Underpants Here We Come!

(WARNING: Explicit information)

It is said that potty training a child with autism is one of the most challenging things you will ever face. We can testify first hand that that is definitely the case.

Adam and I were desperate for answers after so many failed attempts in the potty training arena. So, in mid-January, we attended a potty training seminar for kids with Autism. The woman who taught the class is Judith Coucouvanis and she is excellent. She also wrote a book called "The Potty Journey" which I highly recommend.

Our official "potty journey" with Owen began on January 17th and we were armed and ready for battle.

The training is very structured and based on visual prompts and rewards. It actually went better than we expected initially. After about two weeks into the process however, the novelty with Owen wore off and we started to encounter resistance. Adam and I were determined to stay the course though and we perservered.

On February 24th we decided to switch Owen from wearing a pull-up to wearing "big boy" underpants. We felt that he was using the pull-up as a crutch and his teacher at school agreed.
We had many discussions with Owen about keeping Thomas, Mater or Scooby-Doo (whatever character was on his underwear that day) dry. We had two minor mishaps within the first two days and then something must have clicked. From that point forward, not only was Owen keeping his pants dry, but he was going potty totally independent of any help from us. We were amazed, thrilled and thinking it was too good to be true. One battle down, but the war is not over.

For those of you that know Owen's history, you are aware that he has issues with his bowels, which is a common thing with autistic kids. He quite often would have more than one bowel movement per day and they were extremely loose. Since we have started his NAET treatments, the bowel issues have definitely improved. In fact now we are facing a different issue. Since Owen has been wearing underpants, he has been holding his bowel movements and then having traumatic meltdowns when he has a bowel accident in his pants.

We are convinced that once Owen has a bowel movement in the toilet, he will feel relieved and realize that it is not that scary. We just have to remain calm, give positive reinforcement and provide the proper incentive as bribery.

Stay tuned!