3 yr old keeps on changing her clothes

my 3 yr old daughter wants to keep changing her clothes. as soon as she wakes in the morning she starts whinging to get dressed. if i say no, she has a tantrum. i have tried to control it but if i let her have her way, she would be changing every 5 minutes. sometimes when i put her to bed i hear her in her room opening the draws and getting clothes out. other than this she is a normal child (although VERY strong willed. is this normal behaviour or does she have some sort of compusive disorder?

[anxiousmomtobe?]

Typical little girl behaviour.  Let her pick her outfit and tell her she must leave it on all day.  To satisfy her, give her a box of sress up things that she puts on over her clothes.  Things like tacky jewelry, hats, wigs, shoes, aprons, etc.  Hit your local thrift store for the items.

[pixijal]

I agree...totally normal.
I have 2 large drawers of dress up clothes, and my daughter still does it at 5.  

[RockRose]

amie - why not let her change her clothes every five minutes?  I bet she wouldn't do it for more than a couple days,  at most.    It's not like you're going to have to do a lot of laundry - if she's wearing clothes for a tiny bit of time,  they're not dirty.

Sometimes if you just let your kids do something they really want to do,  as much as they want to do it,  they grow tired of it.

[Trialanderror]

My youngest sister insisted on wearing skirts since toddlerhood. Even for downhill skiing. She only got tired of it after age 7. My son has been trying to leave the house half naked since toddlerhood, even during snow storms. Both of them are pretty normal children otherwise, just a bit peculiar. Take it as a blessing that your daughter has a mind of her own and will likely be an interesting and interested adult.

[nalla]

My 3 year old is doing the same thing! And she will also wear layers and layers of clothes. For Christmas we got her a bunch of dress up clothes and that cut the problem in half. What is really working for us, is the clothes that she gets out of her drawer/closet, we make her put them back. She has to hang the clothes back up and fold them and put them back in her drawer right after she takes them off. This is really working because it takes up so much of her time just putting the clothes away. And she really doens't like to do it. So right now she is just sticking to her play clothes. Maybe this might work for your daughter. Good luck!

[imcrazy2]

OMG!!!  My 3 year old daughter does it too!!  Drives me INSANE.  She will change ALL DAY LONG, and the worst part is that she throws the clean clothes she's had on for 10 minutes on the floor.  I finally put her dresser IN her closet, and bought a lock for her closet door.  Now she only has access when I'm there to supervise--works great.  (Except for the tantrums, of course)  Good Luck!!

[Calgal2]

My three and half year old boy does this.  He is sooooooooooooo into his clothes and shoes. He has to pick it out, put them on and change them several times a day.He has to have a spiderman shirt, or his green shoes.  If I can't materialize a lost shoe he falls to pieces.  I was starting to wonder if he was a little too concerned about his appearence.  I am glad to see this is typical at this age.

[2boys1princess]

my 3 1/2 son is the same way!!! it appears that it's normal behavior for three year olds. even though my oldest didn't do it. personally, i find it funny and yes, also annoying... he loves sports coats. i came home from work one day and he had one on three sizes too small (2T, he's a 5T), he was so excited that he found it, first thing he told me when i came in the door, "look mommy, don't i look cool? take me a picture!" i bought him a hamper to put his clothes in when he decides to change again, since he'd worn it for such a short time, every night i just put it right back. now i don't have to find his clean clothes all over the house. enjoy it, they won't be doing this for long.   ;-)