More Carrot Than Stick

Yes, another post about the potty.

For those who are following my tweet feed (@DadEnoughBlog), I was mentioning over the weekend that we managed to get the Monster to use the toilet a few times.  We’re up to thrice this weekend, including one where we think he indicated that he had to go and another where he clearly asked to go.

It’s progress.  The biggest issue really is trying to keep things consistent and making sure we keep up the momentum as we get into the week.

This is the last week of camp – we’ve been bad about making sure that he goes there, because he’s not really been keen on using other bathrooms than the one he’s familiar/safe in, so there’s been some distractions on those days.  After this week, we have two weeks of empty time, and then we’re in school, where I suspect they’ll be happy to make sure he goes on a schedule or the like.

But to me, the battle really is getting him to the point that we can hopefully start transitioning him to pull-ups, if he’s indicating consistently when he needs to go.  But that’s also in the wife’s hands, and she’s got her hands full already with the baby, so we’ll see how that goes.  We’re not yet at the point of getting gruff with him when he doesn’t tell us, but I am hoping that might come in to play in the coming months – for now, it’s all reward and little punishment.

What I found worked for some strange reason was reading to him on the potty.  He actually stopped peeing when I stopped reading – not even to cheer, just to make sure that I was hearing him using the toilet – and started again when I started reading once more.  I’m hoping that it’s not some kind of cue for him.  I half imagine having to send him to the potty at school with an iPod or something.

Well, okay, and there was the epic fail with his reward, which is the other concern I have.  The Monster has figured out that he gets chocolate – M&Ms – only when he uses the potty.  He gets a few (2-3) if he goes down and just sits on it.  He gets a few more (4-5) if he asks to use the potty.  He gets a buttload (okay, 12) when he actually uses the potty properly.  Yes, giving him candy for using the potty makes me feel like a bad parent, but hey.  Now, the epic fail part came in after the third time he’d used the potty, when we  had just finished giving him his reward… and up it all came again, all over the floor.  *sigh*  Again, the joys of an autistic child who can’t tell you he has an upset tummy…

 

(On the positive, he seems better this morning.)

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