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Autism and potty training, HELP

1 reply

ExpatMum41 · 24/04/2025 15:50

Hi everyone

My daughter is 3 years 4 months. Diagnosed as autistic last year.

She's nonverbal, has coordination issues, doesn't properly feed or dress herself.

All of the above are difficult and worrying, but the worst is the massive lack of success we've had with potty training.

We've been trying for almost 2 years. Had professionals advise us. We try to put her on the potty regularly, try to predict her usual times. She can sit on the potty if we have something for her to watch, but usually just gets up, then I discover she's pooed or weed in her nappy. She does sometimes wee or poo in the potty, but it's always just down to sheer luck.

All the explaining in the world doesn't teach her to ask us for the potty, or to warn us she's already done something, or to pick up her potty and sit there, nope. We're trying rewards for successful use, not helping. She doesn't care about sticker charts. She enjoys all the praise, but then goes in her nappy anyway.

It's beginning to really get us down. We're on the brink of training our 15-month-old, and I fear a) tandem training, and b) that he'll be out of nappies before she is!

OP posts:
SpringtimeGirl · 24/04/2025 22:38

Hi I used to put my child on the toilet every 30 mins for 5/10 minutes with their iPad and wait to see if anything happened. It is intense but consistent perseverance helps. When we did catch a wee/poo I made a big deal was like wow yay, high five , well done a wee! Etc and gave them their favourite chocolates. (Mini ones). This works for us my child is 6 and has been toilet trained for a good 2 years now. They are also asd non verbal.
The only thing I wish I had done was go straight to learning on the toilet as it was almost like starting over again going from potty to toilet. I would go straight to toilet with a child seat and step if I was doing it again. Best of luck x

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