Potty Training a child with Autism, Apraxia and Sensory Processing Disorder-Brendan 3.5 years old

  

    Potty training a typical child can be scary but potty training a child with autism, apraxia and sensory issue was one the most frightening things! I had many sleepless nights leading up to the big day. There was a lot of planning that took place about one month before we started. First I started to take daily data on his pee and poop. I was lucky enough that every time Brendan went in his diaper he wanted it changed right away. So I was able to get the data since I knew every time he went in his diaper. This data allowed me to get kind of an idea of the times he went. Then we had a meeting with his entire therapist team and went over some of the ideas we had on how we were going to approach this. Brendan is extremely unpredictable so we pretty much made a list of different things we could do depending on how he was responding. All his therapist changed their schedules around so this first week of training we could have a therapist here with me at all times. I needed the support as much as Brendan especially since we didn't know how he would react. Next I went on amazon and I ordered everything you could think of that I thought I would need for potty training and more. I got 3 different kinds of the kid potty chairs, 2 different stairs with toilet seat attachments for the big toilet. I got lots of fun underwear, flushable wipes, potty watch, potty sand timers, fun construction vehicle toilet target pictures (for boys only), cheerios for target peeing and fun disposable seats for on the go. I got a fun star potty chart, a chalkboard to keep in the bathroom so we could track when he was going. Because Brendan cant have any candy or food for prizes I got a box of 50 matchbox cars, coloring books, DVD’s of his favorite shows, glow sticks, sticker books and board games. Basically all the things I knew Brendan would want to work for. I know what you are thinking, wow this is a lot and you are right but Brendan is the type of kid who likes to be in control so the more choices he gets to make the better I knew he would respond. I kept all of this in hiding until the day we were going to start the training. Except he did see all the underwear. The night before we started I put underwear on him to go to bed. Risky right but I wanted him to get started in the morning and didn't want a diaper on him. When he went to bed we go rid of every single diaper or pull up we had. I will tell you if you are going to commit to the potty training then you must NEVER go back and forth from pull ups to underwear. I have watched to many people make this curial mistake in potty training. 

                                      

       Before Brendan went to bed I asked Brian to demonstrate how you pee into the cheerios targets. lol So Brendan stood there and watched Brian. Well when Brian was done I went and got him a matchbox car and said, "great job dadda you went pee in the potty and here is your prize." Well the look on Brendan's face was priceless. He instantly dropped his pants and sat on the potty and kept saying Brendan prize. He wanted that car so bad. I made Brian hold it so Brendan couldn't touch it or play with it. Brendan sat on the potty for a while and no action. He was so upset because he wanted that prize. It was time for him to go to bed. 

         Brendan went to bed and I went into action. I got everything out and made the bathroom downstairs a place I knew he would want to go in. I put the glow in the dark stars on the bathroom ceiling, I had a 3 potty chairs in there for him to choose from. His prizes were all visible, his potty chart ready, extra underwear for him to choose from. I was even excited to go in the bathroom with all the cool things I had for him. 

     He wakes up way later than normal so this was a little different start to the day. But he woke up DRY! So here we are day 1. We gave him the big reveal of the bathroom and he was so excited. He instantly wants to sit on the iPad potty. He kept wanting to go back in the potty to look at all the prizes. He knew what he had to do to get the matchbox car and within 20 minutes he peed in the potty and was screaming with excitement when he picked his matchbox car out. Day 1 was a little rough but that was to be expected. But overall he did pretty good. 

      Day 2 we were little more mentally prepared. He woke up and I had gotten some fun balloons to put in the bathroom so when he opened the door he was super excited again. By this day we had cut our accidents in half and by the end of the day he was even going by himself. What I mean by that is he was holding his own pee pee down. lol Day 3 he now only had 1 accident and that was a poop accident. Poop is always a tricky thing with the kids. He wasn't scared to go he just always pooped standing up when he wore a diaper so trying to poop sitting down was a bit of a challenge. Day 4 we still had some poop accidents and only 1 pee accident. Everything was going so good. He was getting a matchbox car every time he went. This was the key to success for Brendan. On day 4 he filled his potty chart for the first time and then was able to get 2 cars for filling it all up. Day 5 he had 1 poop accident and 0 pee accidents! I was absolutely amazed! During all of these days so far I did pretty much followed him around every where! He never left the house and he always had just a shirt and his underwear on. 

       By day 6 he started to grab our hands and take us to the bathroom. That was his way of telling us that he had to go. I was so excited because since he doesn't have the verbal communication he learned to take us where he needed to go. He had a accident free day! Day 7 & 8 he still was taking our hands and taking us to the potty. He did have 1 poop accident in this days but still no pee accidents. 

    On day 9 I was feeling so confident with how everything was going that I felt like I could take a deep breath and say he is potty trained for the most part. During these 9 days we had compactly stopped putting any other demands on him. His therapist were still here but they were only focused on the potty training. His therapy had come to a stop but I was comfortable with starting to add some therapy back into his sessions. I also had decided to only give him a prize(matchbox car) after every 3-4 times he went pee. Mostly because we had just about gone through all 50 matchbox cars. Plus he had been doing so good. Well late in the afternoon everything came crashing down. He had his first pee accident in a couple days. Everything started to trickle down from there. I pretty much went into a straight panic. What is happening? Why is he regressing? He was doing so good? I immediately get in contact with his therapist and she went straight to Dr Gentry to get some help. He said that Brendan is doing what is called "spontaneous recovery" and this is actually very common. This happens when kids develop a complex skill pretty quickly. He was not worried at all and said he was beyond impressed with where he was at. When I heard this I was a little relieved. So the next day on day 10 he was back to doing great. This was the first day that Brendan was going to have to leave the house since we started the training. I am not going to lie, I was freaking out. I had no idea what he was going to do in a public bathroom. We went to target and I took him into the bathroom and he went in and tried to go with absolutely zero fear. He didn't go but shortly after that we went to watch Haley at dance and he went at the dance studio with no problem at all. This was such a huge relief! Once again this little boy just blows me away! We had now run out of the 50 matchbox cars for prizes but with our set back I decided to order another box of 50 matchbox cars. Now he was able to get a car again after every time he went.

          On day 11 I decided to try and start using the potty watch. I felt like he was getting really annoyed with me following him around and constantly asking him if he had to go to the bathroom. With the potty watch you have control to set it at either 30, 60 or 90 minutes. When it goes off it lights up and sings a fun little tune. I knew he wouldn't wear the watch but I decided to keep it where he could hear it. Well this WATCH was a game changer for us. I starting setting it 60 minutes and for the rest of the day it went off every hour and he would jump up and say "pee pee time" and then run into the bathroom and pee every time.  This took so much pressure off me when it came to him going pee. The poop was still a work in progress so we decided to get him bigger prizes and then told him those were poop prizes. Day 11 the start of the potty watch was a huge success.

     Watch as he responses to his potty watch when it goes off!

       Going into day 12 we kept the potty watch at 60 minutes but my focus was getting to have a successful poop. I kept close watch on him and when I knew he was having to go poop we went into the bathroom and tried to get him go. Well because he wanted to stand and poop I decided to get his go fish card game out and bring it into the bathroom. I started to play the game with him so he would just sit on the toilet and relax and not think about the poop. Well what do you know the game wasn't even finished yet and he poops! He was so excited because he had been wanting to get one of those big poop prizes he had been looking at for a couple of days. He had an amazing day no accidents at all!!!!!

      So now he has been accident free for a week and his second box of 50 matchbox cars have come and gone(yes he received a total of 100 matchbox cars) he was now just getting a stamp on his hand or a sticker when he went pee. He was still getting poop prizes but he didn't pop everyday and we wanted to make sure he lots of successes before we stop those prizes. We have also continued the potty watch. It goes off every 90 minutes and he is still listening of the watch and goes in and pees every time it goes off. If he does have to pee and the watch hasn't gone off he will walk up to you holding his pee pee and give you a stare down in yours eyes, which any autism parent will know thats not normal. Then I say to him "Bren do you ave to pee" and says "pee pee yes". Since his language is so limited this is his way of telling us he has to go. I take the potty watch out with us and he hears it when we are running errands and goes without any issues. I have been giving him a small prize when he pees outside the house but that is coming to an end.

     Today would be day 27 and he has been ACCIDENT FREE for 15 days and even staying dry at night! I am happy to say my little 3.5 year old son with autism, apraxia and sensory processing disorder is POTTY TRAINED! Thank you god for letting me keep my sanity! Thank you to his whole team of therapist but especially Katie and Sara! Katie even brought me a potty prize she knew wine was a must leading into this task! He continues to fight hard with every challenge he is faced with. His strength, courage and smile has touched so many people but most of all he teaches me what life is really about.