Toiletting issues

Hello, my son is nearly 4 and having assessments for ASD. He was fully toilet trained by 22 months, and had no signs of ASD at this point. His ASD symptoms began at around 2.5 years, and have been gradually getting more and more profound. About a year ago, we started having problems with toiletting. He just will not (or cannot?) tell anyone when he needs to go anymore. He will just hold on and hold on for hours and hours until he eventually has an accident. I don't usually let it get to this point at home, as I can tell when he needs a wee, so I take him to the loo, but at school he just constantly wets himself, and refuses to go when told. He has also become TERRIFED of going for a poo. He will hold on for days, and eventually ends up in such pain and discomfort, that I take him to sit on the loo. He then cries and screams until he manages to go. At school he has had some soiling accidents and he refuses to go with anyone except myself. He is not constipated by the way, simply holding on to it! This is becoming a major issue as it is taking over our life, and school are constantly moaning at me about it, as they just don't know how to deal with it. Has anyone else had similar issues with their children, and any advice would be really helpful.

Parents
  • Thanks for this. It's very helpful. Sounds very similar to my little boy. He's been like this for about a year and a half now, and yes, our GP just says to drink more orange juice. The doctor who prescribed the laxatives was a urologist, so not an expert in bowel things. I really need to get referred to an expert here.

    With the Ducolax, you say that it stops them from witholding. How has that effected your son at school? My worry is that if my little boy cannot withold anymore, he will just have accidents daily at school. As things stand at the moment, he has only soiled himself 4 times over the course of the year, though he does wet himself more regularly. Generally he is able to hold on with poos until the end of the day, and then at least I can get him to the loo at home (which is still traumatic!). I just don't want a situation where teachers are having to deal with him constantly soiling himself at school, as they have been pretty difficult about the few times it has happened so far.

    Once your son was on the Ducolax, was he able to say to you when he needed to go to the loo, and get there in time, or did you have lots of accidents?

    Sorry for the personal questions!

Reply
  • Thanks for this. It's very helpful. Sounds very similar to my little boy. He's been like this for about a year and a half now, and yes, our GP just says to drink more orange juice. The doctor who prescribed the laxatives was a urologist, so not an expert in bowel things. I really need to get referred to an expert here.

    With the Ducolax, you say that it stops them from witholding. How has that effected your son at school? My worry is that if my little boy cannot withold anymore, he will just have accidents daily at school. As things stand at the moment, he has only soiled himself 4 times over the course of the year, though he does wet himself more regularly. Generally he is able to hold on with poos until the end of the day, and then at least I can get him to the loo at home (which is still traumatic!). I just don't want a situation where teachers are having to deal with him constantly soiling himself at school, as they have been pretty difficult about the few times it has happened so far.

    Once your son was on the Ducolax, was he able to say to you when he needed to go to the loo, and get there in time, or did you have lots of accidents?

    Sorry for the personal questions!

Children
No Data