Ryan is 4yrs old and we just recently got him potty trained.
What did it for us was making a big deal out of underwear and letting him pick out which ones he wants(character, etc) and say no more to the pull-ups except for at night. At first he did have accidents..then he learned how uncomfortable it was when he had a accident in underwear .
We also made a big deal when he went. We let him play a computer video game.
I think you should not use pull-ups and find something to reward him with that he REALLY likes.
Hope it works out. Believe me I know how frusterating it is.
Kelly
With Matthew, I had the reverse kind of problem. Once he discovered underwear he wanted nothing to do with pull-ups. He would pull them off at night if I forced him to wear them, so we had a lot of bed wetting until just recently actually and he's 4 1/2. My suggestion is to not even purchase the pull-ups so he has no choice but to wear the underwear. You will have alot of laundry in the beginning, and especially sheets but I think eventually he would get the point. Also, what I did was purchase one of those plastic mattress protectors for the bed so that when he wet it didn't soak through to the mattress. The protectors are washable too. And you might want to try this approach when you know you won't be going out anywhere for long periods as he will be wetting himself alot in the beginning I'm sure. Also, with Matthew in the beginning I was taking him to the potty every 1 1/2 hour. And then gradually lengthening that time until he would just go on his own or request that I take him. If he is a heavy wetter you might want to do this every 45 minutes or hour in the beginning.
Hope this helps
My question is what do you do when your child is scared to death of a regular toilet? My son is potty trained to a potty chair he is 5. He will stand and pee in a big toilet but will not sit on it. He does good at knowing when he has to go and telling us he is gonna go but will only do it on the small potty chair. I am always so worried when we go places for a long period of time that he will have to go and there will be no potty chair for him. Any suggestions on getting him over the fear of sitting on the regular toilet??
Nita
Nita,
Adam is not trained yet...but I trained two other children and one was afraid of the big potty. Have you tried those seats with cartoon characters that go over the big potty and make the big potty hole smaller?? Maybe it won't seem as intimidating to him if the seat has characters on it. They fit right over the big potty and it's like a completely different seat. Just a suggestion.
Karrie
Ok it may sound stupid and maybe you have done it but sometimes the little things are over looked because we expect with the kid making such a huge deal about it it must be something serious... is the potty chair in the bathroom or a different room? Have you put the potty chair top on the toilet seat? What about making sure their is a stool and something to hold onto so the child isnt afraid of falling off or feeling unbalanced?
I have a related but different problem to Nita in that my dd will go on the toilet at home (we have 2 bathrooms but she will only use one of the toilets) but absolutely meltdown and petrified of ANY other potty including at grandmother's house, or school, let alone a real honest-to-goodness public restroom. She was trained on a potty chair and reluctanly made the switch to the big toilet (which much gradual exposure and time). I think it's a newness/unfamiliarity thing as well as a sensory issue for her. Any suggestions on how to get her over the fear of public restrooms. Since she won't go anywhere near them or has a complete meltdown when even I have to go, she's in pull ups whenever we're outside the house. I don't know what else to do. At school, when I pick her up, I always make a point of taking her in the little potty room and at first she wouldn't even go in the room, now she will go in with me and let me change her pull ups. Today when I oh so casually
Tricia S. - when I first potty trained my dd she had no concept of having to go and would seriously just pee about every 15 minutes. I set a timer to go off that often (I tried 30 or even 20 minutes but she would always go sooner!). When the timer went off it was "potty time" and we'd go sit on it. She NEVER argued against the timer, but if I would ask her if she had to go or say it's potty time, she'd say no or refuse. Then proceed to go right on the floor. The timer worked everytime. If we went and she didn't have to go that was fine. She got lots of praise for going and trying to go. Praise really motivated her a lot whereas stickers or rewards did not. So you just have to try a little bit of everything and see what works and what doesn't. After a while, I just phased out the timer. She's still not that great about going on her own, I have to remind her a lot and HELP her and she has fears about walking on the floor in the bathroom and the whole fear of public bathroom thing but that's a whole other story!!
thanks
xoxo
tricia
keith started just recently pooping in the potty, b/c i found with his fascination with spray bottles, it is a reward to let him spray the air freshener after he does stinkiny in the potty. this requires greast supervision, so that he does not spray himself in the eyes, but it works for us.
kate
It is common for kids on the spectrum to have challenges in the potty training arena. My son (now 10) was initially potty trained for pee when he was 3 by using the "Once Upon A Potty Video". It worked for us. The training for bms wa much more difficult. It just took time--he just couldn't tell they were coming! A sensory thing I figured. Then nightime I've kept him with pull-up until the last couple of weeks. I ran out of them and he just hasn't wet his bed. I don't know if this is helpful--just one mom, one kid and their story.
good luck.
pat
Welcome to the board Tricia, I would encourage you to check out the For Newbies to our Forums thread. There are many helpful links there including one on Potty Training There have also been numerous potty training threads you can find by just doing a potty training search http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/search.asp?KW=potty+training &SM=1&SI=PT&FM=0&OB=1
Hope that helps!