adjusting toddler's poop schedule

[Anonymous]

My gut tells me there's no way to adjust his natural poop schedule, but I figure it's worth asking. I'm fully expecting lots of snark.

DS is 16 months old. He's a great sleeper but about 50% of the time he'll wake up earlier than usual with a poopy diaper. Sometimes he still seems sleepy but we've never successfully changed a dirty diaper without FULLY waking him up. I obviously want to change his diaper as soon as he goes so he doesn't sit in it, but I also don't want to rush in at the first peep from him and have him start getting up earlier. In case it matters, he usually has another poo around mid-day.

I'd love to "shift" his schedule by one hour so that he can sleep as much as he needs. I gather this is unlikely, but I'll consider any suggestions that are offered. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

we went through this from 14-18 months with my DS. to be fair DS was having a lot of GI problems and diarrhea, so that was part of the problem. but i never really could figure out how to change that awful early morning poop call (ours was 4:45am). we just rode it out. happy to say that by 19/20 months it all got sorted out somehow.

[Anonymous]

Best way to change pooping is to change feeding times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best way to change pooping is to change feeding times.

Curious. What would you change? Milk at 7am, breakfast at 7:30. Lunch at 12. Snack at 3. Dinner at 5:30 and nurses before bed at 7pm.

[Anonymous]

My 2.5yo has pooped at 6-7am since he was one... Sometimes is at 6am and I have to get up and change him and make him go back to bed... Sometimes he doesn't do it until 7:30 and we're good. Nothing has changed since he was a baby!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best way to change pooping is to change feeding times.

I think this would be really hard to manage. Ride it out. I think poop schedules change over the course of the 2nd and 3rd year, as they start realizing that they are pooping, can hold it in more, etc. We talked to the doctor about it because our DD would poop in the middle of the night for a while, but he said it would likely change. And a couple of weeks later, it did change, and she started pooping right after we change her diaper in the morning (literally, it's like she needs a fresh diaper to poop!).

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Put him on the potty before bed and see if he will poop. No need to fully train but this helped us a lot when we got our son to at least go before bed.

[Anonymous]

Maybe adjust veggies in diet. Or additional fats

[Anonymous]

Oh man, you're reminding me how, at that age, DS would poop about 40 minutes into what should have been a 3-hour nap. And then wouldn't go back down. Good times.

We just rode it out. After 3-4 months, it wasn't an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best way to change pooping is to change feeding times.

I think this would be really hard to manage. Ride it out. I think poop schedules change over the course of the 2nd and 3rd year, as they start realizing that they are pooping, can hold it in more, etc. We talked to the doctor about it because our DD would poop in the middle of the night for a while, but he said it would likely change. And a couple of weeks later, it did change, and she started pooping right after we change her diaper in the morning (literally, it's like she needs a fresh diaper to poop!).

Good luck.

My four month old does seem to need a fresh diaper to poop, I don;t think he has ever pooped more than 15 minutes after a diaper change, nicely though he also always poops at home, so no poopy diapers on the run so far!

[Anonymous]

You could try amping up his fruit intake one whole day and moving his dinnertime up so that there is more time between dinner and bedtime for a few days. Couldnt hurt to try.