Push it real good! (potty subject warning)

                We have been working on potty training around here for the last week and the funny thing is I am not the one who started this mission. I learned my lesson long ago I was basically powerless in this process after I helped him get over his fear of sitting on the potty.  That small step was about as far as I was going to get with the process and we put the brakes on the mission before I caused to much damage for a future try at it.

                For the past week Phillip has been taking it upon himself to master every step of the process according to what he has learned from videos, apps, and hopefully me. He uses the word power when he has to go potty or has already gone. Verbal communication! The one thing I knew we needed to make any progress at all. He goes into the bathroom, puts the seat on the potty, sits, even uses toilet paper properly, washes his hands with a bit of help and turns off the light before he leaves the bathroom. An impressive step, because he might be the only one in the house who actually makes sure to do that. He has a mirror on the wall across from the potty to entertain himself and it works. He loves making faces at himself while he sits. I did notice an app he watched stated the toilet “takes” the potty away so I had to correct it and tell him he has to “give” it to the toilet. Seems silly but for the way his mind works it’s actually is an important correction.

                The last 5 or 6 days I have spent at least half of my day sitting on the bathroom floor rooting him on. I have sung Wheels on the bus hundreds of times and any other form of entertainment I could think of. He actually will sit for a very long period of time and I have had to keep both of us from getting bored waiting for the magic to happen. Last night I even resorted to playing Push It by Salt N Pepa but that actually just turned into fun and he had to get off the potty to dance. A nice break that gave us both a good laugh.

                At this point there is absolutely nothing else I can do to entertain, motivate, and inspire. Why is it he has the entire process down and nothing is happening? Change is holding him back, so to speak. Learning the process is not really change, it’s more like adding to routine and it has in fact become routine at this point. The change is the part he has to transition out of the diaper he has grown used to for 3.5 years to the toilet. The feeling change and his mind must grasp that going potty a different way is ok to do. You see we can sit in the bathroom all day and the moment we put a diaper on he goes potty. He actually will NOT go potty without one on and someone might think I should just refuse to put one on him. If I do that he will hold it to the point of physical pain and we have been through that before. He held it so long he couldn’t walk once and I refuse to see him in that state or put him in that state again. I tried that the first time around when I didn’t fully understand how difficult it was going to be for him to transition. I get it now and I refuse to force him onto the change because he wants to make it happen therefore he will. He wants it so bad he took it upon himself to learn every step of the process. Patience is going to pay off with this situation and allowing him to find a way. At this point it’s all up to him and making that transition. I have no doubt that he will make that transition but it’s going to take many days, possibly months, or even worst case scenario years of sitting on that bathroom floor rooting him on. If I try to force him or demand the change we go right back to no progress at all. He will regress and the tricky about regression is that also takes days, months, or possibly years to overcome. Not a risk I am willing to take.

                For now I am extremely proud him once again for doing more than we were told he might do. I have to wonder in all those meetings and verbal statements from people saying what he won’t be capable of that maybe he was listening much more than anyone felt he was. To them he was the autistic boy not paying attention but I think he was to every single word spoken.  He has been fighting very hard to prove them all wrong and in one year has been doing exactly that. If in one year he has blasted all those can’t do’s to pieces I can only imagine how much more he has to show us in the years to come. That is if I can manage to work with his mind and not against it.

               

Gut flora is extremely important!

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/09/24/one-of-the-most-important-steps-you-can-take-to-improve-your-health.aspx

http://www.culturelle.com/your_health/culturelle_for_kids

                Horribly common problem for kids with autism is bowel trouble. Or I could say bowel trouble caused problems for my son’s autism because it actually induced some pretty strong side effects. I have written about this before but I constantly see cries for help on this issue and I know exactly how hard it is to see your child struggle with this problem. I also know a lot of medical providers or other parents will give advice that is a quick fix and long term is what is needed.

                Our son had some pretty serious bowel problems for at least a year. I am not talking about discomfort, but problems that were debilitating for him. We had to actually plan life around his bowel system. Meaning if it wasn’t working we were not leaving the house until it did. It would literally take a week sometimes or longer for relief and what I noticed during that time was not only was our son going through hell but it had a strong effect on his mind. The only way I can describe it easily is the autism traits were intensified and the light in his eyes would go away. I also noticed it wasn’t a matter of him not wanting to, it was a matter of him not being able to.

                I did what everyone says not to, researching on the internet because sometimes you just have to. I was told more water, a laxative, suppository, and all of the things I was told could have been a quick fix but none of these things were addressing the problem.  I read a ton of articles and took a little bit of information from each one, especially when the immune system was mentioned. I already knew his immune system may have not moved the vaccines along so there had to be a connection to this problem, meaning his body was lacking what it needed to get the job done.

                I knew nothing about gut flora and how it affects the system and not just the bowel system but the mind as well. The link above is one of many parents should read who are facing the same problem but I chose this one because it’s easy to follow and understand. I also know this isn’t always the answer but for our son it was.

                I started giving our son one dose of kids Culterelle probiotic every day. I included the link for this product but there are a ton of options out there to choose from as well. This is just the one we found to work for our son.  Within 24 hours we saw relief and a long term difference. Without that discomfort his focus was better and he was making more progress. Constipation can have a toxic effect on a child’s body because it is just sitting in the body releasing toxins into the blood stream and I do believe that was affecting his mind. It was actually hindering him from being his best physically and mentally and it was not just because he was autistic like so many people would tell me. He is autistic and if that is neurological, than why was it so clear this was a physical struggle having a neurological effect? This was not his mind not understanding what to do; this was his body not being able to.

                Since the addition of a simple probiotic every day Phillip has been able to make progress without the physical set back that was grabbing a hold of his mind and body. A probiotic is a natural treatment by the way as I know many parents want a natural option. The only thing that is unnatural is the body isn’t able to produce enough good bacteria (Gut flora). That problem goes way beyond autism and is affecting a large amount of people. For now, I strongly encourage parents who are trapped at home for a week waiting for relief to get educated on gut flora and how important it is for the entire system. Personally I have no idea how we would have gotten past this problem if at all without learning about this connection.