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Toilet Training Poss ASD Child 3.6

8 replies

dietstartstmoz · 14/02/2011 12:03

Hi all,
We are still waiting for our DX of ASD but have another appt with the paed at the start of march and fully expect to get a dx of ASD then.

DS is 3.6 and has some delayed speech, but has made progress in the past 2 months, but only talks about things that are relevant to him, but are usually completely out of context and not a two way conversation.

We have been encouraging him with the toilet and he will wee when he wants to and is getting stickers etc and likes this but he has runny poo every day (usually 3 times a day) and has no awareness of needing to go, or usually when he has pooed.

The early years service want us to try and encourage toilet training, but i don't want to put him pants yet as the poo is so awful.
He is due to start school sept and I can see him going in pull ups, but does anyone have any advice on how they successfully toilet trained their child?
Have found some picturesw on a website, but it's encouraging him to show awareness_I have no idea where to start. I'm not even sure he can do this.
Thanks

OP posts:
Spinkle · 14/02/2011 12:16

My DS (ASD, 6) needed to see other children use the loo. We eventually did it at 4yrs old. He's still in pullups at night though.

I'm sure the Early Years people would like to see you start but until he's ready for it developmentally then there's very little point. Wait until he's really really ready. You cannot rush it with ASD kids.

We had quite a lot of success using the Bear in the Big Blue House DVD about toilet training - silly songs ('the mystic order of the toileteers') really helped! Looking at books, watching other kids go.

He WILL be able to do it. ASD kids are capable of doing things but it has to be on their terms. If his communication is poor this will slow him down a bit too.

intothewest · 14/02/2011 12:18

It is very difficult We are still going through this now,although ds is 7.(he has LDs too)
I would not put him in pants yet as we did for 3 weeks a couple of years ago and nearly had a nervous breakdown with all the poo issues
Firstly I would try to address the 'runny poo'Is there a reason for this as this will not help.
We have been having success recently.It's as though something clicked and he realised he could go on the loo.It is not perfect-he still has pull ups most of the time;but the improvement is huge-I never thought he would-

so I guess what I'm saying is he'll do it when he wants(with a lot of encouragement from you )but check there are no underlying issues first

auntevil · 14/02/2011 14:20

Do you have any idea why your DS is loose? I found that getting them to firm up - even slightly, gave them more chance of getting a build up feeling and recognising that this means to get to the toilet.
My DS kind of had the attitude that if he couldn't get to the toilet as he didn't know when it was coming, he wouldn't bother at all.
I am having similar difficulties with DS2 and 3 (I've sorted 1!!). DS3(NT) is also starting school in September. We have put him on a rigid toiletting programme - and he does a no.2 nearly every time. Then the sneaky ones happen throughout the day - and they are loose. Sometimes you have to say to yourself - he's just not ready. Pants are a distant thought. But there is the nice warm weather on its way (eternal optimist here Grin ) and the warmth of sitting in a pull-up might not seem so appealing.
All of mine are dairy intolerant. This dx helped DS1 to not have any problems, DS2 firmed up enough to stop all but the real loose ones and has helped DS3 become firmer most of the time. Its worth getting checked out.
Also stools can be checked for parasites that can cause looseness, and a 'bulking agent' that can be deficient and stop good formation. Just a couple of ideas - sure there'll be some more soon.

dietstartstmoz · 14/02/2011 15:04

Can I ask more poo questions please?
Ds had lots of blood tests at our last paed appt, they ticked everything on the forms, milk, wheat, mould, animals etc and all came back normal. Where do we go from here. We were really hoping we would get a positive for something, but they were all normal. He does runny poo 99.9% of the time, with the very occasional firmer poo, but never a normal solid poo. Sorry - too much poo information!

OP posts:
Eloise73 · 14/02/2011 16:09

Our paed told us to swap over our dd's milk for lactofree milk and see if it made a difference to her poos and it did, massively, they were instantly normal.

We still let her have yogurts and cheese (although she's not that keen on cheese) but most of her lactose used to come from milk as she loves the stuff so now its just lactofree milk and its worked wonders, worth a try I think, a fairly inexpensive intervention!

Good luck xx

dietstartstmoz · 14/02/2011 16:37

Great, thanks for the tip. I will get some tomorrow and see if that helps. DS has a lot of milk, dairy and bread in his diet as he's a fussy eater but loves things with these in so definately worth a try.

OP posts:
tiredmummyneedswineandsleep · 14/02/2011 16:43

I sympathise and empathize my ds is exactly same age and i've put him in pull ups. Sometimes he'll respond to bribery , sometimes he wont bother! Good luck.

auntevil · 15/02/2011 13:29

The paed did blood tests, but did they do a stool sample? What comes out that isn't processed chemically can be more indicative. There are 2 types of dairy intolerance/allergy. Lactose which is the sugar, and casein which is the protein. The blood test done may have been looking for 1 or the other or both indicators.
If you do ask for any other types of tests, do not stop the normal diet, or it will give a false result.

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