How to stop 9mo pooing at night??

[MrsC09]

My 9 month old poos thru the night, every night, without fail. Usually "only" once but last night 3 times. She's a terrible sleeper anyway and this really isn't helping. If I'm lucky it happens before 4am as she'll normally go back to sleep. If I'm unlucky she will be wide awake from 4 :( I also have a toddler so lack of sleep is slowly killing me.

It's been going on for the past 2 months, since she started properly eating 3 meals a day. I've experimented a bit with only giving her high fibre foods early in the day but doesn't seem to make any differece. She usually poos 2-3 times during the day too & nearly always just before going to bed. She's just very regular but how on earth do I change that?? She has a very healthy appetite for food although not great with finger foods. she's only been on a bottle for the past 6 weeks. I've bee using Hipp formula but thinking that the probiotic element probably isn't helping so I've tried aptimil the past few days but hasn't made any difference.

Any advice appreciated! My friends nearly 3 year old still poos at night (although it doesn't wake/bother him) so the thought of this going on for another 2 years terrifies me!!

AFAIK, you can't stop it!

Not something you can control. Sorry.

My 2.4 year old still poos at night, she always did. Now it's more solid, usually straight away (bedtime 1830, poo by 1900) and not every night. I'm trying to say it gets better. DD1 (4) now goes to bed and within 10 mins gets up by herself to do a poo and then goes back to bed sometimes by herself.

It's a nuisance though, waking a baby up to change them while it's dark.

Not possible I'm afraid.

When you've got to go, you've got to go.

Oh I can't remember exactly but there was something in the gf weaning guide about not having protein at tea time, give it at lunch instead - will try and find book and come back to you if this is wrong.

It's just one of those things. You can't control it.

My dc had/have hipp combiotic and we rarely get a poo at night. It's nothing to do with diet-she just happens to need to poo at that time.

What other sleep issues is there? You said she's a terrible sleeper....

Aargghh, i was hoping for a magic cure! @ mountainormolehill she's always been very windy so tends to wake up a couple of hours after going to sleep for a burp. Doesn't help however much I wind her before she goes down. Tried infacol but she hates it & it makes her sick. Tried coleif which seems to have helped a bit so she's now only waking once around 10pm instead of 8/9/10. Lots of illness recently (ear infections/tummy bugs) has made things worse & lots of bad habits have formed, mostly my fault as I've been too tired to deal with it. Stopping breast feeding helped a lot as she no longer feeds thru the night but the before mentioned illnesses means she still wakes for a cuddle out of habit. She ends up in my bed (husband spends most nights on sofa ) pretty much every night as the only way to get her back to sleep is for her to sleep on me . I know I just need to tackle the sleep training but the poos are making it more difficult.

If you do a light meal.at lunch and a big dinner, try swapping then round.

She's more of a big breakfast, big lunch & big dinner kind of girl a very healthy appetite!

What goes in has got to come out!

I found having dc laying almost completely flat whilst drinking milk, then prop upright to wind helped with bringing wind up.

Also if the milk is on the warm side but obvs not hot.

Is get through the illnesses then work on the sleep routine. The poo problem won't go away though her natural routine of when she needs to go may change in time.

There's also a million different ways of sleep 'training'. My only advice on this would be to get dh to go into her at night as opposed to you. If she's not getting cuddles from you that she wants then she may stop waking for them.

But, do whatever you're happy with. If you, dp and dd are happy with how things are don't feel the need to change because you feel you should. She's only little once after all.