XP: Early waking due to dirty diaper- solutions?

Mnerani · January 2014

DS will normally sleep until almost 7am, but lately he's been waking at 5:30 or 5:45 with a dirty diaper (poop, not just pee). At that point, it's too late in the morning for him to go back to sleep after changing him- I've tried! And he absolutely can't sleep if he's dirty (nor do I want him laying in a dirty dipe). I'm thinking of moving his dinnertime later, in the hopes that will lead to a later morning poo.

Has anyone experienced this? Is there anything to be done? Mama's tired, and he is too.

Mnerani · January 2014

theresat858 but I've definitely tried putting him back to bed. I go in and use a tiny nightlight, don't talk to him, and then try to rock him back to sleep or just put him in his crib. He gets very confused and starts wailing or yammering, or both.

Several times, I've left him in there until his normal wake up time and he just screamed the whole hour. And I know he'd just go back to sleep if he could, since bedtime and nap time are never a big deal- just stick him in his crib and he sings himself to sleep. Sigh.

ashiscute · January 2014

My DS has had this issue too. Right between 530- 6 is the worst because he will not go back to sleep but is such a cranky pants. Unfortunately, nothing we did changed the time but his body did adjust. I think it was maybe 2 or 3 weeks before it stopped happening.

Sorry that I'm commiserating instead of helping.

pb_bride · January 2014

No real advice - how long has this early pooping been going on? Has there been a change in his diet? My DS is the same - though he doesn't poop early in the morning - but if he gets woken up around 6, it's rarely he can go back to sleep even though he's still tired. He's tired but not tired enough to put himself back to sleep.

If this is only been going on for a few days, hopefully his "routine" will change again and will stop pooping at that hour? I notice that my son will poop at X hour for several days, then change to at Y hour for a few days, then maybe skip a day, then poop 2-3 x the next day etc. GL!

BLPL101 · January 2014

Same thing here! No advice, but you aren't alone!

[Deleted User] · January 2014

My DS started pooping when I tried to put him down for a nap when he was about your LOs age. I think it was because it was finally a time for him to settle down and relax. Most of the day he is just on the go, too busy to poop, haha! Maybe you could offer your LO some quiet alone-ish time before bed, and see if he poops then.

Mnerani · January 2014

Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement- very helpful!

spainy17 · January 2014

This might be horrible but I ran it by my pediatrician and she thought it was a good idea. My DD had a stomach bug that left her in the habit of pooping early in the morning (or even in the middle of the night!) because she was waking more often and it had just become habit for her body. So i gave a dose of Benadryl one night to try to get her to sleep through the urge and maybe kick the habit. It worked in one night! She slept longer that night and was back to normal the next. Maybe it was a fluke but it did work.

Mnerani · January 2014

@spainy17, that's not horrible at all. I'd try it except that DS goes crazy on Benadryl. He had an allergic reaction to berries a few weeks back and we gave him Benadryl. He was awake for 17 hours. SEVENTEEN HOURS. But thanks for the idea anyway

spainy17 · January 2014

Holy crap. The idea of a baby awake for that long blows.my.mind. Scratch my idea then!!!

Aurora_Borealis · January 2014

DD seems to go through phases like this. At around a year old and months after she stopped pooping at night, she started pooping around midnight. It lasted a couple of weeks. Then that stopped and did the 5:45 pooping thing for a couple of weeks at about 14-15 months. Now at almost 2 her latest is nap-pooping. She poops about an hour into her normally 2hr nap and then is crabby the rest of the day because she didn't nap long enough.

So no advice, but in my experience this sort of thing has not lasted forever.