This post will be old news to some of you but for others prepare to have your socks blown off with the simple piece of information I am about to impart. It is all to do with those little envelope folds on the shoulders of baby vests and bodysuits that I though gave you a bit more manoeuvrability to pull it over their heads. If you know the secret then you are probably shouting ‘how did you not know this’ at me but if you don’t know then read on.
Let me set the scene. Your darling baby has just done one of those explosive nappies. The sort that seeps all up their backs soaking every item of clothing and leaving you holding your nose and dreading what’s to come. This is when you need to know the one parenting trick that seems to be part of some secret club.
If you are like me you would then proceed to carefully peel the vest off your baby, all the while getting poo smeared further over their back, in their hair and to be honest, all over you! I challenge you to remove said vest over the head without doing this. Believe me I tried on multiple occasions and it was not easy.
Now had I been told of this simple parenting trick many moons ago I would have saved myself a lot of bother and a lot of baths!
It isn’t even anything secret, but in fact what the vests were designed to do but for some reason most people don’t know. Me included.
Now prepare yourselves for this simple trick.
As I previously mentioned the trick involves those little foldy flaps on the shoulders of a baby vest? They are not in fact just some fashion design but instead they have a purpose.
When faced with a messy nappy and soaked vest all you need to do is unpop the bottom poppers, roll the vest down over the shoulders and pull it off over their feet. It’s that easy. No mess, no pooey hair and no need for extra baths.
And there you have my little life changing trick for today.
For those of you who already knew did you find out before or after having babies and for those who didn’t know you can thank me later 🙂
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Image by We Are // The Clarkes
I think I must have got told this a gazillion times whilst pregnant and in the early days of motherhood. I even got told again the other day 15 months later!! All from older parents or grandparents. It did come in handy a few times I must admit!
I wish I’d had people tell me. I feel like I had no need for all those messy nappy changes! x
I did not know this amazing fact until after my son was out of nappies and popper vests. My friends and I were like ‘Noooooooooo how did we not know this?!’
I will definitely remember this if we have another though!
Katie, why do we not seem to find out the useful information until after it’s needed?! I now tell everyone just to be kind x
Mind. Blown. I want another baby now just to try this out!
Ha ha. Do it. Honestly I wish I had known this! x
My friend, who is a supermummy, told me this shortly after I had my little girl. It was the best piece of advice ever – and I don’t think I would have figured it out myself at all! 🙂
I only learnt this after many months of wrestling the dirty vest over my little girls head!! It’s so obvious once you know isn’t it?! X
Cloth nappies = no nappy up the back blow outs. No joke, I’m on my second child and have never had one!
I have heard the same from others about cloth nappies. Definitely another reason to give them a try x
If you’ve got a wriggly baby, baby who stands up when nappy changing…
When changing the nappy, pull the vest up and button up one popper over one shoulder so it’s up and out of the way!
Saves the vest and easier access! My husband did this one and everyone who sees me do it says they are going to do it!
Great tip! Thank you x
My mum told me this early on and it was a total game changer! The one helpful thing my HV mentioned was to do with getting the baby into anything over their head without ending up stuck – you stretch the neck of the vest or top out as wide as it will go using the flaps and bunch it up till you have a wide circle of bunched up fabric on the surface, then place baby on top of the circle so the bottom of the circle is at the nape of their neck, and then it’s easy to pull the top half of the circle over their head to the front of their neck and voila! All done with no tears!
Hopefully this makes sense (doing a night feed for my 6 month old), because it’s been so useful for me! X
Excellent tip, thank you Rebecca. Hope you managed to get a bit of sleep last night! x
Yay I knew a hack! Definitely echo that we’ve had no blowouts with reusable nappies. Absolutely mahoosive poos yes but the only blowout where it was out of the nappy all over clothes was in a disposable – small mercies it didn’t go all over the car seat!