Pooing in the night

[Zeeky]

8mth old wakes at least twice sometimes 3 times a night. Currently I bf him & he will usually go back down. Recently however, he has been doing dirty nappies in the night. I get up, feed him & then realise I can smell something, and then discover a big pooey nappy! Some nights he does two! We were going to try some sleep training after Christmas (either controlled crying or PU/PD) but due to the night poos I don't feel we can do that as it is obviously the poos that are causing the wakings, and I can't leave him in a dirty nappy all night.

How can I get him to do all his poos in the daytime. He does some in the daytime too!

Don't know, but my four month old has started pooing in the night too, only he doesn't wake in the night so I don't find it til the morning. Is this a problem does anybody think?

I think as long as you put a barrier cream on before bed like Sudocreme or Bepanthen it should be ok. My 3 month old sometimes poos in the night but if it doesn't wake her (and therefore me!) it's fine till morning and she's never had nappy rash.

And to answer OP, I don't think there's anyway you can get him to poo when you want. Controlled pooing! Now there's a thought...!

Unfortunately you can't control when they poo!

Not sure if he is waking to do a poo or if he does one as he is awake IYKWIM?

He's teething too, so the poo is making his bottom sore when left for any length of time poor thing.

He's been waking 2 or 3 times a night for the last 3 months now & I am shattered, so want the night poos to stop so that we can try sleep training.

If you are both ready for it, could you try night weaning? Since I stopped feeding dd at night (once I was confident she was well established on solids, at around 7 months), she also stopped pooing at night. Perhaps because her digestive system wasn't being kickstarted by the feed? I'm no scientist but it does seem somtimes that a milk feed or meal sort of shunts things along!

ps night weaning was nowhere near as bad as I feared. Not bad at all, in fact.

Shushbaby how did you do the night weaning? I really must do it but am too lazy & find it quicker & easier to settle him by whipping a boob out. I night-weaned DS1 at 6 mths & then found I no longer had any way to settle him in the night resulting in some horrendous nights for months after - don't want that again!