Twenty Month Old does not like to change clothes

[savik]

My twenty month old does not like to change her clothes. She likes her orange Halloween shirt and her blue pants. She will sometimes let me put on purple pants. If you try to change her clothes then she screams and will not stop. It is rather embarrassing to have a toddler wearing Halloween clothes for Christmas.  I bought her a snowman shirt and she will sometimes wear it--but if you pair it with the matching red pants, she will yank on them and scream "I don't like this." over and over until you are about to cry.

Sometimes, I wipe her down and just keep her in her clothes for more than a day.  Is that bad?  She doesn't smell.  Sometimes she has stains--like today--which is absolutely awful and I don't want to take her anywhere.

I have tried letting her pick out things, but she usually wants to wear the same thing over and over again.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[savik]

Thank you for your help and suggestions. I think I just figured out the she likes the color orange.  I wish more girls' clothes were made in orange.  Waitingwithhope--my oldest went through the fairy princess stage too--that is so funny.  What is with little girls and their costumes?  One thing I never gave in on was the plastic high heels!!!

Thanks to everyone.

I did leave it out of the pile--and you know what--she chose the snowman shirt and RED pants--go figure!!!  Now, she points at frosty wherever she sees a snowman--and even has to watch Frosty the Snowman--I think you are right about fixation.

Happy Holidays.

[waitingwithhope]

Opps, I read costume, but it sounds like a Halloween shirt, not costume. Either way...you can wait it out, she'll get tired of it or eventually it'll get holes in it :)

[waitingwithhope]

It is a control issue and she enjoys the power struggle. The nice part of this is, she is able to now realize that her desires and her wants can be met--she realizes that she has power--which is what all normal two year olds do. Try to figure out what it is about the outfit that she likes--is it the color? Style? was it because she got so much attention the first time she wore it that she is hoping to repeat that attention each time she wears it? I would try and go shopping with her and allow her to pick out clothing, keep giving her simple clothing choices and if need be, you can always let her know that the outfit is for the fall and together you can pack it in a box and put it on the shelf---assuring her it will come back out next year at Halloween. You'd be surprised at just how much a two year old can understand :) She'd probably throw a fit, kick and scream and try to see if this display wears you out, but eventually, she'd want to go outside and eventually she'd get dressed. If all this does not work or it is not something you can do, let the phase run its course. I saw a little girl in a princess costume, wand and all, at the mall the other day and every mother in the world that saw that must have grinned because we all knew that meant that the daughter thought there was nothing more beautiful to wear. Take pictures, though, you can have fun at her wedding with the slide show of pictures of her in her Halloween costume :)

[jd1419]

My five year old son does this sometimes (but not to this extreme) He will fixate on a certain outfit for the whole week--even if it does not match I let him wear it.  We are lucky to the point he does take it off at night so my DH washes his clothes for the next morning.  If she will wear her snowman shirt let her pick out the pants that she thinks go with it--I have always been told remember what battles to actually pick--because we are not going to win everyone---Just wait next month you may be on here telling us that she won't stop changing her clothes--my little guy just went through this phase--it seemed like if we were at home and not doing anything very constructive he would change his clothes every ten minutes.... One other solution try and just leave three things out for her to choose from--and hide the halloween shirt--she will get out of habit and if she says she is not ging to wear anything unitl the Shirt is back--if you can stay home--just let her run around that way.

[Carolina2806]

My daughters only like to wear certain kinds of clothes. I try to let them choose,but your situation sounds different because she only wants to wear the same things. She might be just going through a phase or she must really like her Halloween shirt. Aside from embarrassing, as long as she is clean I don't see a problem. Let her wear it until she is tired of it.