diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts
index d8f8a390677bf..76b9386cc9550 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts
@@ -299,7 +299,6 @@ async function prepareAndExecuteChangeSet(
     StackName: deployName,
     ChangeSetName: changeSetName,
     ChangeSetType: update ? 'UPDATE' : 'CREATE',
-    IncludeNestedStacks: true,
     Description: `CDK Changeset for execution ${executionId}`,
     TemplateBody: bodyParameter.TemplateBody,
     TemplateURL: bodyParameter.TemplateURL,
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/test/api/deploy-stack.test.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/test/api/deploy-stack.test.ts
index d8eb55bf77eaa..2b199ea225b87 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/test/api/deploy-stack.test.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/test/api/deploy-stack.test.ts
@@ -164,18 +164,6 @@ test('correctly passes CFN parameters, ignoring ones with empty values', async (
   }));
 });
 
-test('correctly passes IncludeNestedStacks', async () => {
-  // WHEN
-  await deployStack({
-    ...standardDeployStackArguments(),
-  });
-
-  // THEN
-  expect(cfnMocks.createChangeSet).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.objectContaining({
-    IncludeNestedStacks: true,
-  }));
-});
-
 test('reuse previous parameters if requested', async () => {
   // GIVEN
   givenStackExists({
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/cli/cli.integtest.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/cli/cli.integtest.ts
index 627dc150c36bf..7f65950550cb4 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/cli/cli.integtest.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/cli/cli.integtest.ts
@@ -638,13 +638,10 @@ integTest('fast deploy', withDefaultFixture(async (fixture) => {
   const changeSet2 = await getLatestChangeSet();
   expect(changeSet2.ChangeSetId).toEqual(changeSet1.ChangeSetId);
 
-  // Deploy the stack again with --force. This creates a changeset which will be
-  // empty (since CFN now tracks changes into nested stacks as well), so we delete
-  // it again because it couldn't be executed anyway.
-  const output = await fixture.cdkDeploy('with-nested-stack', { options: ['--force'] });
+  // Deploy the stack again with --force, now we should create a changeset
+  await fixture.cdkDeploy('with-nested-stack', { options: ['--force'] });
   const changeSet3 = await getLatestChangeSet();
-  expect(output).toContain('No changes are to be performed on');
-  expect(changeSet3.ChangeSetId).toEqual(changeSet2.ChangeSetId);
+  expect(changeSet3.ChangeSetId).not.toEqual(changeSet2.ChangeSetId);
 
   // Deploy the stack again with tags, expected to create a new changeset
   // even though the resources didn't change.
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/helpers/cdk.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/helpers/cdk.ts
index 62a6abd08afce..75787ab7b747c 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/helpers/cdk.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/helpers/cdk.ts
@@ -720,9 +720,11 @@ export async function installNpmPackages(fixture: TestFixture, packages: Record<
 const installNpm7 = memoize0(async (): Promise<string> => {
   const installDir = path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'cdk-integ-npm7');
   await shell(['rm', '-rf', installDir]);
-  await shell(['mkdir', '-p', `${installDir}/node_modules`]);
+  await shell(['mkdir', '-p', installDir]);
 
-  await shell(['npm', 'install', 'npm@7'], { cwd: installDir });
+  await shell(['npm', 'install',
+    '--prefix', installDir,
+    'npm@7']);
 
   return path.join(installDir, 'node_modules', '.bin', 'npm');
 });