Advice on Potty training

Counting_Pennies_2

In terms of being in the house, leave the potty somewhere premanently so she can just take herself off when she needs to.

I am tempted to say develop a sign with her to say she needs to do a wee for when you are out. If not always travel with a potty in a bag, so she can point at it and you can whip it out and sit on it straight away. I have a travel potty from mothercare with liners that you just throw away each time, and they are perfect. Good for girls, more tricky for boys

hth

aligerdie

Have you tried little picture cards?

I've seen them using little laminated pictures of toilet, drink, food etc at the playgroup my daughter went to. There were children there with a variety of needs & these cards seemed to do the trick.

Thankfully my daughter managed to speak before we potty trained (we didn't start until she was 4) so we didn't use them, but they seemed to be very effective with her friends who weren't yet talking.

Nicki

Hi there. My dd is autistic and non verbal and potty training her was a real challenge, though we got there in the end. The first thing to bear in mind is that autistic children generally toilet train later than other children, and it isn't uncommon for them still to be in nappies aged 5 or so. This is partly due to the fact that some asd kids just can't recognise the urge to go, that they have problems with the whole sequencing thing, that they have sensory issues which cause problems (eg fear of the flush, getting scared by splashes in the bowl, etc) and also the inability to communicate the need to go.

To help her communicate, you could try using an object of reference, such as a small piece of towelling which she gives you when she needs to go. You'd need to have several the same at strategic places in the home and teach her to give it to you, by doing a supported exchange every time you take her to the loo from now on. Eventually she will associate the two things. Alternatively, if her communication levels are higher, you could use a picture ( helpful if she is using PECS already). This is easier, as you could have the picture she needs on a keyring attached to her trousers so she has it all the time. Or if she signs, teach her the sign for toilet (which is placing the middle finger of your hand on the front of the opposite shoulder and moving it slowly downwards) this is what my dd uses.

Can I recommend a book for you, which you can get on amazon, called toilet training on the autistic spectrum by Maria Wheeler. We found this very helpful and it is used by our local special school to train teachers to support kids during this phase.

Finally good luck and steel yourself for a possible long haul. We had several accidents a day for over two years before it finally made sense for my dd, aged about 5 or 6 and thought she would never get there, but now aged 9 she is fully there and it makes a huge difference. If you do decide to leave things for a while or to take a break once you start, your child will be entitled to nappies on the nhs from the age of 3 once she has her diagnosis, and they are good quality ones. This is a huge help as it is hard sometimes to buy nappies in larger sizes in local shops.

khague

thanks for all your advice it really helps to have new ideas think i will perservere with it because she does hold her self and will often look for potty only trouble is my son thinks the potty is a toy! and at 18 months he doesn't quite understand to leave it for his sister

Indie_Kid

khague wrote: »

thanks for all your advice it really helps to have new ideas think i will perservere with it because she does hold her self and will often look for potty

Do you constantly ask her if she needs the toilet? I don't mean every 5 minutes.

khague

yeah i do ask but she finds it hard to concentrate so it doesn't seem to get through but if i get the potty out she will sit on it although im worried she thinks its a chair! tried putting her on toilet and she was frightened so left that

annibee

Hello

Another tip that worked for us is having the potty next to the toilet when I went to toilet I took ds with me and he wee'd at same time maybe if she sees you doing it she will understand too

bubs

Hi, my 2+half year old has come back from nursery today having done a number one and number two on the potty there for the first time!!!!!!! She's not shown much interest at home but to do it twice in one day is such an achievement I want to encourage her more at home. However, she went to nursery in a pampers nappy as usual, and came home in a pull up nappy, I've no idea what brand or size but unfortunately she had done a big wee in it and it had escaped down her leg and she got very upset when we tried to change her into her usual nappies but couldn't explain why - she also had a bit of a red bottom. She takes a size 5 pampers baby dry (I don't use the active fit as they leak on her!), she's very slender. Can I ask for some advice as to whether to start on pull up nappies, in which case which are best? and do they stay in the same size as their nappies or go down a size? If you go the knickers route, which I'm not sure she's really ready for yet, do you put those plastic potty training pants over the top or just leave her in the knickers? Slight issue as she's still teething, back molars, so having some messy nappies! Thanks in advance!

pigpen

At 2. I wouldn't use any.. I'd have her running knickerless over the weekend and she should be well on the way by Monday.

I found rewards for performance worked wonders.. a chocolate button or couple of jellies every time they use the potty .. we also had a book we would look at while on the pot.. we also had a 'peepee dance' and had to wave 'bye wee' when we flushed it away.

We used to show the cat/daddy/grandma/stuffed toys how clever we were using the potty...

huge praise for sitting on it and even more for using it...

We would talk about what pictues/colours we would want on our big girl knickers too...

teasleym

I transferred my daughter into pull up pants (the huggies ones, the same size as her nappy), and gradually she would tell me when she wanted the toilet and we would go and try to use it. I had a stash of books there to entertain her. We also had a sticker chart and she would get a reward (a chocolate button) if she used the toilet.
Once we were having dry days using the pull up pants, I tried her with normal pants. First attempt was a disaster, although she was completely dry with pull ups, with normal pants, after a couple of days we went back to the pull ups.
I then waited till it was warmer and took her in the garden for a few days pantless. She had a potty chair which we took outside with us and she used it everytime!
We are now using the same method for nighttime, my daughter is 4, and has pull up nighttime pants. She gets a reward for a dry night but we haven't had enough consistently dry nights for me to switch the pants over yet!