Potty Woes

I am not trying to potty train Bugaboo. Honest.

We sometimes ask him to sit on it, he complies, we play pat-a-cake and then he gets off and lays down for his diaper. Or he pees next to the toilet. No pressure, no formal training. He is a big Pee-er so we chose to wait until he seemed more developmentally ready. He will be four in December and believe it or not we were waiting for his next long break to start with the books and potty training advice. Or potty learning, depending on your philosophy.

All of the Autism books out there insist that the majority of kids like Ian will learn by schedule rather than learn by knowing his body. He just doesn't have the expressive and receptive communication at this point. Many books (and his service coordinator and his auntie) have suggested we start trying to keep a journal for a few days to see how often he is going or when. Once we have that information we can set up a schedule to take him as often as he goes, then five minutes before he normally goes, then fifteen, and so on until he is actually using the toilet. We have even decided that we are NOT using potty chairs, just a little seat on the regular toilet. He has difficulty with generalizing to new situations so we feel that the sooner he uses the big potty, the better. And we probably won't use pull ups because:

1. I don't believe in them
2. They are too expensive
3. If you ask me you might as well just use diapers until he is ready to ditch them and then use cloth training pants for accidents and such. Yeah, you have to wash them and it can be messy. Call me cheap, OK?

Don't try to talk me into the pull-ups. I won't do it.

OK, so a few weeks ago Ian started undressing. He has always done it, a shirt here or a pair of pants there. He never wears socks and shoes, even in the bitter winds of winter. But a few weeks ago it was a total strip-down. Chippendale style. He'd casually peel off his shirt one arm at a time, pull it off his head and discard. A few minutes later he'd kinda sneak the pants down to the knees, wait until they fell to the ankles and step out of them. "UH-OOOOHHHHH!!!!" would be his announcement. Uh, no, that was on purpose dearie! Then last week the inevitable happened. Once the pants were off it was only a matter of time for the diaper. And since he prefers to be either completely naked or completely wrapped up in footy pjs it wasn't difficult to imagine what would happen next.

Several times while Darling and I are packing lunches, doing dishes or getting our routines finished Bugaboo would prance into the room with a triumphant TADA look on his face. He'd smile, spin, fall onto the floor in a fit of laughter. He was so proud. We'd say, "NAKED BABY!" and grab him, tickle him and go about the house looking for the trail of clothing he left behind. But this weekend an entirely new spin has been put on the game. Now Bugaboo is undressing and taking his diaper off every twenty to thirty minutes. Every time he pees. He wants to get a new diaper on EVERY time. And he won't take no for an answer. If you try to catch him and put his clothes back on he runs (and those that know him well know that a cheetah is about the only creature on earth that can catch up to him). When you catch him he has already peed on:

1. The couch
2. The kitchen floor
3. The bathroom floor
4. The Family Room floor
5. The steps
6. The dog
7. The yucky kitchen throw rug (which will be thrown OUT)
8. His brother

Yes folks, every twenty minutes. Yesterday was a fun day. He spent the morning outside with Daddy mowing grass (they have this kindred soul-mate grass cutting thing going on) and doing things in the garage and then the afternoon terrorizing mommy and trying to get me to steam the carpet.

Needless to say it has been frustrating. I am going to go out on a limb here and say it is time for the toilet. I got my training pants out last night (cloth diapers with rubber pants attached) and put them on. And guess what? He did not try to remove them. He kept them on! And although we spent the whole afternoon sitting on the potty every twenty minutes (and reading books and playing finger games) he was pleasant. I am not sure if he is making the connection yet. I am thankful he did NOT have a bowel movement yet, since there have been a few times I've had to clean that up out of the tub or kitchen floor. I just do not know where to go from here. I have read my Autism training guide (pdf, downloaded, best $$ ever spent) and it has some suggestions I will try to implement. This is just not your typical potty situation, you know? Even Bug Boy took about three days. I sware. I swear even. One day he just said, "Mommy! I'm a big boy! I want underwear!" and that was it! Bugaboo will not do it in quite that way but something tells me that he will say it in his own way. He kinda already has.

Here we go...