My little boy

[Quintin]

Quintin, my 4 year old boy refuses to use the toilet. Tried many things, is this something of difficulty for spectrum children? I know it doesn't interest him so he doesn't care to try.
Any ideas?

 

[Geordie]

Some ASDs are toilet trained, some don't. It's different

 

[142857]

My aspie son is 6 years old. He was somewhat difficult to toilet train, but we got there eventually.

I've heard of aspie kids taking until the age of 8 to be toilet trained. My son was toilet trained by about the age of 4, so it varies a lot. Don't sweat it too much.

Even now he often doesn't go to the toilet until the last second... which occasionally results in a wardrobe malfunction and wet pants.

 

[Geordie]

Potty training is hard - just press on there, be patient...

 

[Quintin]

well I'm lucky he goes to an excellent 'Montessori' school, their philosophy is 'when he is ready' he will use the toilet. I don't want to pressure him. I already did that with his lack of eating. now his eating skills are worse.no more pressure , encouragement only. he has two more years at this school then we are at the mercy of another school. Hopefully he trains himself by then.

 

[Occasional_Demon]

It's actually not uncommon for children, ASD or not, to take a while with potty training. Some grasp the concept pretty early [apparently that was me], some are more resistant. I think if you can gently encourage him to use it and slowly transition him, then it might help. There's these nifty nappies available here that are called "pull ups", which can be pulled up and down like pants but are still absorbent lie nappies

Eating is a whole different issue. I remember when I did a social work placement at a child development agency, one of the social workers explained that there were about 30 steps involved with eating - it starts off with being able to tolerate being in the same room as a food item, and ends with the food item being swallowed. It's all about tolerance. Remember, never hide food within food!

 

[Geordie]

How do people encourage tolerance of food?

 

[Occasional_Demon]

The basic premise behind building tolerance is to slowly expose a food item to the child. So, you firstly let the child get used to the idea of being in the same room as the food, then you gradually move the child towards the plate. Eventually you can get the child to sit down and play with the food, maybe mouth and chew it without swallowing. Finally, you encourage the child to swallow. It's basically exposure therapy.

 

[Quintin]

We have a lot a work ahead , potty, bathing , and eating! The hard stuff for Quin

 

[Geordie]

All the best for Quin and OD to try new foods!

 

[Quintin]

I'm ok with the lengthy potty training. Does anyone know the amount a smallish four year old should be eating in order to thrive? I'm using 'pediasure' as a supplement now ( it has 26 vitamins & minerals) since he is an extremely fussy eater.

 

[Geordie]

Let he be. Also, enjoyable exercise may help.

 

[blur]

I put my boy on a macrobiotic diet. Let him waddle in the pool and cycle twice a week. Do music, keyboard. I hope that it will be of some help to your boy. My son is very assertive... Is montessori school gd for boys on spectrum?

 

[Spinning Compass]

It took me a while to get toilet trained . . . part of it was I'd get so caught up in what I was doing that I would "forget" to go. But another very big issue, which nobody realized at the time, was that I was extremely noise-sensitive and public restrooms scared me half to death. I'm sure glad that they didn't have automatic flushing toilets back in the 1960's or I don't think I'd ever been able to leave the house. That might be part of his problem.

 

[blur]

I also have this problem. Luckily my boy does not. It it is difficult to get over the fear of the noise of flushing. I will quickly dash out of the toilet after flushing. Very sceary. I m still trying to get use to the sudden loud noise.

 

[Quintin]

He did it ( potty training) at 4 &1/2.
Still working on the eating issue...