How toileting is going

So, Tristan is using underwear during most of his awake time. We started in the last week of December so he’d have some time to get used to it before going back to school. He has the peeing thing down – he has pee accidents here and there, but they really distress him, and he has learned the general process of holding it in. He doesn’t request to go to the toilet at home very often still; we have to offer him the chance. But we’re done with having to take him on a strict schedule to make sure he puts pee into the toilet.

He’s still not independent about the whole process. Someone has to go with him and talk him through the process, or at least supervise him through it. I think he is capable of doing it on his own but likes the extra support. After all, he can put his own clothing on except for getting fronts and backs right, and remembering to pull up the underwear before the pants. I figure that he’s pretty good about asserting independence when he’s confident, but that is a crucial step.

Pooping has been making very, very small progress. We’ve gotten him to poop in the toilet several times but he is frankly averse to it at this point. We’ve taken to providing him a pull-up diaper when we know he really has to go. He will ask to go to the toilet when he needs to poop and is in underwear, but he will not actually release his bowels into the toilet if he can help it. It’s also fairly irritating to clean up poop when it all lands in his underwear, because he yanks his underwear down and manages to spread the poop everywhere. He also seems to have an aversion to staying in the bathroom to poop, even while wearing a diaper – this probably coincides with independence being incomplete but he requires privacy to poop. The privacy thing is fun in public, as we often go places with lots of people and he really wants to be alone to take care of business.

So, pleased with the progress and hoping he makes some more soon!

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