John Deere Undies

Most boys are potty trained by the time they are three to four years old. Cole will be eight in February and he is not fully potty trained. We have been working so hard on this, for so many years. We have gone through stages where Cole tries to change his bm and wipes his butt on that carpet. He's peed on the floor, walls, carpet, couch- you name it. We get strange looks when kids see he still wears a pull-up. It's been quite a journey. He doesn't understand that poop is gross and unsanitary.

For the past two years or so, Cole has sparatically gone pee on the potty. He typically has more success when he's at school or with a Personal Care Assistant. It took him until about six months ago to poop on the potty. Even then, he refused to poop on the potty at home and would only do it for others once every few weeks. It has been an uphill battle.

This is common for kids with Autism. Some Autistic children and never potty trained. We are 100% confident that Cole knows what to do, he just doesn't want to change his routine. Why would he? He's been wearing diapers or pull-ups for nearly eight years. Kids with Autism will do anything in their power not to change their routine. They like things the same. They want to know what to expect. In regards to potty training, this works against us. 

We have been trying to get him to try on underwear for over two years. He thinks it's a game and flat out refuses. 

We had a break through a few weeks ago. For some reason, Cole decided one day at home that he wanted to go poop on the potty. We noticed he had been going pee on the potty quite a bit, but never poop. This day was different for him. Something triggered inside his adorable head and made him go poop on the potty. He was so proud and he did every step by himself. In fact, when we asked to help he replied, "You go away. I do it all by myself". And he did!

For about two weeks now, Cole has been using the potty about 90% of the time. We decided it was time to get him into underwear. Maybe this would seal the deal and put our diaper changing days behind us? We told him that in January he would be all done with pull-ups and he would wear "undies". We have been drilling it into his head consistently every single day, multiple times a day. I even made him special John Deere undies. I ordered some John Deere iron ons from eBay. I dyed some underwear green and put on the iron ons. We have also made a visual calendar for Cole. It shows when it will be January (although he knows this better than we do) and there is a picture pull ups up through December and green undies on January 1st. We've told Cole the garbage man is taking away the pull ups. We've also talked a lot about who in our family wears undies and how Cole it too old for pull-ups. 

Tomorrow is D Day... or should I say Deere Day. We are hiding all of the pull-ups and only giving Cole the option of wearing his new undies. He's seen them and seems to like them, now he just needs to wear them AND not go potty in them. It's going to be a big day for Cole and our family. Send good vibes our way and pray that it works. We know Cole can do this. He just needs to establish a new routine and form a few new habits. After eight years of changing Cole's diapers, I think it's time to conclude this chapter. 

I've attached a few pictures of the John Deere undies and the picture schedule (sorry it imported upside down and I can't figure out how to fix it).

Happy New Year to all of you and may 2009 be filled with health, fun and countless blessings.