Will not wear clothes

theaterchick1897

For months now my son does not want to wear clothes and it's only getting worse. Getting him dressed is an exhausting 30-45min experience every morning because he kicks and screams and bucks and tries to pull his pants off while I'm putting his shirt on etc. Once they are on he spends every second whining that his shirt hurts and his pants hurt etc, but I don't believe they hurt at all. If we go anywhere the first thing he does when we get home is strip down to his pull up and he complains about his pull up and diapers hurting too saying he has to take them off. He has taken them off several times while in bed and got pee and poop everywhere during a nap or the night. My husband and I are at a lose especially now that its getting colder because he hates long sleeve clothes even worse. I mean he acts like we're killing him because we're making him wear a shirt. Anyone else been through this or has any advice? Thanks

greyt00

Does he/has he ever had any sensory issues?  Issues with sound, lights, touching new things, different foods, etc.?

Never been through this particular thing myself, but I have heard of kids with sensory processing disorder taking issue with clothing.  Not liking tags rubbing them, not liking long sleeves and/or pants, or not liking the feel of loose clothing. 

dufferoo

Yeah, it sounds like they might really be causing him discomfort. Have you tried bribing him? That might at least discern whether it's a sensory thing or a control thing...

Jessica+Penny

It does sound like a sensory issue but I don't know much about that type of thing.

Does he get to pick out his own clothes after you give him reasonable choices?

OR

(this would only work if it is cooler outside) Let him walk outside naked if he refused to get dressed. If it is cool outside he will see why we wear clothes and why we don't go naked outside. I did this to my daughter recently when she was refusing to get dressed and pulling off her clothes. I quit fighting her. I let her walk on the porch with just a diaper on and within seconds she wanted to go back inside to get dressed.

TiffanyBerry

Have you tried different fabrics?  Different weights?  Will he wear short sleeve shirts?

DD used to only wear long sleeve shirts.  Wouldn't wear anything else.  (Well, pants and skirts, but never dresses, and never short sleeves.)

Now, she absolutely will not at all wear pants (but will tights) and only dresses, and only dresses with no sleeves.  Doesn't matter if it's raining and 55F outside (she'll just want to go out and play in it).

That's fine by me.  She can choose what she wears.  When it gets below 32F, she has to wear a coat, for safety reasons.  Anything else is her choice.

She *does* have some sensory issues (not dx'ed SPD, but definitely some issues), and this is just one of them.

If you really try to work with your son to find clothing that he will wear, is there something?  

fusionbride

Since its been going on for months, I agree with potential sensory issue-- discuss with your pedi.  Also does he have dry skin or excema or something like that?   Again I would discus with pedi about best way to help with that.

other than looking into a medical issue, I probably would try things like giving him 2 options of what to wear and letting him choose, letting him wear short sleeves unless its below freezing, and letting him be mostly naked when at home but requiring clothes to go out.

Good luck!

RedDawnsRevenge

My 2yo does this, the child lives to be nakie. I thought it was just a phase, my other GFs with same age kids all have this problem too. :-?? I figured it was DD1 trying to control her environment and test boundaries.