Such a good boy

I'd say B is potty trained! He hasn't had an accident in about a week and really he only had a handful of them in total. He's still on a schedule and the bulk of the work is on us but still this is a pretty huge accomplishment for all of us. It is now his routine to get up and go first thing in the morning and we've added "pee pee, poop, and potty" to his ever-growing repertoire of words. Now we'll wait and see if he starts to initiate going vs. adhering to a schedule. Either way, it sure beats diapers!

And we had another successful haircut! He was a complete angel. I took along his pacifier (which was no help in the past) and he just sat there quietly until they were done. Maybe we're past that hurdle?

Therapy is back to full speed and we have several new people on staff so it is busy to say the least. B is doing great! The most exciting new program is a vocal one... we brought back vocal requesting. We had previously tried to do this in conjunction with his PECS pictures and met with mostly frustration. Now, I'd say he is successful the majority of the time. He has even requested a few things totally on his own "I want applesauce". Mostly, we offer the label "want a snack?" and he repeats it "snack". Months or even weeks ago, he simply would not do this. It's big, big progress. He is a little parrot repeating hundreds of words at this point. Progress. Slow and steady but boy is it progress.

weekend #2 of potty training

I'm feeling a lot better going into this weekend than I did for the last one. It's just me and hubby too - no other reenforcement. But the hard work is paying off... I think we have B on a schedule! He seems to get it now. We put him on the potty and he goes immediately. No more of these potty camp-outs where we wait for hours at a time for him to eventually go little by little. He seems to have good control and is even staying dry at night most of the time (HUGE bonus!). VERY few accidents.

He doesn't yet request to go. We anticipate his needs based on a loose schedule and on his body signals. Hopefully he'll connect the dots and ask to go at some point. He may not - some kids on the spectrum never do and rely on a schedule and self control in between those scheduled times. Time will tell. In the meantime, I am feeling really good about our progress. He is back to doing therapy and wearing clothes! And he is no longer crying or whining. He gets it! He's a big kid now. Our next step is to actually get him out of the house (other than the back yard). The poor kid has not been anywhere in almost 2 weeks! And I haven't changed a diaper in 11 days.

Potty Party. Day FIVE.

So here we are on Day FIVE of our little "potty party". The hope was for one, maybe 2 days of the sitting on the toilet marathon. But here we are. It's not that B isn't doing a good job - it's just that he has a bladder of steel. We know from the whole philosophy behind ABA therapy that kids with autism need a lot of repetition before they learn something. Hence the 40-plus hour week of therapy. We teach and teach and then teach again. Same rules apply for potty training. The trouble is that he only has to go a few times a day so it's taking a while to get that whole repetition thing going. He literally has spent the last FIVE days on the toilet for close to his entire waking hours. He gets breaks and we're trying to make those longer and longer as we get used to his signals and times that he needs to go. Still, he is on more than off (like 8 hours on and only 4 off) and an adult has to be within arm's length of him at all times.

Today was his best day by far. Zero accidents and 5 successes. He made significant progress. And he has even been staying dry at night! (He took pull-up off one night). My dear hubby is swamped with work (which is AWESOME news given that he just embarked on a new career adventure) so we've called in reinforcements. Our PCA was here with me from 9-4 and our head therapist from 4-7. With another kiddo, it's imperative that we have 2 adults present to keep up this vigil. Tomorrow, I'm on my own from 8-10 but hopefully we'll have another day like today or even better. We try underwear tomorrow... did I mention that B also has been sans pants for 5 days? And we try to make his time off the pot much longer. And hopefully next week we'll be able to bring back some of his therapy programs into his days.

I am in awe of his compliance and tolerance through all this. He is the biggest trooper I know. Go, B, go! NO MORE DIAPERS!

Potty training sucks

It just does. And it sucks the life out of parents. Today was pretty intense - particularly the second half. It doesn't help that little B decided to wake up at 5:45 this morning so we were exhausted at the start. And he woke up totally soaked so he didn't really need to go for quite some time.

I was amazed how compliant the little guy was. He literally spent from 7:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. in my bathroom and on the potty except for 5 minute breaks every 20-30 minutes. He ate a LOT of salty junk food: chips, goldfish, McDonalds fries & nuggets. But he didn't drink all that much and he didn't go that much. It was tough to get him to make the connection when there weren't many opportunities to be rewarded. We learned a few things: he is scared of the whole process. He had a tiny accident on the floor during a break and literally jumped into my arms in fear. And he doesn't like an audience: each time he went, it was when the focus was off of him. His big brother wanted to be in the "party" too so we had 5 and 6 people crammed into my small bathroom most of the day. B watched movies, ate junk food and generally was pretty happy for what was a very long day.

By mid-day, he clearly was holding it and needed to go. That's when it got painful to watch. He was scared to go so he would trickle here and there but never enough to really reward him. He did seem to be catching on though and consciously controlling it.

We put him in underwear at the end of the day and then the accidents started. And boy did he hate that! He tried to clean it himself and cried. This boy does not like to be dirty. For the next couple of hours, I yo-yo'd him on and off the potty and ultimately gave him a bath where he let it all go (so to speak).

He did do it successfully a couple of times and there was definite progress made. Fun though? Um, no. I spent the last couple hours of his training literally hugging him on the potty because he wouldn't let go of his grip on me.

I think he'll get it. Along with everything else, it's just not going to be easy.

Potty party

Summer is cruising by and we've been busy (hence the lack of posts lately). Our big boy turned 5 last week and we've had visitors and just generally a busy schedule. Now we are looking at 5 weeks of essentially no schedule for my preschooler. It should be interesting figuring out how to keep him stimulated and keep us from driving each other crazy. Given all that, it seems like the perfect time to attempt potty training with B! Tuesday is D-day. We start with an all-day "potty party" whereby B will literally spend the entire day in the bathroom. We've been working up to it by putting him on the potty every couple of hours and practicing taking his pants off and sitting. But I don't think anyone can truly prepare for this. It's going to be fascinating. I definitely would not have attempted this yet on my own - how do you potty train someone who can't communicate that they need to go? We'll spend the day in the bathroom and B will be nude from the waist down and we'll pump fluids and hope that he figures it out.

We're not much behind schedule from our "typical" boy. He showed no interest and is incredibly strong-willed so I waited until he was 3.5 before I even started. And it was a looooong evolutionary process involving multiple training potties, pull-ups, refusal to "go" in public, relapses etc. etc. My expectations are not that high. But if we can get him out of diapers this young, that'd be huge. I cringe whenever I hear of an older kid still in diapers. I have a good feeling about my B-man. Here's to a successful party!