Is there any way to retrain my 3.3 year old's bowel habits??

[Ceebee74]

He has a poo every morning at around 6am which wakes him up (and subsequently us). He still wears a nappy at night so he does it in that but obviously doing it must wake him up. This tends to be a huge poo and often the only one of the day.

He has always generally had one big poo a day and has phases when this may be - usually a regular time each day so I assume this will be the same - but I am not sure how long I can take 6am (or earlier) wake ups!!

Can I do anything about it???

Bump - anyone?

You could try making him sit on the loo 20-30 minutes after a meal, usually breakfast if you have time.

We all have a gut reflex that is stimulated by eating, in that we poo what is remaining in the bowel about 20-30 mins after a meal. We tend to ignore this reflex and go when convenient, or when we really can't ignore it any longer.

By sitting on the loo after eating we can 'tune in' to this reflex again and it can be possible in children to start a sort of poo routine by triggering this reflex.

Might be worth a try?

Mine went through stages of this, normally if we had had busy days the days before and they hadnt been at home to sit on the loo in the previous afternoon

try sitting hiom on the loo before bed for a bit

Might the poo be irrelevant? My DS is the same age and always wakes at 6am, no matter what time he goes to bed.

Difficult to know

DS1 always pooed at 2pm when he was a pre schooler

DS2 always pooed at 5pm

So yy to being creatures of habit, I would be wary of trying to interfere with nature

My three always poop the minute they get in the door after school, they are almost breaking down the front door with urgency. Thank goodness I;ve got 3 loos and a stout drainage system

LLaregub I know some children are just early risers but he always slept until at least 6.30 before (which was just about bearable) and these earlier starts have coincided with the pooing at that time...so I put 2 and 2 together.

Singed I might try that.

Problem is, not only are me and DH getting tireder and tireder, so is DS1....I am sure he needs more sleep than that but he just won't can't go back to sleep once he has had a poo. And he will also often wake DS2 up so we end up with a grumpy baby too....aaaaah!

is this his only poo every day?

if so, he is being like DD who only poos in bed.

we have put her back in our room, removed all nappies and i am staying with her until she sleeps..and plonking her n the loo once awake. so far one potty poo! hurray...

we have resorted to this because she has devloped a liking or playing with the new toys she finds in her pants...