Potty Training Help From Other Parents Of Autistic Children...

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Since potty training is such a huge issue for our children, as parents write and explain "how they did it", I will share these experiences with you here in case the experience of other parents provides your answer.

The reason I could see this working is because, based on the need for "order in understanding everything", I could see an autistic child wanting to "put it somewhere, where it belongs"... in the "garbage" or "bucket"....so, I think these are definitely worth a try.  

In just the first two example... there is a common thread that worked... parents REMOVED THE DIAPER/PULL-UP, etc.  

If you just can't bring yourself to do that, you may want to try putting a removable "insert" in your child's underwear to make him understand the concept of "garbage" a  little more (that's how I'm planning to "start tackling this issue again")... something such as a sanitary napkin may provide a great "liner" for this particular function... it would help make the "mess" easier to clean if the child poops in his pants and would certainly help "solidify" the concept of "this is garbage" and "this garbage goes into the potty garbage". :o)

Where ok with the parent, I provided their personal email in case their suggestion works for you and you want to thank them personally.  Parents who provided suggestions and find they are getting  "overwhelmed" with thank yous (wouldn't that be wonderful!!!), can have their emails/names removed from this section simply by contacting me and asking me to do so.  I want to thank all parents for sharing their experience with others!

1.    From Heather Thorpe:     www.Thorpeheather@aol.com

What Heather did was to let her son go "bare butt" outside when she knew her son was due for a bowel movement.   She put the potty nearby in the yard.  Eventually, her son just "had to go" and so, he sat down on the potty, and went.    

I'd recommend putting a long t-shirt on your child to cover his bottom if you do this...just so that neighbors don't complain to authorities that a naked kid is outside (some will do that - so save yourself the trouble).  

2.    From Karen H.

"We had gotten into a terrible habit of giving him a pull up to poop in for 2 years.  That was tough to break. Finally I said no more pull-ups and he started going in his underwear so then I let him run around in the house without underwear and named the potty insert which is removable the "underwear bucket". He grabbed it held it under him and while half standing pooped into it. His reward was 5 president stickers (Presidents have been his passion since
age 3). So we did that for 1 week. Then we made president pictures with each one saying a different statement about poop.  On a visual schedule I showed on top: poop in underwear bucket 5 president stickers poop in toilet president saying

That afternoon he sat on the toilet and when he actually did it his eyes grew big with HUGE smile and he said "I love pooping on the toilet and splash it in the water". He then received 1 president saying and was so proud. (The stickers got old because he already earned each president so the 1 new president with a saying was like gold to him)."

I'll add more suggestions as I receive them.  :o)

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