Oliver is 3 months shy of his third birthday and I am questioning whether or not he is ready for the potty, despite the fact that preschool is quickly approaching. I have him sit on his little Baby Bjorn intermittently throughout the day, but more times than not, he holds it until he’s in a diaper again. He does not yet seem to understand that if he feels the urge to go, that it is time to go back to the potty. However, he does know when he does end up going that it is a “good” thing and is worthy of celebration. He immediately claps and cheers himself on with an oh-so-sweet “yay!”. I join along with him and then have him help me dump it, flush it, and wash it. Then we wash hands, put a sticker on the potty chart, and end with a high five. While he seems encouraged by this routine, he still hasn’t caught on to the fact that going to the bathroom on the potty is something that we do when we hear our bodies talking to us, rather than when we happen to already be sitting there for a long while.
I am looking to hear from other parents with children on the autism spectrum on what potty training looked like for you. What worked? What didn’t work?
Nurturing Oliver 
Paiz starting figuring it out at age 6 so be patient. At age 5 she could hold her bladder but we had to remember to get her on the potty every three hours. Recently,, she starting going on her own or goes when we tell her, if she has to go. She won’t tell us she has to go but she’ll either run to the bathroom or if she has to go, she will go without a fight. If she fights it, we know she doesn’t have to go. We still have issues with bowel movements. Once in a while she’ll go to the bathroom but not often. She never had an accident at school last year so she has control.
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Thanks for your experience with this. I was feeling discouraged that he wasn’t picking it up, but I suppose giving it more time is normal and to be expected.
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My little boy (who is 9 now) is on the autism spectrum.
He was potty trained just AFTER he was 3. We had a couple false starts. But, we didn’t stress about it, and, we got him a book about it.
My biggest tip is to wait until they really are ready. it will be MUCH quicker and easier and less stressful.
No one is ever going to check with the 9 yr old how old he was when he potty trained, because, as long as he is, no one cares.
That said, I have a 3 yr old girl, who only just recently started going out with “big girl pants” all day. it is one of my least favourite bits of parenting. Luckily, it is (especially if you do leave it til they are really ready) a fairly short lived journey.
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Thank you for your comment. Very helpful to hear and very true. I don’t think he’s ready at this point, but I wasn’t seeing that as much of an option. Again, thank you! I’ll post an update once he is, in fact, ready.
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Having my son watch my husband use the bathroom was one of the best things that we did. Every time my husband wanted to urinate he would bring my son to the bathroom with him so he could watch him doing it. We also used the faithful “Cheerios in the toilet” trick. My son loved trying to hit the Cheerios with his pee. He stopped wearing pull ups at around age 5. He stays completely dry in the daytime. But even now at 12 years old, my son still has occasional bed wetting at night.
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Thank you for sharing! Great ideas. However, I feel like my boy might be tempted to grab and eat the Cheerios (hehe). Worth a try, though!
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