Autism and the diaper topic: and when was your child clean, ellas blog - living with autism

Online Magazine

Autism and the diaper topic: And when was your child clean??

Surely all parents know that. At some point these questions come up: Go Your Child already on the potty? Is he already going to the toilet? Why is she still wearing diapers? And when was Your child clean?
If you have a handicapped child, the milestones, which are generally timed, often shift – even with the so-called "getting clean".

During my last readings, I was asked several times in the subsequent one-on-one discussions when Niklas no longer needed diapers. And when I said that he had been diaper-free for a year, so I made this step at the age of 16, I looked into big eyes.
It is still the case that something goes wrong and I have some laundry on some days because the toilet does not work so well, but overall the development is absolutely positive. And if it takes another year until it works for sure, it doesn’t matter – we have our own schedule.

The grandmother of an autistic grandson said to me: “Oh, then it is with my little one with his five Years not that bad. And I always thought that it was time now. "

A father had tears in his eyes and said: “Then there is still hope. My son is 12 years old. How did you manage that Niklas no longer needs diapers? "

I told him what I always say: we didn’t do it, but at some point Niklas himself decided that the diapers are over now.
All convincing work on our part had failed and at some point we left it at that and left it to him how he intends to handle the diapers.

I cannot say with absolute certainty what ultimately made the difference. Perhaps he only began to perceive his body in time and puberty in a way that now enables him to go to the bathroom in a targeted and timely manner. And maybe there was a little more motivation because his little cousin got "clean".

My message at this point is: I don’t have a trick, I can only give advice and encourage you to be patient and trust our autistic children to simply determine the timing for some things and developments. We kept making offers and asking him if he wanted to go to the bathroom but never forced, persuaded, trained or manipulated him.

He wanted it to happen at some point – that was the key for us.