Potty training and autism

[sam2eb]

Anyone any tips?

My son will be 4 in october and is still in nappys.

We started pt yesterday (again....being trying on and off for a year!) and he pooped on the toilet once, all wees and other poops were in his pants. Today he hasn't done anything on the toilet but has wet himself 3 times already and pooped his pants.

Im trying to hide it but I can feel myself getting frustrated with him.

His speech is behind but when he is wearing Nappy he will tell me when he needs to poo.

How long would you persevere for? I've asked for help from the hv but all they suggested was a prescription for bigger nappies.

 

[Tiff]

Claire's 3.5 (will be 4 in December) and was kind of in the same boat. She doesn't deal well with being forced into anything so we really let her lead it. She also pooped on the potty before she peed on it.

Are you using a small potty or are you having him go on the regular toilet? The regular toilet scared Claire so we had a smaller one at first. We also shamelessly bribed her, whenever she did a pee on the potty she got a piece of chocolate (something we don't normally give her). I also found a chart online that I printed off and put her name on it and she really responded to that.

Do you have a visual schedule? You can print stuff off or see if any of your helpers will make one, it'll go step by step with what they have to do. We have one for toiletting and one for washing her hands as she is very visual and if its on a schedule, she'll do it normally without a fight.

Here's a website to some various visual schedules that deal with things... they've been a godsend in our house.

 

[try4girl2]

With my son we put cheerios in the toilet and let him try and shoot them. But before we got to this point we let him pee off the side porch (we lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere) we made it into a game and then just moved the to the game with the cheerios. I think they also make little targets that you can put in the toilet that might work.

 

[maysiemoo]

No advice as such but my sister was told if her son was not out of nappies by 5 he never would be. This was bull! I think he was 6 coming up 7 and his special needs nursery really helped my sister with this. He is now 19 so it was quite a while ago i cannot remember the techniques they used.

 

[sam2eb]

Thanks for everyones input!

We are getting there.....slowly! Still a few wet accidents most days but we are sorted with poops

 

[JASMAK]

Makena was almost 4...a few days shy. We had her behaviour analyst write up a 'schedule' and method. We have a visual chart. She was taken to the potty at time intervals...and we had to fill out the forms. Her preschool filled them out too. When she went, we would dance for her. She had to follow the same routine each time, and we used single key words each time. You could probably write up similar. If she did pee/poop in her pants...I think we just cleaned it up...nothing said.

 

[peachymomma]

My non-verbal autistic son was 6 before he was potty trained! I found a book called Ready, Set, Potty. By: Brenda Batts It's a potty training system for SN kids. It was a LIFE SAVER! It had wonderful ideas I had never thought of. I would highly recommend it.

 

[Menelly]

With my son we put cheerios in the toilet and let him try and shoot them. But before we got to this point we let him pee off the side porch (we lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere) we made it into a game and then just moved the to the game with the cheerios. I think they also make little targets that you can put in the toilet that might work.

Was about to suggest this. It worked for my 14 year old autistic kiddo too. It took a lot more effort to get the poop training down, but once he figured out he was allowed to play SINK THE CHEERIO! he was actually really having fun with the toilet.

We had to have Daddy show him once. But once he got it, he really didn't wet his pants again.