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Son’s Changing Table “Flip” Move Freaking Parent Out

June 2, 2009 by APW

jake on changing table I have been frustrated this week with the new ‘phase’ that my son is going through. It seems that every time I lay him down on the changing table, either for a diaper change or a change of clothes, he does the quick “flip” from his back onto his tummy. It happens so fast that I have no time to react. Therefore, I have resorted to a few options with mild success:

1. Turning the overhead fan on to distract him – this works about 50 % of the time

2. Pinning him down and listening to him scream bloody murder

3. Dressing him haphazardly while he is on his tummy,

4. Trying to do all of clothes/diaper changing on the floor.

This new challenge serves me right because another new dad told me a few weeks ago that his 7 month old was doing the “flip”, and I replied, “that I don’t have to deal with that problem.” Now, I need a few tips.

My son is quite amused with his new trick (as you can see by his mischievous smile in the photo above), but this stay at home dad is fed up with it. Changing my son’s clothes and diapers used to be a ‘bonding experience’ and now it feels more like an uphill battle.
I am not sure how long this phase will last, but please shed some light on how to combat the changing table flip.

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Filed Under: babies / pregnancy, NYC Tagged With: changing tables, diapers, safety

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. johnsaponara says

    June 3, 2009 at 4:10 am

    Well Lance, sorry to say but it started for Loy when he was 8 or 9 months and it still goes on. Actually he’s a lot quicker @ it now than he was before. It’s a lot of distraction technique to get through it. Right now he loves to hold something a bottle of lotion/desitin/etc. Or sometimes giving him one of his books or doing itsy bitsy spider. Something to make him forget that he’s actually having a diaper change…we actually got to the point where we don’t trust having him up on the table and eventually moved the mat to the floor of his bedroom.

    Reply
  2. Jeff says

    June 11, 2009 at 2:04 am

    Hey Lance,

    Checked out your post on “the flip” after you mentioned it today at the Battery park meetup. Our changing pad has always been in the bathroom. We used to keep it on a table when he was really young but as soon as he started squirming we decided we had to put it on the floor, mostly because it’s hard tile and well any fall would be really bad. it’s hard, on the back especially but so far he doesn’t flip, just squirms so we haven’t had to deal yet.

    Reply

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