Hello fellow ims
I'm having trouble toileting my autistic daughter. She's 4 in 3 months.
She is able to use the potty daily to do wees but will not do #2 without a nappy or use the toilet to wee.
She is terrified at the toilet. Sitting on it results in massive meltdowns.
I've tried different seats, Steps, stools, letting her observe me using it, sticker/stamp rewards etc. Everything I can think of.
Is there any ways that I can try to encourage her to become familiar with going.
*note: she is totally dry during the day at home, no accidents and using the potty fine. She recognises both needing to wee and poo.
- forgot to write in the original post- she has limited verbal skills and cannot effectively communicate
5 Replies
Keep going with the potty for both wees and poos.
She is going to need a very very slow desensitisation to the toilet before you even attempt to make the transition. So don't even attempt the toilet when she needs to go.
Desensitisation will need to be done at a separate time to needing to pee or poo.
You might need a child psych, or OT to help you with it. You want to praise and reinforce steps getting nearer and nearer the toilet until she can sit on the toilet. So your starting point will depend on how close she can get to the toilet before she gets scared. You can also try her sitting on the toilet lid closed as part of the steps. Then cut a really tiny hole in the toilet lid, systematically making it bigger until the hole is big enough and then moving to sitting on the seat.
Have you tried asking what she thinks of when she goes to the toilet to establish where the fear is coming from and address it from there.
Don’t forget to reward and encourage her for even the smallest progress.
Sorry, I forgot to add to the post that she has limited verbal communication skills, so Im not able to just ask unfortunately :(
I've toilet trained 5 autistic kids, and I still honestly have no idea how
One kid I found we had a slow leak in the toilet that only he could hear, the noise was scaring him, slight success when we fixed that
One needed to be in the dark, only slight success using toilet only at night with light off
Social stories/visuals helped, taking them with me, rewards (computer time did the trick for my first)
But at the end of the day, it was just time, they never did anything till they were ready, just keep plodding along
Speak to an OT for help and support. Toileting takes longer for our ASD kids. Be patient