Potty Traning Advice | Autism PDD

A social story, reward chart in the bathroom with custom made stickers of his own happy face and sad face when he did or didn't do it right, Thomas the train underwear, chance to play Chicken Little on PS2 if he went poop/pee in the toilet and finally TONS of praises when he did go to the toilet and NO reprimands when he didn't.

We started at 3 years and he finally potty-trained a month before he turned 4 .

Do I know if the above actually helped? LOL....no clue.

It will happen eventually...when they are ready.

Now, we have to get the #2 going. I know when he normally goes and I sit him on the potty and he waits until he gets his underwear back on and goes and hides in his room and poos his pants. The underwear are not great during this part of the dayFor the pooping - I would have ds help clean them out. Oh he HATED that, but I told him that he would never have to do that once he learned how to poop in the potty. I think he probably had 2-3 accidents after that (pooping ones). I felt mean, but that is what several people told me to do - have him help in cleaning it up. He had to help scrape the poop into the toilet and then stand over the sink rinsing it out. If he even THOUGHT he got poop on his hands he was just disgusted. However, if you have a child who doesn't care about that - I'm not sure what to do. I'm sure there are other things to do. I have heard of a book called something like Toilet Training a Child with Autism. I'm sure you could search on amazon.com. I never read it (heard of it just as we almost had ds trained) but heard good things on this board and from other people.[QUOTE=sambucca]

When Adam held it did you go back to the diapers or did you just hold out

[/QUOTE]

I held out and put him in the warm tub to make him go and he screamed because he was purposfully holding it it.  After that I just had to be consistant and continue to make him sit on the potty.  THere was a few days that I had to use warm water to get him to go per say and then he got used to releasing it while on the pot.  Also a lot of our kids will refuse to use public restrooms and such so I took him out during week 2 every day to a different place and had him sit on public places too.  They had him sit at school also to get him used to their potty.  Now he will go anywhere when he needs to go.  He cried a LOT that whole week and screamed but not because he didn't understand...He was screaming because it was CHANGE and he wanted his pull-ups back.  Once he got into a routine and seen how he got rewarded by filling up the chart then he started to do much better.  I also kept him out of school that week so that I could have  complete control over when he went etc.l 

Karrie

Just wanted to mention re: what fred did - I think that using positive reinforcement is key here. If you use a sad face, it might get confusing and/or they may dig their heels in and just refuse. That being said, I probably did everything under the sun! Including eventually telling him that big boys don't pee in their pants (which I wouldn't recommend by the way - but when you have reached the end of your rope, sometimes things come out of your mouth that you wish you could just put right back in!).

As for public toilets - that is hard. For us mostly it was the SOUND of flushing that echoes throughout the bathroom. And some of those automatic flushing toilets - well they scare the heck out of ME sometimes! Both my kids have had this fear, although not to the extent that they won't go. I taught them to immediately cover their ears when it flushes (I try to have them wash their hands before I then go and flush when we're in public). If it is an automatic toilet, then I cover their ears (so they aren't putting dirty hands up to their ears). I don't know if this works for boys or not, but when we are traveling and I know we will be stopping at lots of public bathrooms - I bring her potty ring to put on the seat. By the time we trusted ds to travel without pull-ups, he was standing up to pee, so it wasn't an issue. He doesn't poop in a public bathroom often, so I haven't had to worry much. In fact, I've never taken him to do that - only dad has. I doubt if dh had the presence of mind to put toilet paper on the seat (he doesn't seem to have the germ phobias about toilets that I do).

Personally, as dd gets older and taller, I will teach her to squat while going potty. My mother instilled that in me and I don't think I could sit down on a public toilet if I had to! Probably a little too much information, huh?

They were ready, though.  They knew what the potty was for, etc.  We never trained them, they eventually just decided to do it all on their own (at around 3 yrs, 3 mos. for Evie and about 3 years, 5 months for Abbie).  Once they decided that they were going to do it on their own, it was done literally overnight.  Just a few accidents for the first couple of weeks. 

I personally would wait until the child was clearly ready - understood what they were supposed to do - and then just keep bribing him, and if they succeed, make a big, happy deal about it.

The "training" part of it, in my opinion, is for kids who don't know what the potty's for and need to put 2 and 2 together.  If they know what its for, it really must be their decision to make use of it, or it just won't work.  So, make it worth their while, though bribery, celebration, and the subtle aversive of keeping them out of the diapers so they have to experience the discomfort of soiling themselves.

I wouldn't do any of this, though, if they child is not showing awareness, otherwise, I think it would be really frustrating and make things harder in the long run.

I have to respond. My ds knew what the potty was for. However, I think if I wouldn't have pushed it - he might still be in pull-ups. Seriously. He wasn't ready, but as we talked about it a lot and I helped him increase his body awareness - by sitting him on the potty after lunch (which is when he almost always pooped) - he started to "get it". I think with NT kids that is totally true - but with our kids, they sometimes need a push. Some of our kids' body awareness is very poor. My ds' was - but it has gotten SO much better with sensory OT and other things. [QUOTE=sambucca] when he begins to pee the sensor sings "Old McDonald
had a farm" a therapist has been using it and she states that children begin
to associate the music with the sensation of having to pee.[/QUOTE]

Oh no. That could be bad at preschool circle time.    Well she was using it in her class room.  Just a suggeston what might not sound helpful for one might make anothers day![QUOTE=snoopywoman]

 If you use a sad face, it might get confusing and/or they may dig their heels in and just refuse.

[/QUOTE]

Actually we didn't have a problem with a sad face sticker at all.We made it a point that the sad face for that particular sticker did not mean he did something wrong. It was more to show how uncomfortable he felt when he went poop in his pants.He never did like going in his pants or pull-ups. He is one of those kids that changes his clothes 5-6 times a day if there is a drop of jam or any tiny stain on it.So we used the same picture of him feeling uncomfortable we had in the social story and made stickers out of them.  

And not at any point did we say pooping in pants was wrong or he was doing something wrong. It was always about making him feel good and clean and comfortable. When we put up the stickers, we always talk about how it made his bum feel yucky. We had the going poop procedure in PECS in the bathroom and in the hallway so he could familiarize with the process too.As a matter of fact, we made the whole idea of going poop so exciting he would announce it like its the coolest thing to do. It was a game to him to get it right.

Moreover, he had the peeing in the toilet figured out by 3 years old.That was also a really fun time where dad and he were aiming at cheerios together

But it was the poop thing that took a year. It was a slow process from going in the pull-ups anywhere to going in the pull-ups once he was in the bathroom. Then he would run to the bathroom,pull down his pull-ups and poop on the floor before he finally got the sitting on the toilet and pooping. I think it was the sensory overload and the whole process of going poop was too much for him.

The whole idea was to make it an exciting event and a fun thing. That has always worked with Michael.

 

We are three days in and my nephew, who's name is Matthew and is the love of my life. Well he still hasn't gone on the potty but my sister is greatful that he is not peeing on anything but himself.

In my quest to find some advice for my nephew I came across a site that might help others with children that don't quite understand or can't associate the feeling of having to pee.  It's called tinkletoonz.com they sell a sensor that attaches to the childs underwear when he begins to pee the sensor sings "Old McDonald had a farm" a therapist has been using it and she states that children begin to associate the music with the sensation of having to pee.  Thought it might help someone else out and make things a bit easier.  They also sell a potty that sings the song too.

 

I'm in the middle of trying to potty train as well.  I have started with baby steps because my son has absolutely no interest in the potty.  I have started with just sitting him on his potty chair (which sings), then after a few minutes with no action, I say 'good job sitting and trying to pee" and give him a sticker which he puts on his shirt happily.  I do this several times thoughout the day (morning, during school-teachers do, after shcool, and at night).  This has helped his adversion to the potty.  He usually would scream, "no potty, change diaper".  He has accidently peed in the potty (haha) and I make the biggest deal possible and he gets two stickers and mommy sings the "horray" song.  (Quite a sight!)  I figured this is going to take me a while so I am just working on getting him used to sitting on the potty than actually peeing in it yet.  That would be step 2 - which hopefully I can start on soon.  hopefully, this info is helpful. 

Hmmm reading from these responses I didn't see anyone mention doing 'Big Days' .... We did this with Zach and lots of psycologists and pediatricians recomend it ... It's even been on Dr. Phill (Whom I personally dislike with a sincere passion, but still)  Zach's own psycologist and Senior ABA therapist swear by this ... they have trained literally hundreds of ASD kids this way. 

You plan one "Big day" ... it's like a party day.  We made banners for Zach saying "Zach's Big Potty Day" and had balloons and what not. 

The WHOLE DAY is spent in the bathroom, so you need reinforcement people ... therapists, family members, friends ... people who are willing to help give you a break and take on a "shift of say 2 hours." 

We started with Zach, 30 min. on the toilet ... 5 min. off the toilet.  You stay at this time interval untill they go potty in the toilet ... then bring it down to 25 min. on the toilet 7 or 8 min. off the toilet.   Once they are successful again you do 20 min. and ten min.   This whole time you keep them in nothing but a longer Tshirt so that if they start to have an accident you can rush them quickly to the bathroom telling them in a really upbeat voice ..."Ohhh wait hold it"   Once you get to the 15 min. on the toilet 15 min. off the toilet you can put them in some underwear.  

We did two Big Days back to back with Zach ... Everything in the bathroom was fun ... we painted and made lots of different arts and crafts and he had all his favorite toys, plus we had a portable DVD player for the car that we brought up so He could watch movies in thier.   Whenever Zach went that's when we made a BIGGGGGG deal out of it ... I'm talking you just won the lottery type of deal.   

From that point on we gradually had to do trial and error on how often to take Zach to the bathroom ... First it was every 30 min. ... no matter if he had to go or not.  Then gradually it was 45 min.  then an hour ...  

We started out in pull-ups at first because what we realized was that Zach was holding it untill he could no longer hold it and then would have accidents ... it's also really not good for thier bladder.   But after I felt he totally understood what was going on and was just using the pull-ups as a crutch to not use the toilet .... i took them away cold turkey and like another mom said ... bought a lot of rug cleaner. 

I am happy to report that we started potty training in Aug. of 2006 and my son is now Fully potty trained ... poop and all.   He's been fully potty trained since Oct. 

Some other things we did with Zach was we had a visual schedule where potty was apart of the schedule and we used a social story and also a social video.   We made a home video of our Senior therapist and Zach in it (The senior just pretending to go pee pee and then going poo poo ... was funny trying not to shoot her from the waist down cause she still had her pants on, but we didn't want Zach to see that and get confused LMAO) .   We used lemonade as the pee pee and did a shot of the pee in the potty and then took tootsie rolls and smooshed them together ro make poopie.   Zach would watch this video twice a day and that's how he got poopy trained.   We also had reinforces that were ONLYY for potty.  Certain movies ( Lion king and Old superman cartoon movie he had), balloons and bubbles.  We didn't use those for anything else and he wasn't allowed to have them unless he went poop or pee.

*laughs* He would walk around the house and echo the movie all the time.  "Flush a toilet, N warsh your hands."  Ohh! my tummy hurts, I gotta go poop.'  He still does it sometimes. 

I hope this all helps. 

Andrew will be 5 in Feb.  He is trained for pee, but not for poo.  He knows and understands about the potty and will sit on the potty (he stands to go #1).  He has even recently started saying to me "poop on the potty"...after 30 minutes of sitting, still nothing.  His style is when he knows he has to go and no one is watching, and he can't wait one minute longer, he pulls off his pants and pull-up and goes on the floor.  Then he smiles and dances around and is so proud of himself.  He only goes in the LR or in his bed.  I know that we'll get there eventually...Mysh,
I commend you for being so brave.  I am just too worried that if I try it, my crwling Nina will find a Sharlet poo and shove it in her mouth like everything else

Good Luck I hope you succeed

I tried everything ... stickers, prizes, candy, hitting the cheeries, all the things suggested by the books.

I read Potty 1-2-3 and I did the cold turkey method, which did work, but it was a messy few days.  The thing is, you cannot give in, no matter how much you want to. 

Mysh - stay strong.  Each day will get easier.  Just stick with your guns.

Oh Mysh ... I'm so sorry it is this hard for you.  I really thought cold turkey would work for you.  Did he go at all in the potty?  If he is that upset, maybe he just needs a little more time.  My guy was 3 yrs 8 months when I did it.

 

We are having all these potty issues here as well.  Collin is 3 years 8 months old and I just dont see him being trained anywhere in the near future.  We have tried a couple times with a lot of the techniques and to no avail.  He could care less if his diaper is wet or dirty and he hates having it changed he would rather just sit in it ewwwwwww.  And we tried no diapers just undies and nope he just went in those too and couldnt care less.  So we tried having him nekkie and nope I found little wet puddles around the house and other

Your son sounds very much like my son...  We are just practicing sitting on the potty for right now....

He has gone pee in the potty a couple of times but only when its his idea.  It happens maybe once a month at the most.  If I try and ask him if he needs to go its all over and he wont even walk by the bathroom lol.  Its going to be a tough one. pheww

Well day 2 is about to start!

We had 10 wees on the floor and I poop on my floor/couch yesterday. Lachlan seems to be petrified of the toilet. I have never used a potty with my kids before but I am thinking this might be the way to go.

Allegra - I think I am in a very lucky position sometimes as I don't have a younger child to worry about. My other two children are so much older that Lachlan really does feel like an only child.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their truimphs and tribulations

(I'm off to get the mop ready....... would it also be considered bad taste to have a glass of wine at 9am?)

Mysh

William is 4 and still not potty trained. We use the PEC system at home so the potty is on his daily routine but I think that's all he thinks it is, a routine. I like the idea of the "Big Day" and might try that.

I've already cracked.........Lachlan is petrified of the toilet. I can't imagine him doing anything while he is so distressed. He has been crying so bad he is dribbling and shaking and I have major hand flapping going on.

I think I'll head off to buy a potty and give that a go.

Mysh

From what I have read, the average age for a child with autism to be potty-trained is about 5 to 5 1/2. This does include kids who have a severe form as well. But my ds trained the day before he turned 4. I have known of kids with autism that have trained at 2 1/2 though - and this child was described as having moderate autism. It really depends on the child, the parents, what is going on in the family's life (like moving), etc. Good luck to you!

Mysh,

Sorry that it hasn't been going well with Lachlan's potty training. Maybe it is time to back off and regroup. My son is almost five and we are just now having some success with potty training. My son did not want to be interrupted from whatever he was doing to go to the bathroom, so I started with just getting him to go into the bathroom everytime I changed him (no more mommy changing him wherever he was playing). After he was not so resistant to just going into the bathroom to be changed, then we started actually using the potty.

Maybe a potty chair will help with the process, but if it is not going to work right now there is no shame in calling off potty training until Lachlan is more accepting of the idea. I think that you have made a really good effort, but if the time is not right for both of you it might be a losing battle. We tried last summer to potty train Brandon but he was not in a good developmental stage...he was still adjusting to our cross county move and not really open to more change at that time.

If you don't want to completely give up maybe you could put Lachlan in pull-ups and just take him to the potty a couple of times a day so that he can gradually get used to the routine.

You are doing a GREAT job!

Tony was near 6 before he was potty trained; now even at 12 we still have issues with BM's and "marking" his underwear.  That's another story/thread!

Anyway, my niece's daughter (NT, and quite "smart" I must say) is just getting the potty and she is 3 yrs/4 mo. old.  So IMHO Lachlan is not too far behind.  I think a lot of kids (NT included) are closer to 3 yrs old before they get it down pat. 

Hang in there... I know it is a tough one to get through, but you will (as will Lachlan)!

Mary

Just thought I would add un apdate over the last 2 days toilet training with Lachlan.

I've seen more wee on my floor in 2 days with Lachlan than I did with both my other kids combined.

After day 1 and the 'scared' of the toilet thing, I went out an bought a potty. Disaster. he hated it even more so we reverted back to the toilet. Oven timer set every 10 mins, lots of praise..........nothing. For a little boy whose nappy i usually busting at the seams...he held on ...and on...and on........and on. I did buy a set of flash cards for him to look at on the loo...he now has about 4 new words!!

Today there was just wee everywhere, I couldn't dry his undies fast enough. Wee all over my new leather couch, floorbaords etc and I am just thinking he still really hasn't grasped the idea.

I had some pull-ups in the cupboard so switched to those this afternoon, still with time for sitting on the toilet. I feel less stressed although I have probably confused him.

The only thing that he has grasped so far has been that if he wees - he gets a chocolate frog. It's been hard to convey (because he has so little words) that the frog is for weeing on the toilet.

Doing the 1 smartie thing just didn't work. Social stories just dont work.

Might stick with pullups and wee breraks for this week and see how we go. I'm reluctant to switch back to nappies even after such a short break.

Thanks everyone for your support.

Mysh

 

My nephew is 4 years old and he has PPD my sister is having problems potty training I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.

Hi sambucca,

Your school district should be able  provide what is called parent training. These people can give you ideas on how to potty train your son.

My advice is start often say every 15 minutes going to the potty, then gradually increase the time. Always use reinforcement such as candy stickers, we used sponge bob ice cream and more importantly persistence.

 

Ny son who is ppd-nos became potty trained at 3yrs 10 month old but still uses a pull up at night. He just turned 4. Our next battle is getting him off the pull up at night.

 

Good luck

I used visual aides.  Social stories, reward chart, and frequent trips to the potty to keep trying.  Consistency was the key with us.  Also getting rid of the pull ups which for us was the hardest part for him. Good luck,

karrie

karjab30
 How did you get your child potty trained during the night when he/she is asleep.

Did you just get rid of the pull up at night?

any help would be appreciated.

When I potty trained Adam he was already waking up with dry pants so to speak so it was never an issue there.  If your child's pull up is dry during the night (like right when they wake up) then I would just take it away and make them go to potty as soon as they get up. If it is wet then I don't think you would have a choice but to keep it. 

Karrie

karjab30,

He's usually wet , I was wondering what could I do to help him get pass this point.

Adam held himself the for over 24 hours too during the first week of training.  It was the longest week of my life..LOL

Karrie

We have been trying for months and are seeking advice from his teachers we tried visual aides and favorite foods.  We tried the diaper fairy most recent the fairy came and took his diaper and his sisters binkie(she is 19 mths no problems) he did not go to the bathroom at all for almost 24 hrs and then had an accident at school.  But the teachers say to keep the diaper off.

When Adam held it did you go back to the diapers or did you just hold out

Nymommyof3 - I am so glad you posted! I decided this morning to bite the bullet and try to get Lachlan toilet trained.

He has shown no interest in going, but knows he is wet and dirty. My babysitter is on holidays for the next 2 weeks and I have no work - so I thought this was the perfect time.

I have a combined toilet seat/step and not a potty. I only have this because I used it for my other two kids and still had it.

Mysh

I trained my youngest at 3.5 by doing the method of "cold turkey".  I just stopped diapers, bought a bunch of rug cleaner, and stayed home for a long weekend.  First day was bad - I'd say 8 accidents.  He cannot stand being in wet clothes, so by the next day he finally agreed to use the potty, and have about 4 accidents.  By day 3 ... 2 accidents.  He was fully #1 potty trained in less then a week, and prior to that showed almost zero interest in the potty.  I got him #2 trained as well, but that didn't last.  See my thread on encopresis!Try using a potty training book for kids;  we bought one called "It's Potty Time" for my fiance's daughter, and we had great success with it in just a few visits (we are non-custodial).  It actually has a little noise button that makes a flushing sound.  It's a cardboard heavy paged book - got it at Walmart -- and it has a chart where you can put some reward stickers in the back too.

Well, we tried almost everything and finally got ds trained right before he turned 4. He was poop-trained just after 3 1/2 (I know - he did it backwards, but he HATED having poop in his pants!) but peeing took much, much longer.

Some things we tried that seemed to help:

1) having him sit on the potty right after meals. He seemed to usually have to either poop or pee right after meals.

2) to keep him on the potty, we had books that were to be looked at ONLY if he was sitting on the potty. We called them "potty books" and they were ones he REALLY liked. But, he could only have them read to him on the potty. So, this kept him interested in sitting there. One day, I read to him for over an hour while his sister was napping - and that was they day he pooped for the first time. After that, it was only a few more accidents and he was poop-trained.

3) We also did a sticker chart - little stickers for when he peed and big ones for when he pooped. He got to put them on his dinosaur calendar (his special interest at the time) and he also got to pick out a mini-dinosaur as well. I got a bunch at a garage sale and more in a couple of those tube-like containers.

4) We got him several books and videos. Some favorites were "Everybody Poops" and "What to Expect When You Go Potty", and the video - Potty Time with Bear (from Bear in the Big Blue House). The What to Expect book got horrible reviews on Amazon.com - and those reviews were EXACTLY why I bought the book! They all said that the book was for a much older child and what child wanted to know exactly how the digestive system worked and the sewage system as well? Well, MY SON did! He was very curious and loved having that book read to him over and over (this was a potty book as well).

5) We put his little potty chair in close proximity to the living room (which is where he played during the day). That way it was a visual reminder and he was more likely to go. And, it made it easier to get there quicker in an emergency as well!

6) After five months of trying and after school got out - we put him in underwear full-time (except at night). Within a week, he was doing really well and I considered him fully day-trained. We couldn't do that while he was in school, because he couldn't wear underwear to his mainstream pre-school if he wasn't trained (not according to any of their rules - I just didn't want the other kids teasing him and I knew he couldn't hold it for 3 hours).

We also tried boy dolls that peed (do NOT the Aquini doll - it just isn't worth the money and never worked correctly). We tried LOTS of books, we tried the Potty Elmo doll (which at least worked well for my daughter - so we got SOME use out of it!). We also used PODS, which are like a sanitary napkin that you put in their underwear rather than going back to pull-ups. They are very pricey, but helped at the very end of potty training - just to give him that extra measure of security (like at his birthday party). I saved some of those for my dd and I think we will probably use some of them soon! You can google to find them - but again, they were pricey.

I thought we would never get there (I REALLY, REALLY did think he would go to kindergarten not potty-trained!), but we did. He actually still isn't night-trained, but he has had lots of dry nights. We haven't been pushing, but the closer he gets to 6 years old, the more I am trying to impress on him that this needs to be addressed. However, he is starting to get a sore throat, so I am reluctant to say he can't have water by his bed due to circumstances. So, after that passes, we will be limiting fluid intake after about 4 p.m. We'll see how that works!

Hope this helps!

Lachlan was given a book and DVD called 'On your Potty" which we are going to watch this afternoon. Already he hates the toilet and trying to reward him with a smartie was a failure. he wants the whole packet.

Gotta go.....toilet time!

Mysh

Jasper will be four in a few weeks. He's not potty trained either. It's time to
start again. Am I the only one who just DREADS potty training? I'm just a
tired single mom, and the idea of spending a week housebound with the
toilet sounds like pure torture. How can I make it more fun? For both of us.

Also, how do you deal with fear of public toilets? That's a biggie for us.

6 sits on the toilet - nothing

2 pees on the floor

1 poop on the floor

A hatred for underpants

an even bigger hatred for the toilet

and a mummy who is thinking that nappies are not so bad (only kidding!)

Mysh

p.s when hubby called our lounge room suite "baby poo' brown I disagreed...he was right - it matches in perfectly
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