diaper - or if you will ever find it at all. These little engineers have busy fingers and figure out how to take anything and everything apart.

On of my friends had a child like this. When they put her pajamas on they had to put a safety pin in between each of the snaps or they would find her in the middle of the night, buck naked.

My Lily is one of these. Hook and Loop type diapers, like my bumGenius, were just an invitation to trouble. My first mistake was to leave it uncovered. She sat down after a diaper change one day and figured out how to remove the diaper and the game was ON. Streaking through the house giggling - she knew she had a fabulous new trick.

One easy solution is to have them always in a onesie or other snap crotch outfit. This makes it difficult, but the determined child will not be fooled. They know they can unlatch the diaper through their clothes.

One day while going through some of my sewing notions I remembered I had some 1.5 inch hook-side Aplix from a previous project. I cut about a five inch segment and put it over the diaper the next time I fastened it.

Here is a fastened bumGenius with the Aplix next to it.











And here you see it with the Aplix covering the tabs.

I try to make sure the size is right so that the corners of the Aplix are fastened down around the tabs - so you can see they don't cover the tabs entirely.

While this solution worked very well for a while, Lily did eventually find that, with concentration and work, she could still get those corners up and remove her diaper. But when the diaper is covered in a snap crotch situation, the closure is much flatter and she hasn't been able to get it off under her clothes. This wasn't the perfect solution it seemed to be for a few weeks, but it has slowed her down considerably. With clothes on top, I can be pretty confident that I will find her still diapered after a nap.

Aplix can be found for around $1 per yard, which will give you enough "Diaper Locks" to rotate through several diapers or allow you to cut some in different sizes. The 1.5 inch is the perfect size because it matches the Loop on the bumGenius.

An even easier fix can be to put the diaper on backwards. Again, the more covered up you keep the diaper, the more difficult it will be for your little one to decipher the new trick.