First of all...let me just say that I am SO tired of potty training Nick. We started familiarizing him with the potty when he was about 2 years old....and now he is 4.....sigh. Our battles with potty training have had their ups and downs and lately it seems like Nick is regressing. He used to be willing to sit on the potty and read a book or blow bubbles until he either went potty or we told him it was o.k. to get off. Then, he started to where he wanted to get off the potty as soon as possible, so he would tinkle just enough to make us happy. Of course, he usually also peed in his pull up in between trips to the bathroom as well. On top of all this, he was having diarrhea anywhere from 4-6 times a day which made potty training even more difficult. We finally have the diarrhea under control for the most part, but not the potty training. We limit Nick's fluid intake to about 35 ounces a day and he takes 2T of Imodium twice a day to control the diarrhea.
Anyway, for awhile now, Nick has been battling the trips to the bathroom. He throws himself on the floor and screams when we tell him it's time to go potty. I have resorted to carrying or dragging him into the bathroom kicking and screaming the whole way. His new trick now is to either refuse to pee or immediately jump off the pot or pretend to "fall" off the potty. He is fairly convincing as he did get Grandpa to go for it the other day :) Nick is also terrified to go into public restrooms. I think it is because he is afraid of the automatic flusher. I have showed him numerous times that they don't all have automatic flushers or that I can cover it up, but he still freaks out. It's not even worth attempting to get him into a public bathroom anymore. Have you ever tried to force a 43lb child into a room they don't want to enter? It's not as easy as just picking them up! I'm afraid someone will think I'm trying to kidnap him or something!
Right now it feels like Nick is never going to get potty trained. I understand that for some kids with Autism, potty training is just never going to happen. I have always thought that Nick would be able to be potty trained and I am certainly not going to give up. Sometimes I still think he knows exactly what is going on and is just playing a big game with us. Other times, it really feels like he doesn't get "it." I for sure do not think that he is able to tell when he has to go pee and that he doesn't really realize that he should "hold it." There is some hope lately though.....about 3 times in the last week, he has tried to tell us that he has to poop. The first time, he grabbed my hand, looked me directly in the eyes and said, "we go." At first I thought he wanted to leave because we were at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Then it suddenly hit me that he wanted to go to the BATHROOM!! We rushed him in there and he farted a couple times and looked like he was concentrating awful hard...lol. He sat on the potty for a long time and seemed like he was trying to do something. In the end though, he didn't go and ended up going in his pants about 15 minutes later. The other two times he said, "we go" after he had already gone in his pants.
Sometimes I just feel like giving up on potty training and Nick does sometimes win the battles, but I WILL NOT let him win the War! Nick will end up potty trained if it kills me! LOL Honestly, if I didn't think he could do it, I wouldn't push him so hard. I am perfectly o.k. if he is never able to potty train, but I KNOW that he has the ability to do it. I will push him to the brink to meet his abilities throughout his life. He may not always like me for it, but I guarantee that one day he will thank me for it.
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