Sunday, January 8, 2012

Internet powers...ACTIVATE!

Help us, oh autism bloggers!  Google has not been sufficient.

Am I dry?  None o yer bidness.
We've been potty training since Wednesday, and are following the plan set out by Ben's teachers.  He wears underwear (not pull-ups) and easy-to-remove pants.  We check him every 10 minutes to see if he's dry.  If he is, he gets a jelly bean.  Every half hour, he sits on the toilet for at least 5 minutes.  If he pees, he gets a jelly bean.

That's the basic plan described by the teacher when I picked up Ben on Thursday.  I think I got everything, but Ben was yelling "Go home!" and trying to drag me out of the room.  It doesn't say what to do when he fails a "dry check", so we decided to have him "finish" on the potty and put on dry stuff.  Lovely Wife let him run around sans pants in the back yard some yesterday, and that seemed good because he could see what was going on down there.

We've avoided leaving the house with him, 'cause, you know, that would be a pain.

Anybody have advice for us?  Any pro tips?  I know it's going to be a long road, but I'd like to feel we're going the right way on it.
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7 comments:

  1. MicheleJanuary 8, 2012 at 10:03 AM

    I have to say that I didn`t take my son on any errands without a pull-up on until last year. He just was not consistent in the beginning and for the first while, and you just have to leave the house sometimes! I don`t think too many stores would be happy to have your kid creat a puddle (or something worse) in their store. I can now take him out and he will go potty in store toilets without a problem (he is now 7 years old). But, your son may catch on quicker as they each seem to have their own timeline when it comes to potty training. By the way, I also made my son go to the bathroom everytime he had an accident, sit an extra time, and eventually also made him take his dirty stuff to the laundry room.

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 8, 2012 at 3:10 PM

    We still have not successfully potty trained either of our kids, so you probably don't want my advice.

    But.... I can tell you something I read on Kelly's blog last week, about putting on the underwear under the pullups. Then he'll know when he's wet but you won't have such a big mess.

    One of these days I'm going to get the nerve up to try potty training AJ again. Good luck!

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  3. JonJanuary 9, 2012 at 8:58 AM

    Thanks for the tips -- both very useful. We had some success this weekend, but did a *lot* of laundry. TGIM

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  4. JimJanuary 12, 2012 at 9:11 AM

    Having not successfully trained Lily. . . I have only "encouragement" to offer.

    I have done two "intensive" potty training interventions with Lily in the past two years. Neither was completely successful.

    The first was, in a nutshell:
    Set a timer and adjust for success and failure until consistently successful. See LONG blog post if you're interested: http://blogginglily.blogspot.com/2011/10/potty-training-with-edgar-allen-poe.html

    The other, much more successful, was the 3 day potty training. We adapted it to six days, and it was about 90% successful. Essentially, you hole up in a room with the kid, you let him START to go potty and the SECOND you do (the timeliness is very important), you acknowledge that he's going potty, scoop him up and put him on the potty and give tons of praise. Then you clean him up, change him and repeat.

    You're supposed to be HYPERvigilant and repeat, "Tell daddy when you have to potty over and over again". You're never to be negative about an accident, you're always to immediately get your child on the potty the second you notice he's going.

    The idea is that your son will begin to recognize within three days the feeling associated with these accidents, the praise associated with going, and that he has agency over the trips. By the third day, he SHOULD be saying, "daddy, time to potty" and you honor that regardless of whether he goes and put him on and give him praise for telling you.

    Because Lily is autistic, we figured "double the time". . . it is SERIOUSLY time consuming. You cannot leave his side. But it does seem pretty effective.

    That was more than a year ago, and although Lily is not fully potty trained, and does have accidents from time to time, it's probably about 1 per day, and somedays none.

    Here are some other links you might check out:

    First, try this blog:
    http://www.starkravingmadmommy.com/2011/10/whats-working-for-us-potty-progress.html

    She links to another blog she did asking for help, where tons of people commented and gave suggestions:
    http://www.starkravingmadmommy.com/2011/09/ok-this-is-totally-gross-but.html

    Finally, if you're at wit's end:
    http://autismpundit.com/blog-4/files/4694ffd8d8a0f481c99811ed27eecc2b-49.html

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    Replies
    1. JonJanuary 16, 2012 at 8:34 AM

      Thanks, Jim. That's some really reading - lots of good stuff.

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  5. AnonymousJanuary 12, 2012 at 6:01 PM

    First, Jon, I have to wish you the luck of the Gods and patience of Saints.

    Second, dear Lord. If you find a trick or tip that works, PLEASE share it with us. I am really doubting that Ted will ever get to the potty trained stage. But that's just us. You keep on keepin' on and show us the way! I anxiously await your assistance.

    :)

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    Replies
    1. JonJanuary 16, 2012 at 8:52 AM

      Thanks Kelly. It's hard to add anything to what Jim said up there, except that the Ipad has become Ben's potty buddy.

      Now I want to make an app that works like "Talking Tom", but is a kid on the potty -- I think that could make scary pooping less scary.

      Delete

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