Has your infant or child spit up or soiled their blanket sleeper, and now you need to change one? The process may look tough, but with the help of this article, you'll become a professional in no-time.
Steps
Part 1
Part 1 of 4:
Preparation
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Open the new blanket sleeper that you hope to transition the child into so that you don't have to hassle with it when the child is ready, and the transition is super-easy.
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Take off any additional blankets and blanket-like outer coverings that exist on or near the child.Advertisement
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Take a look at the garment to find out which type of closure system the sleeper uses. While most sleepers use zippers as the closure system, some undoubtedly will use buttons or snaps.
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Determine how long the closure system is. While most children's blanket sleepers have zippers that zip from neck to ankle, a few only go from neck to waist and can make it harder for the parents to change. However, most snaps or buttons will go from neck to waist.
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Communicate to the child that they must lay down in front of you. If the child is tiny and/or small, you will need to pick them up and carry them over to the changing area. At first, you won't need the new blanket sleeper (or at least not until the old blanket sleeper has been placed to the side.Advertisement
Part 2
Part 2 of 4:
Removal of Old Blanket Sleeper
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Undo the closure system on their garment. Unzip or unbutton/unsnap the blanket sleeper from the top of the garment to as far down as allowable at the bottom; when the zipper stops, you must stop and not before then, or you could risk accidentally tearing the garment when taking the older garment off the child.
- If the garment has a zipper-flap closure at the top of the garment, you'll need to unsnap this piece first. These closures are used to intentionally stop the child from un-zippering the garment without the parent's consent (which can intentionally "mess-up" the child's thought process enough, thereby making them lose their concentration and quite possibly be able to stop them from undressing themselves at all from it).
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Grab and pull the child's ankle upward from the side of the sleeper that has the zipper in it. If you have a chance, you can separate their legs outwards a little bit, pushing the blanket sleeper closer to the child's still-attached side and laying their leg down.
- When the parent grabs the child's ankles, don't be too rough. Keep a firm grip on the child's ankles to stop the child from fidgeting (especially in the case of a wiggly child who resists getting his/her sleeper changed).
- Don't bend the child's knees backward too far when pulling out the legs from the leggings. If you do it too rough, you could easily break or fracture a bone in/near the child's knee.
- If this zipper runs to waist-high height, you can't quite use this step. You'll need to pull the arms out of the sleeves first instead, with the legs following with this step. Pick up the child from behind and fold the blanket sleeper to a location underneath the child's back.
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Deal with the child's arms if the sleeper was neck-to-ankle zip. Reach into one of the sleeves and grab the child's arms from just above their elbow, and pull out their arm from the sleeve. Repeat this process with the other arm once you have gotten arm number one out. If the zipper or buttons were neck-to-waist, you had to complete this step in the step before, and so you can skip this step and move on.
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Deal with removing the other leg from the garment. Reach far enough down into the legging that hasn't been pulled out yet so that you can grab the child's ankle and pull out this leg. The child's knee will bend (as it naturally should), but as long as you don't push the knee so it stretches too much at an uncommon angle (to where the knee can't bend and can snap/break) , you shouldn't have a problem.Advertisement
Part 3
Part 3 of 4:
Transition
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1Place the new sleeper down onto the changing surface.
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Communicate to the child that you want them to move to the side of the surface where the new sleeper lays. Have them lay so that their head and neck are just a hair above the sleeper's neckline (you'll be able to readjust and resituate the child into the sleeper when you move it onto them). If the child can't do this themselves, you may need to pick them up and carry them over to the new sleeper.Advertisement
Part 4
Part 4 of 4:
Replacement with New Blanket Sleeper
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Reverse the process that you used before. Take care of securing the legs, followed by the arms. If it's a neck to ankle closure, you can deal with the arms between taking care of both of their legs and finishing with the leg that didn't take much effort to pull out and place it gently down into the sleeper.
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Close up the sleeper. Zipper up the zipper to the very top portion of the garment or close up the buttons that run the garment's closure system's length.
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Prevent little hands from messing with the zipper and fold and close up the zipper-stop flap (if available). Snap the closure snap into place if a zipper-stop flap is available (most will have this attached to the child's garment.
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Continue with the normal process of life. Dependent on what you choose to do with the child when dressed, you don't need to worry so much after being dressed into their new sleeper. Grab the child under their arms, and you'll be ready to continue the night. Rest assured: your child is ready to spend their cozy night, all snugly and peaceful again, with a fresh new sleeper on.Advertisement
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Tips
- In the transition between changing from one sleeper to the other, identify the child's diaper status (if they are wearing one) and change it if applicable at that time, before you let them lay down and get their new one wet as well. While undressing the child, make sure that their diaper is still quite desirable and not too wet to wear.Thanks
- Some blanket sleeper garments on some infants/children's sleepers have hoods. Raise the child's head a teensy-tiny bit and pull the hood back and off the child. (The hood should fall off the child when the child's head is raised slightly off the changing surface.)Thanks
- Although the majority of blanket sleepers are of a one-piece footed construction, there are some that are of a two-piece construction. The two-piece ones are more cumbersome to change, but changing these is just like changing each of the parts of most children's clothing, including a pair of pants and a shirt.Thanks
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