5am poo - how do I break the habit?

[witch1]

My 2.25yr old boy is waking every morning at 5am to do a poo after which he will not go back to sleep and shouts for me or dh or his sisters to be wiht him, so that we are all woken up eventually (he has no volume control at all and his persistence may well become legendary) . He is voluntarily out of nappies in the day and very good at sleeping the rest of the time but the 5am call is starting to grind us all down and creating a really bad feeling in the house. You know that it's your turn no it's your turn conversation. I cant leave him to shout as my neighbour has told me he keeping her 8 year old awake and she has a lot of school and dance commitments. As you can imgine that just adds to the tension
Should I change his eating patterns or get rid of his day time nap (I'd like to keep it if I can as he has a good hour most days and it is my sanity)?

Help me before I go mad
Thanks

witch1

I'd say change his eating habits first. Maybe give him a later tea, or make sure that everything in his tea is easily digestable (my dd, though only 9 months finds veg easier than fruit to digest - fruit, including tomatoes and peppers, always comes out way before veg).

Alternatively it could be lunch that is causing the problem (I'm sure you have an idea!) - you could make this lighter and then give him a little snack in the afternoons to keep him going.

good luck anyway

Could you try and poo him before he goes to bed - maybe a few days of lickorice and prune juice in the early part of the day may encourage him to go in the evening. If you can't change the time, could you leave the bathroom light on all night and a few books for him to look at just to try and keep him quiet, then you could teach him to wipe his own bum - if he does this he can have a treat....
It must be bad enough for you without the added pressure of your neighbour mentioning it. Is he really that loud?

"They" say avoid animal protein (so meat) at tea time... don't know if that's useful????

Pupuce - I thought it was Gina Ford who recommends avoiding animal protein at tea. I'm surprised you've forgotten this - I thought you knew her books word for word Whereas I have just read New COntented Little Baby for the first time this week.

Ok people so does this mean I give him no fruit or meat after lunch time and only veg and carbo at supper (at 5.30 - he eats wiht his sisters after school I cant be doing three evening meals really)? I can manage this. We already tried the bed time poo but as he has only just mastered daytime no nappies we cant risk night time yet he is way too young for that. Also new game seems to be straight after we put him to bed at 7 to annonunce at 5 min intervals that he needs a poo and wants 'nappy off'. Then produces teeny tiny amount of wee and looks tiumphant (and rather cute). And yes neighbour is disturbed her 14 yr old told me that she was annoyed as the 8 yr old keeps coming into her in the morning when she gets woken up. So feel wretched about that and yes he is VERY noisy.

I will try all this stuff and let you know my success rate

He may be trying to tell you that he is ready for night time no nappies too - my ds was not much older than him when he went through the night. What are his nappies like in the morning? He is obviously aware of needing the loo or he would not wake up at 5am - this is not a bad thing - could you try him in pull ups for bed and explain to him that he can pull them down and that they are only padded in case he can't make it to the loo, you could then leave him a potty in his room.

SueW - Yeah... it is GF... I hadn't forgotten - I didn't want to bring GF into this debate