Toilet Training ASD Son - Any advice?

[roxie78]

My son is 4 and starts reception at School in September so only a few weeks off really!

We had his ASD diagnosis (high functioning) a month or so ago and at the moment I am trying to toilet train him ideally before he starts reception! We have only just been able to do it in these past few months as he has suffered from chronic constipation since he was very small so has been soiling lots. He is still on 7 sachets of Movicol a day although I am (hoping!) to reduce that soon as the soiling has got a LOT better although he still gets the occasional bit.

He has been sitting on the potty to do his number 2's for the past 2 months I would say and now if there is any number 2 in his pants its only a tiny bit of soiling. I have put him in proper pants for the past few weeks when we are in the house and at first we had a few accidents but now its just a dribble before I put him on the potty. (I've been leaving him in just pants waist down so I can keep an eye on it!)

The trouble is he usually won't tell me when he needs a wee. I keep telling him to tell me but most times he doesn't! Will this come with time? His vocabulary/speech etc is quite good. Twice he has put himself on the potty to go and a couple of times he has got upset and then he has shouted potty and made it in time but most times he won't say anything! I just notice a patch in his pants and then put him on the potty. Also I put him on the potty, after each meal and approx 4pm when he would be home from school (if it wasn't the holiday!) and also before bed. I'm just thinking of when he starts school he wont say anything then and might wet himself!

I dont really want to put him in pullups at school as he just wees in them so he is learning nothing from them and I only put them on him if we are going out at the moment (which I dont really want to do but we have hospital appointments/speech therapy appointments togo to etc! )

I've bought the Ready Set Potty book which I'm looking through but it doesn't really help when that says don't potty train over the summer! lol

Any tips/advice anything lol!!??

 

[roxie78]

Another thing I wanted to add is that he only seems to be able to do numbers 2`s on the potty but not the toilet. He does try but can't manage it! I presume its to do with how you sit on a potty compared to a toilet but not sure of a way round that!

edit - now sorted he can poop on the toilet woo hoo!

 

[sam2eb]

My son is almost 5 and has ASD. I started putting him on the toilet over a year ago. He knows when he needs to poop but I still need to take him regularly for wees! I take him every 2 hours or so still.

My son will be attending special school so they will help him when he's there. They know hes not able to go independently. Is your son attending mainstream? Does he use schedules at the minute or will he use them at school?

 

[roxie78]

Hi thanks for the reply, my son will be attending mainstream. Not sure exactly what you mean with schedules? I know they will use now and next boards/pictures with him, is that the kind of thing you mean?

I really don't know what will happen with toileting as he can't do it independently at the moment so he will need someone to help him every time and tell him to go as well! The class has a TA but obv there are like 30 kids in the class!

 

[sam2eb]

My son uses schedules in nursery/school, where his full day is laid out for him to see, sort of like a now and next board for the whole day! They will put toilet trips on that so he will hopefully eventually be able to take himself when it's time.

Maybe if you speak to his teacher and explain that he needs help to go just? I'm sure they would rather that than him have accidents. It's so different from our situation as in my son's class there will be 9 kids and 4 adults.

 

[mummy2o]

When my son was toilet trained (he picked half term last October to decide he was ready) he was fine at home and generally ok at school. The reason being his TA took him several times through out the day. Probably as PP said every 1.30-2 hours and have limited liquid intake. The only problem was in the last 30 minutes when his TA went and he was left with class room TA's and he had accidents as he'd just sometime go to the toilet without asking. After Christmas he was fine and had no accidents what so ever. Now he can go for several hours (long than me atm!) without going. So all in all it took 3 months. He still doesn't ask, but he will pull his trousers down which seems to get the message across!

 

[roxie78]

Just thought I'd post a little update! It is 1 week tomorrow when my son starts school and the toilet training thankfully is now going rather well! We still have the occasionally accident - maybe 1 or 2 in the week but for the past week or so he has been taking himself to the toilet al the time whilst at home and goes fine when we are out and about providing I take a travel toilet seat with us! I know when he starts school it could all go out the window as I know even kids who have been dry for ages have accidents when they start school but hey at least things are looking up!