If you do hear—or smell—a poop, you'll want to change them soon, but not necessarily immediately. A breastfed baby's poop isn't very irritating to the skin, so if they are sleeping soundly and you think they're going to be up soon anyway, you can safely put it off for a little while, says Mochoruk.
“It might sound like they pooped, but it could just be gas and not worth waking them up to find a clean diaper,” Dr. Candice W. Jones, MD FAAP, a board-certified pediatrician tells Romper. That's why you might want to wait a minute so that the air can clear — literally.
What are the rules? In general, newborn babies need to be changed every 2-3 hours. With poopy diapers, it's pretty straightforward.
Baby poop overnight can be annoying because it can wake baby up. Absolutely change that poopy diaper at night. If you go in for a dreamfeed at night and baby has pooped, change the diaper before you put baby back in the crib for the night, even if you do not typically change the diaper at the feeding.
Did you know it's common to go through a phase where your baby or toddler poops overnight, early in the morning, or at naptime? Why does this happen? This is usually in association with eating new foods, needing some privacy to poop, or meals that are too close to sleep.
Although diaper rashes aren't always caused by not changing a diaper quickly enough, a baby who sits in a soiled diaper for too long will end up with a severe diaper rash. Baby Center noted that the combination of urine and bacteria in their poop can irritate their skin causing a diaper rash if not taken care of.
Wait An Hour Before Bedtime
To minimize the risk of your baby pooping in the middle of the night, don't feed them right before bedtime. Of course, if they're hungry, don't deny them food - just wait an hour or more before putting them down to sleep. That way, they can poop and then fall asleep afterward.
Bedtime. When children are more relaxed, they can have bowel movements more easily/readily. Having a calming bedtime routine can help with this. Try stretching out their wind-down period before bed to see if this can help encourage a bowel movement before they lay down for the night.
Although diaper rashes aren't always caused by not changing a diaper quickly enough, a baby who sits in a soiled diaper for too long will end up with a severe diaper rash. Baby Center noted that the combination of urine and bacteria in their poop can irritate their skin causing a diaper rash if not taken care of.
Move her bedtime later by about 10 minutes each night until she's hitting the hay about an hour later (or you reached your goal of her sleeping later). This works best if you move her eating schedule later as well, so hunger doesn't wake her up too soon. You might also have to work on your baby's nap schedule.
How to fix it: Move bedtime up. Even 30 minutes earlier can make a big difference in the morning. If your child's bedtime is usually 8:00pm, move it 7:30pm for a week or two. With time and consistency, their body will adjust and they should start waking later in the morning.
Truly, a normal and healthy wake time for babies is 6:00-7:00am. This is just a typical circadian rhythm for infants, even though I know 7:00am to 8:00am would be so much nicer. When we say “early morning wakings,” we're talking about babies who wake up BEFORE 6:00am.
Bedtime in newborns is naturally late, usually around 9:00pm or later, but it is important to start moving the bedtime earlier around 6/8 weeks. By 2 months, baby's last nap should be ending by 6:30pm. Bedtime should be around 6:30-8:30pm and should occur about 1-2 hours after the last nap ends.