Autism Support Group

recently my six year old autistic child has obtained this obsession with her poop. she takes it out of her training pants(she is still not potty trained) and plays with it. if anyone has gone through this and has any suggestions please let me know.

Playing with poop is sensory.

Our kids dont know its differant from playdough or plastercine.

My youngest also eats it if given the chance.

What you have to remember is that she does not know it is yukky and should not be played with.

I would suggest when she does it to take her with "IT" to the loosay someting like poo toilet and flush Bye poop.

Until she understands where poo is supposed to go and not to play with it she will assume it is a toy.

Post edited by: spectrummum, at: 05/27/2009 07:51 AM

Hi Mom...very nice to meet you darlin'! Welcome to the group!

My boy also took his poop out of his pullups and smear it all over the room. He did this a few times because I tried to catch it before it happened. I would time his poop sessions and try to catch it. Once I did, I would walk him to the toilet. I took off his pull up and dumped it in the toilet. I would make it a game too. I would show him how the poop would circle around in the toilet and say bye bye poop. He began to enjoy doing that. He still pooped in his pull up but now instead of playing with it, he dropped it in the toilet. That is where I began toilet training him.

Later he just did not like the way it felt on his bum. I potty trained him at 5 almost 6 years.

I wish you the best of luck doll!

Post edited by: amazzon, at: 05/27/2009 08:24 AM

Yep, been there! David was about five when he potty trained, and when he was about three he started pooping just before he woke up in the morning, and then we'd find it all over the bed, the wall, and anything else he could reach. Since it was happening at night, we bought several sets of pajamas that made access difficult - one piece, long pants, long sleves, and we put them on backwards so he couldn't get to the zipper. It also helped to give him something else squishy to have with him. We found this soft orange ball; it had fabric on the outside and something the consistency of play-doh on the inside, and he loved it.

Good luck!

Heather

What about a 33yo male. He does it in the car and on the toilet

PECS visuals will work well for him too.

I remember those days! The hubby and I normally adhere to the 'Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure' way of thinking and try to nip bad habits before they can fully bloom into routine.

Our own struggles with this same issue brought me to this site. Great suggestions... Really, I think its nice to know others have been thru this. I feel less alone in the frustration :-/

Well, my son sort of cured himself accidentally (funny story). I had potty trained him already, but my daughter was only about 1 year old and still in diapers. i had just taken her diaper off, folded it losely, and set it on the chair next to the change table. my son was jumping on his little rebounder, and he liked to jump head first into this particular chair. Well, before i could pick up the diaper to take it to the garbage, he did just that. and ended up face first in her diaper. apparently his poop was grand, sis's poop, not so much. after that, if he saw any diaper lying around (including clean ones), he would make gaging noises and carry it very carefully to the garbage.And no, i'm not advocating this as a way of discouraging poop play. just sharing a story.

Gabby did play in poop. She would wait until she was alone in her room to poop so she could redecorate with it. Finally the potty training took and she'd go take her diaper off and go on the potty. I don't know what inspired her to change though. It seemed to take forever for her to give it up. I cried, I begged her, I pleaded. She seemed pretty confused about it being a bad thing to do. I rewarded her HUGE for going to the potty and gave lots of praise. Turns out she's pretty high-functioning in spite of some of the things that went on when she was little and made me really wonder how she'd turn out.