Day 1 of toilet training-not going so well

[woollyboots]

Today is day 1 of toilet training my son who is 4 and has DS. We have had 6 changes of clothes and he does not seem really bothered when he wets himself. Have I left it too late or does anyone have any great ideas to help him.

Hi woollyboots. My dd is 3yrs 5 months and has DS.
I have been sort of "potty training" for the last 6 months. She does now manage to go to wee on the potty or toilet 2 or 3 times a day. Sometimes it's more, but it is very hard work. She knows what the potty is for, but won't tell me if she needs to go. I must be really strict with myself soon, and perhaps put her on the potty every half hour or so.
Her favourite trick ATM is waking up at 5-6am ,getting herself undressed and throwing her wet nappy over the child gate at us.She then shouts at the top of her voice MAMMA, DADDA...until we put her on the toilet. Sometimes we have been too late but luckily she has only weed....so far.
If you are just staying at home, can he not just run around in a little pair of pants and a t-shirt?

Obviously Day one is early days! I'm sure you haven't left it too late at 4. Is there something he loves that you can reserve only for using the potty, first fully prompting him to use it and giving him the item and then hopefully having to prompt less. In time its a good idea to have some form of card for the child to be able to give you to request toilet, a big laminated (of course) card with just the PEC type pic of toilet. You could even have a few of them and at the end of the day, if there are say 5 of them on the board you are no doubt going to make to keep in the bathroom, he can get a super treat. I'm against "telling off" for not doing it properly, counterproductive with children with Sn imo.

I agree Davros, we have been doing a star chart for dd since xmas. Every time she does a wee, she stands ups, shouts,"woo,,,wooo wooo!" and then "Star" then I rush around, get rid of full potty, wet nappy, put wipes up out of reach,,,,etc,,,,before we get around to putting a star on her chart. If I don't do it almost immediately, I feel the point has been lost.

Hi there WB don't think we have chatted before. My DD has DS and we started training in the summer just before her 4th b'day so no I don't think you have left it too late. It took ages tho and we still get bad days (today - she is 5.5 now and completely dry in the day - she wet herself twice) but I remember the early stages well - it was as if it just didn't bother her at all to be wet. I kept thinking there are no adults with DS in nappies and eventually we got there. No special techniques - just the usual but more of it. Lots of star charts and Barbie dolls for us! Poo was harder for us as she apparently had no control - after a few very grim months and the usual blank looks from the GP ('Stop giving her fizzy drinks' - eh??) we had paed look at her and she was extremely constipated - typical in children with DS but we were seeing the overflow not the blockage - so she is on various laxatives and I think she will be for a while - but she is getting there now with poo too.

All of this was immensely helped by willingness of (mainstream) nursery and now school to get stuck in and work with us.

My main motivation to toilet train her was the social side of attending primary school etc - for example she still wears a pull up at night - so altho it has been a long haul and who knows she might have got it quicker had I waited I am glad we persevered. Good luck and keep posting.

Sinclair, would I be able to CAT you at some stage. It would just be so great to chat to someone, who child is that much older. All the families I seem to meet via the DSA seem to have babies!

Thanks everyone for their help. I know it is early days but I would just love to click my fingers and training to be done! I will start star chart although we all do cheer when he does a wee in the loo. I will let you know how we get on.

Dingle pls feel free to it would be lovely to chat. Can't post it in code on here as have a very unusual first name but CAT me and we'll talk soon I hope! Sx

I wouldn't use a start chart at this stage as the function of these charts is to delay reward and build anticipation. At this stage I would simply reward for every success and/or attempt, no matter how heavily prompted. You could work towards a start chart once you make progress. You could have a chart to show how he's done over a day where you place a token having already rewarded, that is if he likes to see how "well" he's doing.