potty training question Angela, We did the same thing Kerrie and Optomistic did...worked like a dream and the little toys from the dollar store were great, we even added in bigger toys after several good charts were full (1 big toy for every 3 charts, 1 chart was one week).  Although the poop was harder, and still every once in while he has an accident...we try really hard to focus on the positive. We also bought Kandoo's wipes and soap for him to use...he knows its only for him and he can clean himself much better than with just plain TP, we also have one at his pre-school for him to use... Good luck. Liz We did the treats and chart thing also.  Never used pull-ups.  I don't think they really are very good.  We didn't use pull ups for our NT kids either.  It just was underwear.  I good tip is to sit them facing the tank of the toliet.  Then the won't feel like they are falling in, and you won't have to carry the insert around with your when you go out somewhere.  My sister had an in home daycare and that is how she helped train all of her kidos.   thanks ladies- I think I will make some charts and really really try this. ALex will sit on the big potty and go poop and pee - he just isnt motiviated and I havent pushed it. when i do put underwear on him- he just goes in them and takes them off and whatever. But if I can give him and incentive he can understand- maybe just maybe he love thomas and dinosaurs so I can certainly make it worth his while. thanks again. and i bet the twins will follow along my daughter loves to wear her brothers bob the builder underwear i want your opinion on some advice a mom of a NT kid gave me about potty training. I was telling ehr that alex will go in the potty - not afraid of it but when i put him in underwear- he doesnt recognize when he needs to go. i can ask and ask but just says no and then pees or poops in his underwear 2 min. later. but... sometimes he can tell when he has to go- he gets out of the tub and sits on the toilet and poops- he used to poop so much in the tub- i once made him clean the poop out of the tub- so he has never done it again. so I am confused. maybe he jsut doesnt want to- my friend suggested jsut not buying anymore pullups- and not giving an option to the underwear- an d not give in to putting him back in pullups no matter how disgusted i get. she did this with her son and it took 4 days she said and he finally got it. jsut wanted your opinions. i am really tired of changing his diapers. my twins are not trained either and i spend 200- 300 a month on diapers for all 3 kids... OH I almost forgot something.  We couldn't even get adam to sit on the potty at first UNTIL.....Ta Da.....A social story we made with pictures of him in there.  Then he wanted to sit on the potty and read the social story. Karrie Angela, I just finnished potty training Adam.  I tried everything!!!  This is what worked for us.  First...I threw out the pull-=ups and made him wear the underwear.  See adam wouldn't even put the underwear on until he had nothing else to wear.  He screamed all that first day off and on. Then I made a chart with a picture of a toy that he wanted really bad on it and I got some stickers.  I started taking him to the potty every 20 mins.  There were times where he looked at me like What are we doing on the potty...I don't understand this.  There were also times that he cried because he didn't want to conform to potty training but I was relentless and did not give up.  Anyway it took about 4 days to fill 4 squares on the sheet so that he could get a toy.  The rest of the time he went in his pants.  I didn't scold him but I did every time take him to the potty afterward and made him help me clean his underwear.  Something clicked when we went to get his toy from the store because when we got home I made another chart but this time with 8 squares and a different cheep toy picture on the top so that he could see what we were working for.  That first chart helped him realize that he will be rewarded at the end if he fills it up so when we started on the second chart he was really excited and was ready to potty.  The second chart took only a couple of days to fill up and by the end of the week he was 95% trained.  We continued with the charts until we kept adding more and more squares and by that time it was taking over a week to fill it up and the toy prizes were like 88 cent sponge bob characters from walmart..playdough from the dollar store etc.  Eventually we took the chart away gradually.  For instance he would start just going in the bathroom on his own and when he did that if he didn't ask for his sticker or chart we wouldn't give it to him and eventually he forgot all about it and doesn't use the chart anymore.  Something you need to know....Those first days were H*LL!!  He once held his urine for over 24 hours until he was screaming.  We ran a bath for him and that made him go.  We said to him it feels good to go Pee Pee and you shouldn't hold it in like that.   He also was later on the POOP in the potty. So what I did for that is I got a couple packages of small toys from the dollar store and put them in a bucket.  I told him that he gets to pick one if he puts the poop in the potty.  Every evening I would take him to sit on the potty for about 45 mins and we would read stories.  Finally he went and got to pick a prize.  After that it clicked that if he goes poop on the potty then he gets a prize out of the box.  THere were also times where I knew that he had to poop because he would grunt or cry so I would rush him to potty when he would do that and even if he went a little in his pants but the rest in the potty I rewarded him imediately.  I am so glad that I did this now because I realize now that the issues with the potty would have never gone away but just gotten worse over time.  IF someone would have told me 6 months ago that if I stay consistant for just 1 week and he would be trained I wouldn't have believed them...BUT IT WORKED!!!!  Good luck...I hope this helps. Karrie Unfortunately with Adam being a boy....LOL...the small childrens potty...UM   how do I say it.... it didn't allow room for his frontal genitalia. So we had to use the big potty and I looked all over for one of those that make the hole smaller and goes on top but I couldn't find one anywhere so we did it on the big potty...I did however use the little potty as a step stool to rest his feet on so that they wouldn't hang. Karrie well i went for the no more diapers approach and have only ever had one accident which wasnt pleasent but it stopped it. the trouble with pull ups etc is that they are comfortable when wet or soiled so it doesnt matter to the wearer so much. most asd kids dont like to feel dirty or wet so i would give it a go. i would try some positive re inforcement with a visual reward aid, either a brownie points chart or 'caught being good tokens' (see the wonderful ebay). worked for me (mother of 1dyspraxic 2 autistic, 2 NT boys)but every child is different . i would say give it a good go be prepared and dont be intimdated by  accidents.(hey, if i sneeze hard enough......moms u know what im saying right???!!!)I'm glad this question was asked, the advice is great. What about this... Every time we have sat Jair on the potty, he strains and strains to go poo- poo until we take him off, for fear he'll give himself hemmorhoids. At the same time, he absolutely resists peeing in the potty, even if he HAS to go and we tickle him and run the water faucet. ? How I got adam to pee on the potty at first was I sat him up there and then filled a cup with warm water and started pouring it slowly over his genitals to give him that sensation that you get in the tub.  Also this enabled him to start to realize what that feeling was and it helped to train him to only go on the potty.  Hope this helps. Karrie Is it best to use a small children's potty or a potty seat that goes over the toilet? Angela, We did something very similar to Kerri...we went cold turkey on the pull ups and just put him in underpants (I bought a bunch of character ones - Bob the Builder, Nemo, Scooby-Doo, Back Yardigans, Thomas, etc. and we made a HUGE deal to get him excited about getting himself dressed and going to the "Big Boy" potty). We took him every 20 min as well and the school did the same thing. We bought a Blue Clues toilet inset - we had a childs potty but he went through a growth spurt and he was just too big for it....we used a bribe (specifically a Playmobile Treasure Chest because he wanted it sooooo badly) that we would bring into the bathroom while son was on toilet and we would tell him that he could have it if he pooped in the potty. When he pooped in his pants, we would take his pants off and dump it into the potty in front of him and say "poo poo goes in the potty" and pretty soon, he would say it as we dumped it in together...then one day we picked him up as he was trying to hide in the "corner" (we knew what he was up to) and got him to the potty just in time...then he got the treasure chest and from there...he has been pretty good about it (for a little while after we gave him the chest, we would give him an award ribbon to pin on his shirt  after every poo poo (you can grab them at the dollar store that say WOW, SUPER STAR and GOOD JOB). Getting him to poo poo in the toilet was the hardest for us...now he goes all by himself....literally...he will go into the bathroom, put his seat inset on the toilet, pull his step stool over to the toilet, and pull his pants down....and everything else EXCEPT  put his pants back on....nonetheless...we are SO PROUD!!  One tip is to make the bathroom routine the SAME every time if you can..we noticed that helped our son a lot.Oh...and we put PECS pictures of the bathroom (picture of toilet) on the bathroom doors and easily accessible places so that he could grab one (he is verbal and can make requests but he also uses PECS when he is tired or can't think of the words). A tip on the hand washing...we purchased soaps that have toys in them and he is so motivated by the toy inside that he wants to wash his hands. He doesn't have it perfected but at least we have found something to motivate him into being interested in it (which is more than half the battle). Best of luck..
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