Ideas for Nighttime Toileting in Older Child With Autism

[Anonymous]

Our 10 year old son with Autism has been trained for daytime toileting for several years now, but we still cannot achieve success with the nighttime routine. We used to have him in underwear, which meant lots of middle of the night sheet changes, then we switched to pull ups to save us the stress and at least let us all sleep through the night. We've also added underwear under the pull up to see if feeling wet helps the situation. We've created a reward system focused on his most preferred motivator, one that was used successfully for his daytime toileting routine, and we recently tried a social story with pictures to help demonstrate what we mean by "getting out of bed to use the potty." None of this has changed the same pattern he's been in for years now - most of the time he waits until he wakes up in the morning to pee, but every several nights he doesn't, and then he goes through phases in which he repeatedly does not for several days in a row.

Fortunately, he's a small ten year old and they make pull ups pretty big now, but we'd really like to add this to his list of accomplished skills. Am interested to hear if others have tried specific techniques that have worked. This is one area in which teachers and therapists have been of little help - I'm guessing its because its not something that they ever get to work on themselves, so they haven't been able to try different programs to see what works. If anyone does have a therapist who they have had particular success with on this issue, I'd appreciate a recommendation.

[Anonymous]

I know Maria Zammitti is a local potty training coach. I think she has a pretty good reputation.

[Anonymous]

I went to Maria Zimmitti for advice on potty training (daytime) my then 3.5 year old SPD son. I did not find her helpful. She had a 'one-size-fits-all' approach and didn't listen to anything I said about what motivated my son, how we parented, etc. I was almost reprimanded for not asserting myself as the parent more forcefully. My son never responds well to overly forceful tactics. I ended up following the gentle advice of my son's daycare teacher and it worked well. My advice would be to look elsewhere, maybe an OT, for help.

[Anonymous]

Does Maria Zamitti focus on children with autism?

[Anonymous]

23:17 here. Not from what I heard. She didn't seem to be sensitive to children's individual differences, in general, let alone children with special needs.

[Anonymous]

Got it, thanks.