My son is embarrassed about nothing and is so comfortable in his own skin so I know that he would not care about me sharing this success story. Even if he had social media he still wouldn't care... But my 13 year old autistic son finally has gotten past his inability to go number 2 in the toilet! He had started making progress with it a couple of years ago but then totally regressed. I was taking him to the toilet every hour and he would start to begin the process and then stop and very obviously hold it in. I was changing VERY soiled pull ups every hour. I started cheering him on in the bathroom like I was watching the Suoer Bowl (pun definitely intended) but he couldn't seem to let go of whatever was stopping him from actually completing a poop in the toilet.

He would sit there for a little bit and then stand up and say "all done" but he didn't poop. Again, you could see him struggling to hold it in. Then one day we were at it again and when he stood up and said "all done" with nothing having happened. I tried to get him to sit back down and try again which caused him obvious irritation. Despite my patient tone he whacked me upside my head! This from a boy who has NEVER been violent. I was stunned and upset to my core.

Next day we are at it again and he was getting visibly frustrated when I was telling him to "try again" and he went to take a swing at my head again (I was on my knees trying to teach him which muscles to use to go poop as I was the day before when he hit me). My hand to hand combat training kicked in this time and I blocked it like when I was in my prime. At this point I had to get very stern. I said "you WILL not hit me! Now sit back down and go poop!"i still had his wrist so I guided him back down to the toilet seat and he pooped a little bit! I cheered for him like he just finished the Boston Marathon!

I had to bring him back in every hour the rest of the day until all of the poop he had held in was out but his pull-ups were clean after he finally got it all out. I took him in first thing in the morning the next day and he peed and pooped. Again his pull ups stayed clean. I did it again the next few mornings. Then one morning my husband let me sleep in and I got up and told him we needed to go poop and he was balking at the statement so I just let it go for the moment and went to use the restroom myself. Sorry to seem crass, but it smelled in there and there was a little floaty piece in the toilet which my husband said wasn't from him. This was the first time our son just went and did it on his own (hence his balking at being told to go to the toilet). That was 2 weeks ago and pull-ups have remained clean except for evidence that now we have to work on how to wipe.

Let me say that we had taken him to the doctor and a CT was done to rule out a blockage of any kind or other strictly medical source of his toilet trouble. Miralax was no good because his senses are so keen that he could detect it in his drinks and wouldn't drink it. It seemed to be a sensory thing. The doctor prescribed something normally for IBS but that just made more messy pull ups so we discontinued that.

I am so proud of his progress and his success in this area. Like IYKYK. I wanted to share this often taboo type of subject matter because I know we are not the only parents who experience things like this. If anyone wants to know more about how I taught him the way to push with the right muscles let me know! He is my freaking champ! NGL!

EDIT He has not taken another swing at me BTW.