Potty Training Bootcamp

****** WARNING: THIS POST WILL DISCUSS BODILY FUNCTIONS *******
Potty training. We have read a few books about this, and basically decided that the longer we wait, the harder it will be. It is a necessary life skill that above any academics offered, or any other social grace he could learn, will provide the most opportunity for him in his life. I summoned up the courage to make an attempt. Last year's attempt certainly left me a little gun shy. The kid quit eating, drinking, and pooping for 3 days. This was downright scary for me - my child refused water!! But the silver lining in that bad episode was pointed out to me by our pediatrician: The kid was smart enough to realize that food and drink evolve into waste product, and he attempted to take control of the wheel. We decided that Zach knew he wasn't ready.

OK - so as altruistic as the decision to potty train might sound, it also gave me an excuse not to shampoo the carpets in the house for another month or so. Plus, Steve and I had an agreement that we could not have more than one thing at a time peeing on the carpets in the house. So, if we get Zach potty trained, we can start considering that pet dog Sophie and I are gunning for.

I made the decision to proceed, informed his school and his itinerant providers (home therapists) and off we went roughly three weeks ago. The first week was tough, he showed little cognizance of what was going on. We couldn't keep up with the amount of clothes getting washed! Second week, we bore witness to pee entering the actual potty. At the tail end of week 2, we saw way more pee entering the potty than hitting the tidy whities. HURRAY!! Unfortunately, BMs had not been quite as successful.

Until we potty trained I never noticed something so terrific about Zach: he prefers our company than to be by himself. (Weird for an autistic kid, right?) My observation is that when Zach leaves the room from where Sophia is playing or I am cooking or whatnot, that is a clear indication that he is going to have a BM. Such a strange way to find out such a terrific attribute.

But as much fun as this must sound (*sarcasm*), it does come with it's moments. First off, as casual as I am about discussing this, make no bones about it, I do not like to be urinated or defecated on. Oh yeah. Nor do I like being vomited on. Why do I mention this? One afternoon, after Zach's itinerant provider had a good session with Zach, Zach walked up to her and gave her a cracker he had been eating. That look meant one thing. She was oblivious, I was not. I had seen that look in his face before: barf was coming our way. As the running in slow motion has come to be a common event in our house, I got to Zach in time to cup my hands in front of his face and quickly move him over our hardwood floors as opposed to our wall to wall carpeting. And he let loose. As I captured the product, Zach was so startled that he then proceeded to urinate. Wild times, I'll tell you. It reminds me of frat house parties minus the beer and sorority girls.

Then there was the trip home from school where I decided, ignorantly so, to drop off the spoils of our garage sale to our bank. Being that I had a lot of change, I decided to enter the actual credit union as opposed to the drive thru. They have a change counter in the bank, free to all members. As I entered the second set of double doors, I realized we were in trouble. It was member appreciation week, and there were lots of youngsters coming at us asking if we wanted candy, popcorn, or if Zach wanted to play a game. I was flustered with all the unwanted attention, so I can only imagine how Zach felt. As I scurried to the change machine and had Zach dump the change in, I was growing weary already at the fact that we had lots of eyes watching us.

Before y'all rip into me about bringing my potty training/brief wearing toddler into a public space with no capture mechanism in place, I have to plead that I was misled prior to this journey to the bank. When I picked him up from school that day, the TA's told me he had no accidents and did great! Knowing they had just put him on the toilet prior to is release to me, I felt very safe. I was not to realize the truth until I went home: Zach had held his pee for 17 hours. This is not doing great, although it might be accident free. And the story continues...

Back to the bank: I then went up to the island to fill out my deposit slip and a young girl helping out with the bank "festivities" offered to play with Zach while I completed my transaction. Feeling that this may speed up my transaction time, I decided that playing with the Wii within 10 feet of me was fairly safe, so I acquiesced. As I finished completing my deposit slip, I glanced over to the Wii prior to walking up to the teller. And there was that look again along with the leg tilt/knee bend. Once again, I felt like Lee Majors as the slow motion effects took place and I ran to grab Zach. But it was too late. I made a dash for the bathroom and off we went. I took his wet shorts and undies off, cleaned him up, and sat him on the potty, explaining to him that pee goes in the potty, once again. I ran his clothes under water and rung them out.

Then I thought: "What the hell am I going to do now?? I am holed up in the bathroom with my son with autism, with soiled clothing, and a host of bewildered and unamused spectators awaiting for me out in the bank lobby to rectify this situation." I put a plan together in my head, "He has clean clothes in the van." And then it struck me, my van keys were out on the island where I was filling out the deposit slip. Then it really struck me: I had left $500 in an envelope sitting out on the island unattended. OMG!!!!!

Pride has been gone for years. Here goes nothing. I would get him dressed in his damp shorts. Wrap his underwear in paper towel and stick it in my pocket. Head high, I would carry Zach out of the bathroom, make a dash for the counter and grab my keys and envelope and promptly go to the car, avoiding eye contact as necessary. No time to waste, I exited and was given a grace from above. One of Zach's teaching aids was smiling back at me. She said "Hi! How are you?" and then noticed the feared look on my face. She looked down at Zach, and realized what happened. She then asked if I had dry clothes in the car, which I did. She told me, "Go get them. I have him."

That face looked like a light beam shown from up above. Not only did I get a change of clothes and get him dressed. I decided, that I would complete my transaction. And I did. And the tellers did not look happy about it. But I did not really give a rat's patooti.

As we exited the bank, I looked over to the young girl and mouthed "Sorry." She looked back at me and I realized someone had pulled a throw rug over where Zach had done his business. I then mouthed "Thank you" to her. And we left.

Here we are in week 3 and Zach has not had an accident in 3 days. We went to watch the Syracuse Chiefs play last evening and he even did his business at the stadium. We are not out of the trenches yet - Zach has yet to initiate his sessions by notifying me he has to go or entering the bathroom by himself. But this is substantial progress, and has affirmed our decision that it was time for him to learn. It also will be a sign to the professionals out there, that once again, Steve and I were able to determine that Zach was ready to learn something, and not wait for someone else to make the call.

Way to go Zach!