Thursday, February 10, 2011

Potty Training and urology- Cause that's how we roll

We started trying to potty train Tyler before we moved from Arizona. ( At least 2 years!) We used our respite person to assist and she would valiantly take Tyler ever 2 hours to the potty along with Dad and I for a LONG time. When we moved we kind of slacked due to the stress of moving.

When we tried again right after we moved Ty was so upset over the toilet. We would stay dry for a while but then we would just dribble. So he was wet all the time. It was like he knew he was in underpants he wasn't suppose to go to the bathroom on the floor and he would hold it. ( hooray! right) But no success in the potty. We stopped again hoping a few more weeks/months would work.

Last year I went to the district held special needs potty training class and I got absolutely no tips that we beneficial. They were awesome for people who have kiddos with sensory issues or Autism but kids with CP just didn't fit the bill. The special needs preschool invited the kids' parents who were not potty trained in the district. It was really frustrating.

So we gave it another go. FAIL, FAIL, and FAIL! It was so frustrating from the parents perspective and from Tyler's. It caused some massive toilet aversions and he was NOT interested at all. In fact it made it even worse. He wouldn't even sit on a potty.

After a few words about our potty issues and even MORE frustration from Tyler, ( and mom and dad) I called our pediatrician AGAIN begging for a referral. She gladly sent us to a Urologist at PCMC.

Our appointment today was amazing. She even offered to write a letter/note for others to understand WHY he isn't potty trained yet and that it didn't need to be brought up. Her first biggest suggestion was to get EVERYONE other than D and I to stop talking about the potty. There will no longer be any talk about him not being able to do something or attend a function or not go somewhere because he isn't going to the bathroom.

The next step is getting him to just sit on the potty. He can earn tokens to get movies or treats or outings. No pressure just get him to not hate the toilet. ( They call it toilet aversion. Apparently they even have therapist at PCMC that works with kids with chronic constipation) We will also start working on BM stuff but mostly we are just getting him to stop gagging and freaking out when we sit on the toilet.

In a few weeks we are getting an ultrasound of his bladder and kidneys and the NP is working with us Via email. ( I LOVE technology!) If others want to discuss, not include or be upset over Tyler not going to the potty feel free to email me for the docs information.

An interesting fact: The muscle that is used to "hold" urine works on a reflex around every 2 hours up to 3 years old. After that the muscle is a reaction from the brain. When you have cerebral palsy the muscles don't get the message from the brain correctly. So usually it takes kids MUCH longer when the muscle isn't getting the message.

1 comment:

Denise said...

Oh Nancy! This is wonderful information. And honestly extremely helpful to me as Jaxon is also yet to be potty trained. He is ready to train but due to all of the mess of NOT being able to go and struggling for all of these years he is just too scared to do it now that he actually can. I had no idea that there was an actual name for it or that there were therapists to help with such things. I will definitely be trying to find out how we might benefit from such a thing. Thank you for your honesty with this struggle and I applaud you for being ok with things the way they are for now. They wont always be this way. I love you much friend. Hugs, Denise