I don't want to jinx it. Yeah, I know that's kind of dumb, but really, I am freaking out and holding my breath, and trying not to disrupt this latest development...
The Monkey is using the toilet.
On his own. Out of the blue, pretty much. He runs into the bathroom, pulls down his pants, undies and pullups, sits down on the toilet and pees.
Sure, we have been working on this for almost 4 years, and yes, we have bribed, encouraged, applauded, bribed, celebrated, cajoled and wheedled, set up schedules and toy boxes and iPad time and did I mention bribed him with promises of Hotwheels as a reward for a day of successfully keeping his pants and carpet dry. Nothing worked before. For a while, he would sit on the potty for half an hour with his iPad, then go to his bedroom to pee on the carpet. He would drop his drawers in the middle of the living room and watch with interest as puddles formed about his feet. We went through months of him screaming his head off at the mere mention of sitting on the potty.
There was a really fun interlude when he would lead me into the bathroom, sit on the toilet for a second, then jump up and pee on my leg, while laughing his ass off. It was at that point that I gave up for a while.
Then a few days ago, he started just...going. On his own. Like it was no big deal. He would tell me of course, because by golly, he wanted his "stars" on the heretofore neglected potty chart.
BUT I DIDN'T HAVE TO REMIND HIM. HE WENT WHEN HE HAD TO GO!
He tells me "I pee" when we are in the supermarket and goes in the public toilet. He holds it until he gets there!
Okay, he still has his moments. He mistimed it a couple of times, and peed on himself and half the bathroom floor before he got into position on the toilet. But when he did this he was upset, and let me know. He has NEVER been honest about whether he has peed before. He isn't one of those ASD kids who can't lie (not to say he is all that good at it; he's still five). Now he is letting me know he has had an accident.
He still plays with his poop on occasion. He is not really interested in pooping in the toilet. (why waste good play material, right?)
But this. Potty training himself. This is huge.
Maybe there is hope for us as parents after all.
Yeah!!!!!
ReplyDeletep.s. My ASD kid also lies - like a politician he will often try to judge what he thinks you want to hear and tell you that.
Roo potty trained himself too! He wanted nothing to do with the toilet at all, disheartning cause my oldest was potty trained by 18 months. Then one day he said, big boys pee in the potty? I said yup. He said I'm a big boy, I said Nope. You still pee in your diaper. He went and pee'd on the potty. Sid Am I big boy now? I said yep. He has been peeing in the potty ever since :) Poop, Poop is a whole nother story :)
ReplyDeleteHey! I might have found another kindred soul!! I saw your comment on Lexi's blog and followed you here. WTG on potty training!! Been there done that (after all mine are teenagers) but wow, that is huge! Don't worry, the other will come. My younger one redecorated his room (with poop finger paint) so many times it wasn't funny, but once he decided he was going in the potty, has hardly had an accident even when he had diarrhea. Hang in there!
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