Difficult Potty Training and Teeth Brushing

Hi A. - My name is J. and I have a 7 year old autistic son. We don't have any problems with brushing teeth, as a matter of fact, he now does it himself. With the potty training, does your son show any outward signs of having to go potty? If so, can you cue him to use the potty when you see these signs? That is how we started training Will. Now, he goes pee pee on the potty, going #2 is another story. I am handling it the same way, when I see him cross his legs, it is usually a sign he has to go poo poos. I ask him if he has to go poo poos, and then we sit on the potty. Sometimes for a short period of time and sometimes for a long time. He has been successful several times, but we still have to work at reinforcing poo poos on the potty. I hope this helps somewhat and good luck with all four of your beautiful children.

J. K
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Mom to Jeffrey 12, Allison 10 and William 7 and with Autism.

Hi A.,

I do not have an autistic child, but I do behavioral therapy with a child with autism about your son's age. We used to do potty training programming where we just got him used to sitting on the potty and expanded the time frame every few weeks. It started at 10 seconds and went to a few minutes if I recall correctly. His issue was more dislike of sitting on the toilet. His mom also got him to go #2 on the toilet by making him sit on the potty with a pull up and cut a hole in the back. Eventually, she weaned him from the pull up. We also let him have a gameboy or something else to do while he sat there.

As for the teeth brushing, we started very slow. First, we let him play with the toothbrush in his mouth, then brush only top, then top and bottom, then had him try a taste of toothpaste on a q-tip, then try brushing for a few seconds, etc. We did each step for a week or two so he got used to it and then moved on. I hope this helps. Good luck.

K.

Dear A.,
My son also has Autisum. I bought him one of those cheap spinning brushes toothbrush. He likes the spiderman one. He likes the feel of it in his mouth. I dont use toothpaste with him,but do use a floride rince afterwards. I would take him to the store and let him pick it out. Dont force him to use it, make it like a game. tell him he is a big boy now. show mom how you brush your teeth. It might take a few days,but in the long run its one less chore you have to do. P.S. I would throw the wedges out,That just sounds uncomfortable. I mean wedges than someone trying to put a tooth brush too. sounds hard.
Good luck K. F.

My autistic son is 12 now. He brushes on his own, but we did the exact thing the therapist recommended, work up to it slowly, step by step, and giving a reward.
He is potty trained, but we still have issues with BM's and staying dry overnight. I save his best reinforcer for the bathroom now. The thing that is finally working for me is just to be tough. He gets so mad, but it works. He will sit and squirm and start to go poop in his pants just because he doesn't want to stop what he's doing. When I notice by seeing him squirm or smelling it, I strongly tell him to sit on the toilet until he goes. I know he has to, he just doesn't like to take the time. I give him a favorite book to look at, give him Doritos after he goes, and I also give him Benefiber once a day to help. We're getting there, it has definitely improved. I think he understands now that taking the time and going once, is better than running to the bathroom to wipe himself and change his clothes 12 times a day.