Autism/son pees anywhere

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Expert: - 12/11/2007


Question
my son is almost 4 and been potty trained since almost 2 years. but he pees in the closet, carpet on toys and he even wanted to pee in his hamsters cage.he stared with that last year, when he kept on peeing in his toy box.he goes to the toilet if he has to so i dont understand why he pees in his room. please help me because his room smells bad and i dont know what else to do to make him stop.

Answer
While I can imagine how hard this is for you, and while I myself wasn't fully potty trained until four, it's difficult to say what might help.

He may enjoy the sound it makes and probably even the feel of it (or the noise it makes when he pees in the toilet bothers him too much so he goes on the carpet (or anywhere else)).
I faintly remember that I was really frightened of the toilet when I was small, although I don't remember *why* I was frightened.

If it is that he enjoys the sound of water you might try to offer him a bowl of water and a glass to play with whenever you notice he's about to pee somewhere (but probably ask him if he needs to go beforehand, and tell him he can play with the water if he goes to the toilet before).
If he can't stand using the toilet because the sound of his urine in the toilet bowl or the flushing bothers him, you could put some toilet paper in the toilet before he goes to "mute" the sound and make sure he's out of the room when you  flush the toilet.
It's difficult to say what helps if you don't know the child concerned. Does he see a therapist ? If he does, you could ask him/her about that. He may have sensory issues/cravings that might be responsible for his behaviour.
Hope this helps,
C.

Autism

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*DISCLAIMER*

Please note I am not a healthcare professional or a doctor.
I cannot provide a diagnosis or give any medical advice.
Therefore I cannot answer questions like "is my child autistic ?" other than by telling you to go and see a specialist
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Please be aware that if you are in the US it will usually take at least 24 hours until I can answer your question, as I'm in Europe and don't have access to my email during the day. I also cannot answer questions concerning the US educational or law system (other than by looking up things on google, but that's probably not the expertise you need), as I'm not in the US.
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Please also be aware that I'm a person with autism. My answers may sometimes be very blunt and direct and I may tell you things you won't like to hear. Diplomacy is certainly not among my talents. I'm never being rude on purpose, and I always try not to hurt or offend people, but it has happened before and may happen again. It's NEVER on purpose. I just want to help.
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What I *can* do for you is gather information on any aspect of autism and therapy of autism you're interested in and give you my personal oppinion about it (if you want to hear it) or, if it applies, tell you about my personal experience. I can answer all questions about what life is like for an autistic person.

I can also answer questions asked in German or French (but will have to answer in English to questions asked in French as my French is a bit rusty).

Ich beantworte gerne auch Fragen auf Deutsch.

Vous pouvez poser des questions en Francais, si cela ne vous dérange pas que je responds en anglais.

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As I'm not doing well right now and am not in the shape of answering questions well - I recieved a few low ratings lately - I'll take a break from AllExperts for the next few weeks/until I'm doing better

I am an adult diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism and ADD.

In the past years I have also read a lot about autism and its comorbid conditions and related subjects (as I am experiencing symptoms of most of these or know others who do) , so I have accumulated a lot of layman knowledge in this area (AD(H)D, Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, sleep disorders, allergies, sensory integration dysfunction, learning difficulties, left/right-brain, giftedness, Irlen Syndrome, prism glasses, executive dysfunction (aka. "inertia"), "special" diets).

Education/Credentials
None in the field of autism, apart from being autistic myself !

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