Re: Potty Training (long)

October 23, 2002

,

When we decided to potty train my (at the time) 3 1/2 year old son we

did it totally cold turkey. We planned it for the Winter Holidays so we

could both be home and we literally lived in/ near the bathroom for quite a

few days, but by the third day he was dry almost all day and went poop in the

potty for the first time. On the first day we literally dragged our

smallest TV into the bathroom because he was scared to death to sit on the

potty, even with the little seat insert. So when his hiney was sitting on

the seat Barney was on, if he got up Barney went off. Plus we had snacks and

TONS of fluids going into him.

Within a couple of hours he was fine with sitting on the potty (we

pulled the TV out completely on day 2). (No, he wasn't sitting there for

hours--- we just 'practiced' every 10-15 minutes). The first day I washed 10

or 11 pairs of wet pants-- he didn't make it to the potty once. But the

second day we kept it up and he realized there were no diapers in the house

and this was for good. He was basically non-verbal at the time so there was

no 'reasoning' with him or much explaining. We did 'pants check's' ALL the

time and praised him and gave him a little treat for " Dry pants " . When he

peed in his underwear we just walked him to the potty saying " No pee pee in

your underwear " . or " Now your underwear are wet " . Then sat him on the potty

and said " Pee pee goes in the potty " . Then we helped him clean it up and put

clean underwear on.

We got very lucky because this all generalized to him initiating for

poops as well without any additional work on our part. I've heard a lot of

people say that their kids trained day and night at the same time, but we

didn't attempt night training for about six more months. We just put

underwear on him first thing in the morning and NEVER went back to pull-ups

during the day NO MATTER WHAT. Consistency is the key to teaching almost

anything and especially so for potty training a kid who isn't exactly

enthusiastic ; ) (Typical or on the spectrum!) GOOD LUCK!!

---

Mom to , 6, ASD

and , 3, NT

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