My 5 yr old special needs will not poo in the toilet...help?

Question

My 5 yr old autistic child will not p**p train either, what can I do? My doctors have no idea what to do.

Answer 1

Read this info. about an autistic child...

Answer 2

It may seem like a lot of work at first, but potty training your autistic child will make everyone's lives easier in the end and will give them more of an advantage in school.it may takea few months or so of daily training . It can be done in a relatively short amount of time.

Good luck and happy potty-training!

First of all, you need to completely get rid of the diapers. Your child will never understand what you are trying to do if you keep him or her in the comfortable environment of the diaper. At the most, only keep them for a short time at the beginning to use for overnight or long outdoor trips. At first, this may be upsetting to the child and they may attempt to put the diapers back on his or herself (which is a sign he/she is definitely capable of being potty-trained). Consider using absorbent Pull-ups� for a short while to accustom the child to the feel of underwear. But do not use the Pull-ups� for so long that the girl or boy becomes overly-attached to them as they did the diapers.

Next, you need to buy your child several pairs of regular cloth underwear or cloth training underwear and some pairs of plastic underwear covers (similar to cloth diaper covers-to reduce mess from 'accidents', which will be inevitable in this process. Buy some disinfectant and a good bottle of carpet spot cleaner!). Put the underwear and underwear cover on your child while just spending time around the house. Once again, they may be upset with the change, but will eventually get used to it and be thankful for your 'push'. At this stage, you may also want to let them view a parent of sibling of the same s*x using the bathroom normally, so they can visually see the process.

Do not rely on regular Pull-ups� to help train your child. The newer potty-training disposables that contain strips that 'alert' or help the child feel the mess may be more acceptable and cleaner, but an autistic child needs to be able to feel the wetness in order to be encouraged to use the toilet and avoid the discomfort. That is why cloth underwear or Feel 'N Learn� disposables are so important to use, and why regular Pull-ups� and diapers will only hinder the process (except in cases where a bathroom is not going to be available to the child at this stage).

If possible, attempt to teach your child a signal to give you or a word to use when the bathroom is needed. In any case, make sure the bathroom is not locked off and is always available for the child to use whether they alert you or not. It may be helpful to leave a hallway light on all night, so the child isn't afraid to get up and use the bathroom at night. When your child gives you the signal for the need to use the bathroom, if you can see they are in the middle of going to the bathroom in their underwear, or even if you discover they've already had an accident-immediately take them to the toilet and sit them down. Even if the child has already gone to the bathroom all the way, sitting them down and helping them wipe will associate the deed with the toilet. Even when the child does not give you the signal to go, it will be helpful to sit him or her on the potty for a moment and going through the motions of wiping before leaving the house/going to bed, or just random times during the day-preferably repeating phrases such as "Poopy in the potty" or "Pee-pee in the potty." In regards to wiping, keeping a supply of flushable wet wipes will help them become more independent. As for the type of toilet, by the time many autistic children are potty-trained they are too big to use a potty chair or seat, so the regular toilet should do just fine.

It may take several accidents and trips to sit on the toilet, but eventually your child will discover that in order to avoid the discomfort of having wet underwear, they need to use the potty. They will discover that you are not giving in to their desire to use Pull-ups� or diapers, and that from now on underwear and the toilet are things that will be a part of their everyday lives. Gradually, they will become more adept at getting to the toilet before they have an accident and will become more independent in the process. Soon, they will be able to completely rid themselves of over-night and travel Pull-ups� and will be able to hold it until they can get to the bathroom. Make sure your child always knows where the bathroom is located when you visit a new place.

It is important that all people who give care to this child know what you are doing, are willing to follow the instructions, and know your child's signal for the bathroom. It is also important that you not get angry at the child for having an accident. My family found this out the hard way, when we became irritated at our son for having accidents. He began holding it until he arrived at his special pre-school, where he promptly exploded his bowels almost daily on the teachers (of whom he knew would not punish him), nearly getting him expelled from the school! Patience and praise is definitely recommended over punishment and anger.

Answer 3

I babysat a child who was Autistic and he wouldn't potty train completely until he was seven. He was still in diapers at the age of five. He slowly started out going during the day, and only having to wear them at night. He was in Goodnights, because he wouldn't wake up to know that he had to go.

My advice would be to wait it out and slowly work with them, because they are sometimes not good with the whole pushing them to do something - you're probably well aware of that.

Look on Google for some sites - because there are a lot that will probably be able to give you a lot of good advice on this.

Good luck with all of this.

Answer 4

I potty trained my children using a song that I would sing to them as they sat on the toilet.  It still works to this day and they are adults.  Children with autism generally are interested in music and perhaps this may aid in potty training him/her.