Slide button-up shirts over toddlers' heads 't-shirt style'
Had I read Mindy's hack seven years ago, I wouldn't have taken my son to most fancy occasions wearing long-sleeved t-shirts (hey, i ironed them, ok?):
My 22 month-old son owns quite a few casual collared shirts with 4 buttons on them. Instead of putting them on one arm at a time and then buttoning up, we do all but the top button and slide it over his head t-shirt style. Then, there is only one button to finish up with; much faster than fiddling with 4 pint-sized buttons and button holes on a fast-moving toddler!
Related: Lots of getting-kids-dressed optimization tips in the Fashion/General Cuteness archive
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I'm confused. I have an 8 month old and when I'm putting a shirt with a button up a collar on him, (like a polo shirt) even with all the buttons undone, it barely fits over his big noggin. He screams like he's reliving traumatic memories of his birth. I can't imagine trying to pull this over his head without all the buttons open. I could see this working for dress shirts with buttons down the whole way. Perhaps the neck opening gets bigger in relation to head size by the time you get to 22 months. Or my kid has a big head. My wife would agree with the last possibility.
Posted by: Jay | 11 January 2008 at 08:47 AM
Jay, I was talking about button down shirts (buttons all the way down), not polos...nice catch on the wording!
Posted by: Mindy | 11 January 2008 at 11:55 AM
Hey, I put my OWN button-up shirts on that way, especially when I'm trying them on. Saves time in the fitting room.
Posted by: MJ | 11 January 2008 at 12:46 PM
Jay: our son has always had a big, big head (so big in fact that it inspired extra medical tests to be sure everything was okay). The best way to put a polo-type shirt on a big headed kid is to lay out the shirt wrong side up with the head hole spread to an O shape. Lay the kid on the shirt with the back of his head in the center of the O.
With one hand, anchor the back of the shirt/bottom of the O to your kid's neck (this hand also support the weight of the child and their neck). With the other hand tug the opening over the crown and then down past the face.
If the shirt can't clear the front of the crown (right above the forehead), it's a lost cause. Otherwise, pulling at these angles help stretch the shirt enough to get in a huge noggin.
Asha: Long sleeved shirts at a formal occasion don't seem nearly so weird as ironing a t-shirt. My mind boggles at the proposal.
Posted by: adrienne | 11 January 2008 at 12:55 PM