bedtime routine is toilet/wash/teeth/toilet again just in case she needs to go/did not go earlier, then jimjams, story x 2, cuddles, kisses, lights out, nice and calm and sleepy.
5-10 mins after lights out (she has a night light on) she gets up 'i can't sleep, i need a poo' Go back to bed, cue tears, insistent she needs a poo.
And she does, most of the time, but not always (probably 80%). It takes somewhere between 5 mins and half hour but she will squeeze one out. All the time chattering away, wide awake. Then we have to put her back to bed, calm her back down, much later than we wanted to, and she is wide awake so cries for more stories, milk, cuddles, not sleepy.
It means her bedtime is around an hour later than we want it to be, at least. As in the time she actually goes to sleep.
It feels like she is playing up a bit when she gets up and says she can't sleep, but clearly she does mostly need a poo so can't be?
Any suggestions to help get her to use the toilet before she goes to bed. We do ask her, at various intervals to have a poo before she goes to bed, but she never wants to.