Toilet Training

Hi Nikki

Not sure I am going to be of much help with this one.  My youngest is 14 next week and has only been completely dry at night for the last couple of months.  Although he has been dry during the day since he was three or four.  As for the other (poo), we still have some slight difficulties there in that he is sometimes partially soiling.  He has Aspergers so is vocal and says he doesnt know that he needs to go (as far as bowel movements go).

 I think probably the best thing to do is have her eat at regular times and note when she does the toilet and establish a routine whereby you will know roughly when she is due to do the toilet.  That's the best I can come up with, but perhaps some others will have some better ideas.

 Good luck with it.

Josie

Nikki, there's been a response on Facebook that I thought I'd bring over here:

From Michelle Higgins:

"my daygher was the same at that age, it took ages to get her too use
the toilet, i wud sit her on the toilet a few times a day & read
her home made toilet stories, short & sweet tho overwise she wud
get fed up lol, the storys showed her going to the loo & wat she
wud get if she went, this is where there special interest come in,
which at the time was disney princesses :) of course i couldnt buy her a princess every time
she went too the loo but i might print her out a pic of one or let her
watch a dvd ect plus her snow white doll would sit on an old barbie
toilet lol it still took a while but it worked in the end, it's gotta
be visual =] pictures rather than words helped my special lil girl best
of luck with it x"

Snowdrop

Hi Claire

We potty trained Dylan when he was around 2 and half & shortly after that got him going dry through the nights.  I'm therefore not in a similar position but am happy to tell you how we did it in the hope it might work for Jack too. 

We started by putting him on the pot once a day at a time when we knew he would want a wee (I chose after his afternoon nap) he would always go & get praise & that was that, wouldnt mention it again for that day.  I then increased it so straight after his bath as that always seemed to make him go & then finally would put him on there 1st thing in the morning as I knew he'd be bursting to go then too.  He'd always have a wee at these times but never ask me to go at any other times.  I then made sure he knew the difference between wet & dry by placing his hands under the water & saying wet & then when dry saying dry, I kept doing this for a week & then since he then obviously knew that a potty was for weeing on and the difference between wet & dry we then moved on to the next (very stressful stage). 

I took a week off work and the 1st morning I just put Dylan in a normal pair of pants (not training ones) and told him that today he was going to wee and poo on the potty all day.  He obviously had no clue & wet many times (lots of puddles) but everytime he wet I would say oh no its wet, put him on the pot to hopefully finish & then clean up the mess, each time I would put him clean pants on & keep saying how nice & dry they were.  Pants with pictures on are good like Thomas Tank as I used to say Thomas wants to be dry and not wet.  As the 1st day wore on the puddles got less & I began prompting him saying do you need a wee when he hadn't had 1 for a while & by about the 3rd day he began to get the idea.  By day 5 I even managed to take him out with pants on & no accidents.

He really just seemed to catch on from their but even though he would tend to be dry, he wouldn't ask to go very often unless it was for a poo, he does still need prompting to go, he doesn't have full on accidents much anymore (very rarely) but often he does start doing a little patch in his pants & then says 'I need go toilet' so he obviously leaves it to the last minute before asking.  Sometimes he does a little patch & doesnt even mention it to me like he doesn't know or doesn't care.  After being potty trained for a while his nappies were then becomming dry after his afternoon nap so I cut them out there & he only ever had 1 accident & then we did the same at night time.

I'm not saying its perfect the way I done it & Dylan did panic a little the first time he wet himself in pants & a puddle appeared at his feet but I think it made him realise as he just wasn't really aware before then.

If you do decide to do it & take the week off, it is very stressful as the first day you literally spend cleaning up puddle after puddle, I never knew how often kids could wee when they didn't have to think about it!

I hope some of what I says helps as it did for Dylan and I'll do exactly the same for Jake.

Let me know how you get on.

Tracy x

Thanks Tracy, it gives me some hope!!

I bought the pants a while ago (Ben 10!!). I think I'll wait until the next holidays and try your plan. I agree that he will need a full week of dedication to do this properly, and I think with going back to school that may be enough for now! It wasn't like this with the girls, although I do remember lots of puddles with Josie. I also remember one afternoon we had guests over for a BBQ and she walked onto the patio, dropped her knickers and pooed in the middle of everyone.....they all thought it was so funny (thank goodness!) in fact they have always accepted her ways as 'Josieisms'!! I also remember holding my Dad's 60th here. Josie was walking past my Mum, who was sitting by the back doors talking, Josie bent over towards her sirt and wiped her nose on it....then carried on walking into the garden...not saying a word!! Ah bless, the good ol days! Luckily, aged 11, she doesn't do wither of these anymore!

Claire - Community Champion

Hello,

My Aunty works at a SEN school and described to me a routine they use to teach toileting to ASD children. The child wears pants and when they have an accident they are taken to the toilet, they pull down their wet pants and are sat on the toilet then told 'you don't wee in your pants you wee on the toilet!' then they are to pull up their wet pants again (rather unpleasant) and they go back to where they had the accident. They are then told 'you don't wee in your pants or say on the chair you wee on the toilet' and then they go back to the toilet again, where they sit again and then they change into new clothes. All through the day the kids drink and drink and drink in order to encourage lots of weeing! I think this is very intensive and is the only thing concentrated on during the day for a considerable period of time and therefore may not be practical. I also think that it is calling on more of the childs aversion to being wet and maybe reinforcement would be a better tactic. Also it is highly reptitive and may play to an ASD child strengths e.g. a fondness for routines! 

Its just an idea anyway! And I know that they had high levels of success! Good luck!