My 2 year old son has never been a great napper. Recently he’s started sabotaging his naps by pooping. I typically go in at least once and as many as 3 times to change a poopy diaper. It’s starting to get to the point of ruining his nap completely because by the time hes all pooped out, he’s overtired. I’m a SAHM so I really cherish nap time. But having to sit and watch him on the monitor constantly until he falls asleep/go in there constantly is starting to make me crazy. It’s worse if we leave the house in the morning and he doesn’t “have time” to poop but never leaving the house in the mornings is not an option for me. Unfortunately we’re nowhere close to potty training. I doubt anyone has tips to help stop this but I’ll take commiseration. 
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Is it crazy to suggest you leave him in a poopy diaper until nap is over? Maybe I'm totally off base but that's honestly what I would do.
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DS1 is a 2-3x a day pooper. He usually poops sometime in the morning after wakeup, sometime after lunch, and after dinner before bed. We try our best to feed him lunch around 1130am and run him around/drink a good amount of fluids so that he will digest quickly and take a dump before his nap at 1pm. Daycare also usually tries to give him a second after lunch (which is 11am at school) so that he can poop before napping at noon.
If our son goes down for nap and doesn't settle down to sleep within the first 30 minutes, its almost guaranteed that he pooped. We will walk into his room, silently change the diaper, and then leave. We also basically restart the nap clock if we have to go in there. So if he thrashes around until 130pm because of poop, we give him 30 more minutes for nap time.
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My kid poops during naps. I'll only change it if it happens near the start of the nap (like first half hour) and I think I can salvage a nap. I keep lights super dimmed and basically don't speak to her so as not to stimulate her.
If she poops later...well I leave it be but more likely that not, it's a nap ruiner. But regardless I'll still leave her in her crib for whatever quiet time I think she needs that day. I won't go get her. For instance 230 is typically her cut off.
Maybe try some probiotics...might help his system reset so he starts pooping at a more ideal time (morning or late afternoon). -
@SteelerGirl: if I leave it, he won’t sleeo at all (I’ve tried!) which means crabby afternoon
@gingerbebe: that’s what I’ve been doing, I change him and restart nap. He’s in there for two hours so it can get lengthy sometimes. Part of the problem is that he’s an early napper (11:30) I’ve tried pushing it later and he ends up taking a shorter nap. So I have to cram in breakfast, activities, and usually a big snack instead of lunch. And pray that he poops before sleep. It’s so frustrating!!! But maybe I’ll just do a late breakfast and no snack. He’s not big on breakfast so I can probably push it out a bit. Hopefully that will help with the poop!
@Littlebit7: I agree on the changing time. I only change it in the beginning. And at this point I know he’s totally doing it on purpose. Once he had pooped 3x today and was all pooped out, he started throwing his friends out of his crib then crying. So he’s totally trying to get me back in there. He’s on probiotics as well.
Toddlers. They’re the worrrrrrst!!!!!
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@Portboston: Oh when my kids started on 1 nap a day, we did 1130am naps too! We woke at 730am, had breakfast soon after that, and then a hefty snack at 1030am. Then we hoped they would poop before going to sleep at 1130am and eat lunch when they woke up. I found quieter activities that required standing around were the best for pooping. Play kitchen time, water table time, coloring or doing Magnatiles while standing up - just sort of quiet, undistracted time that makes you stand or pace a little bit. Anything running or too active did not result in poops.
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My older one went through a phase of doing this and it was so annoying!! I never figured out any good fixes so just commiseration from me. And both my kids poop multiple times a day. My friend's son was such a solid 1 a day pooper that she would take him in a communal pool with no diaper after his one poop of the day!!
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I know you say he's far away from potty training, but have you tried putting him on a toddler potty before his nap? My son is similar and will go in the potty long before his diaper
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I am very familiar with poops ruining naps! None of my kids would nap if they were gearing up to poop. I can always tell when that is what's happening so I just postpone the nap until the poop. Like we just continue playing until he is done, change him and by that point he is so tired he goes right to sleep. If your LO is consistent and always poops before nap then I would personally just wait until he is done to even start nap time. Spending so much time in his room just waiting will probably make it harder to get him to go down for a nap.
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@Pollywog: he won’t even sit on the potty. We ask him at least twice a day
that’s how far we are from potty training lol@skipra: the problem with waiting is he gets overtired easily. I’ve tried pushing his nap to 12/12:30 to give him more time but he ends up either not sleeping or only sleeping for like 45 min.
@Foodnerd81: living the dream!!!!
Thanks for all the reply’s! I think I’m going to try doing a big snack at 10:30 then cutting off the food. We’ll stay home for a few days and see if that works!
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we had two weeks of nap poop in the pull up when we were potty training before he figured out how to poop in the potty (no idea why that's so scary, but it's a big thing). IT WAS HELL. All this is to say, it super sucks when poop messes up naps.
DS1 was a many times a day pooper in diapers and is a mostly once sometimes twice a day pooper now that he is potty trained and it's made things WAY easier. So someday, maybe soonish (feels like ages from now) poop might not mess up nap. But it might be a hard time getting to that place.
DS2 is in a poop all the time phase and it's making our nanny nuts.
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@Portboston: sympathy. I stay at home too and naps are my precious time...if I can get them. My 23 month old is becoming hot or miss and I have a 9 week old so I need that break!
Maybe wait a bit before you put him to bed so that he can poop? Offer rewards for not pooping until after nap time? Stickers? A show, a treat? Etc.
I know how long the day is at home all day with no nap!
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