21 Month Old Not Taking off Clothes Yet

If I were you I wouldn't worry about it. I have three kids, the youngest is 2 1/2. She can take her clothes off, but let me tell you, it is no perk. there is nothing like being out to dinner and having a toddler yell "Look at my Boobies" for me to look at her with no shirt on!!! As long as she is on target for all the "normal" tasks, I would not worry about it. I have found with my kids that dressing themselves came with potty training. Until they need to take their own clothes off there is really no opportunity to show them.

I think 20 months seems a little early for her to be undressing herself, but if you want her to learn, you could motivate her by setting up a chart with stickers and reward her for the things she achieves, whether it be dressing potty training or other milestones. When she fills a chart with stickers, she gets a treat, prize, toy of her choice whatever. Toddlers in general respond to this motivational tool for all sorts of tasks.

No you should not be worried. Neither of my kids did this at that age unless it was unzipping footy pj's. My daughter wasn't able to take off her own shirt until she was older then 2. And neither of my kids were developmentally delayed at all. And yes you are correct. Once she can do this you will regret being worried about it. My 2 1/2 yr old takes off her pj's all the time and runs around the house in a diaper "Naked Baby". She also gets herself naked anytime you mention taking a bath. So, be grateful she can't do it yet.

Really? That's a milestone? Whoops. My 29 month old just started trying to get her clothes of in the past few weeks. It never occured to me that it was a "thing". I just decided to tell her to try one day. We are working on it. She has trouble getting her arms out of her shirts.

Anyway, my daughter is very smart. Talks like a 4 year old. Knows all the letters and words that start with them, can count to 20, blah blah blah. I am not worried that she can't undress herself yet.

This is definitely NOT a milestone. Developmental guidelines are just that- guidelines that reflect what approximately 50% of children can do at an approximate age. That means that 25% did it earlier and 25% did it later.

This is definitely not something to worry about, but is something to work on. Show her how to do it and she will probably pick it up quickly.

not really an issue. stop worrying.

Please dont follow ANY guidelines and worry that your child is a month behind. In fact throw away all those guideline books. I am a former foster mom and had 97 fosters, most under the age of 5.The reason I mention this is that the kids all did things at their own pace. Some walked at 8 months and others at 15 months or later. But their walking had nothing to do with their intelligence or motor delays.
Perhaps your daughter has no reason to undress. If you want you can have her 'help' you undress her. Grab a sleeve and tell her to pull. Pull her pant down a little and tell her to pull some more. Its hard for them to get shirts over their heads and some kids are afraid of having their face covered. But when she is 16 you will be telling her to PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!!!!!!! SO dont worry.

Do yourself a favor and throw out that guideline chart. It will most certainly drive you crazy. Unless she is having a noticeable delay in any area compared to other children you interact with DON'T WORRY! Let yourself relax and enjoy her. I am sure she learns new little things almost daily. Is it that important that she is taking her own clothes off right now? Probably not. When she finally starts, you'll be wishing she hadn't especially when you are at a function and she decides to get naked and run around in front of everyone!

Everyone does everything in their own time.
It's okay to worry but she is fine.
My daughter was speaking in sentences at 12 months and didn't walk until 19 months and she climbs trees now at two and a half. My daughter just recently, at two and a half, started taking her clothes off and on and it is a challenge to keep them on some days. I teach preschool and she attends, one day she went into the play area (behind a half wall) undressed and came out dancing!! I wanted to roll on the ground laughing.
Your daughter will be just fine. Your worry shows love though, so keep watching and wondering and loving. Be ready to be amazed as she is at those ah-ha moments.

L.,

I know you have heard this from other posts, but please don't worry. I have to bribe my 4 year old son to take his clothing off every night. She is taking her socks off that is great and I bet she is "helping you" while you are dressing her by putting her arm in the sleeve or head down so you can take off her shirt. And trust me you don't want her taking off her clothing, she may wind-up doing that while you are out and about and that would not be much fun for you. You are doing a great job, keep giving her hugs and kisses and keep up the good work.

My 28 month old does not do this either. He can help me put on his shirt and take off his socks and shoes. Also if we do not keep pants over his diaper he will take his diaper off, which not being potty trained is not a good thing. lol. Most likely like you my son feels that mom does just fine so why should I? I try every time i am dressing him to encourage him to do something himself. His shirt he is getting better at putting on because he hates it when his arms are half stuck in it and not pulled down over his tummy so he works at fixing his shirt the way it is suppose to be.

I know I am responding late...sorry about that. I know there are things that have guidelines that your child should do this and that and I hate those because they worry the parents that their child is not normal because they don't do this and that at this or that age. If your daughter isn't doing, so she's not doing it...so? You can say, let's try taking your pants off, to get undress for the night. Give her a "hand" alittle bit when she's doing it. She may not be interested that's all. That is good because couple of my boys have undressed, especially one and I was so tired from him undressing so much and now he tries on three sets of clothes and they have spiderman and I told him this morning no more changing because you are putting them in the hamper and they are not dirty...yet. jSo, you can encourage her to do those things but I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe she needs some encouragement because it can be difficult or maybe she is the type that likes to wear clothes all the time.
Encouragement is something I am always doing with my boys to do some things in the house such as chores...light chores. Help mommy take the clothes to the dryer when she takes them out of the washing machine. Set the table by each one putting his plate or bowl on the table with fork or spoon. Things like that. Don't worry Mom. :)

I would not worry about this one bit unless there is a reason, like you need her to learn because you have other children and need to get out of the house or she is 4 and still can't undress/dress herself. Otherwise what is the rush?

Like everyone else said, it's nothing to worry about. Kids are SO different and it's fun to see the little personalities that they were born with. My younger one is only a baby, but I can already tell how different my kids are.

You could always get her one of those dolls that teach kids how to get dressed, with buttons, snaps, a buckle, shoelace, etc. so she can practice those skills. Enjoy your little girl and be glad she's not one of these kids who loves being naked all the time! That's a battle every time you leave the house.

Gloria
http://centraljersey.citymommy.com

Hi,
I have a 3 1/2 year old boy. He didn't have any motivation to remove his own clothes. I actually printed out a reward chart today to help us with the "getting dressed". What is funny that my almost 2 year old nephew has been stripping himself regularly for a while. Kids are so different.

So don't worry, she might just like being dressed. Maybe as she gets older, you can get her some fun dress up clothes, and she'll have practice getting clothes on and off.

Stop reading books! Not all children do things at the same age as others did/do. But eventually they will. And sometimes this is not always a good thing!

I assure you, she will learn to take her clothes off. And if you're lucky she won't do it when you don't want her to. Like in the mall! Or at church! Or the play ground! My twin girls did all of these things. Because there were 2 of them I thought it would be nice to teach them to take off their own clothes before bath time, just to save a little time. And it was so cute to see them scurry from the bedroom to the bathroom with their little fannies giggling! Boy, was I sorry I ever taught them that! By age 2 1/2, they could get out of their clothes right before your eyes faster then you could blink! And while I was busy trying to stop one of them from stripping naked, the other was doing the same thing! Once they learned to take their clothes off, I had to watch them every minute. Every morning when I went to get them up I would find that sometime during the night they both undressed themselves. If we went somewhere, the minute we walked in the door when we came home, they would strip. Or if we went to grandmas house! It really got to be an issue. I was afraid to take them anywhere! There was no keeping clothes on them. I purposely tried to buy clothes that were hard to get on and off but they always found a way. I had 3 other children that were older then the twins and never had this problem with any of them. I sometimes wonder how I made it through raising them 2! They are 27 years old now and both have 2 children of their own. And all 4 of the grand kids love to be naked at inappropriate times. Now, I just laugh and shake my head!

You definitely should not be paying such close attention to the guidelines. Kids will develop at their own pace - guidelines are just the average. If you keep on holding your child up to guidelines, they will feel pressure, failure and stress from you. Believe me, something like taking off clothing is minor. Your child will figure that out in time for when it matters.... for things like talking, walking, guidelines are important, in case early intervention of some sort is required, but for taking off clothes it is minor. RELAX Mom.

Hi L.. I definitely, absolutely, positively don't think that you have anything to worry about. You said it yourself... "guidelines". My daughter has also been on target or ahead for all of her milestones but she only started taking off her clothes at 29 months. One thing that I did to get her interested is I dressed and undressed her stuffed animals as an activity. Then she got interested in doing it to them, then in doing it to herself. I am trying the same with potty training and, well, it isn't working at all yet. But, since my daughter can do things like jump, use scissors, count and knows all of her letter sounds, I am thinking, as you also should, that if she is later with dressing or potty training, it certainly isn't a sign that something is wrong. A.