Our son is diagnosed with sensory processing disorder and ADHD- combined type

He all out refused to try going on the potty until he was 4. We tried every approach and especially after he had a poo accident, big big reactions. All out screaming and refusing to go near the potty. He also started especially being scared of public bathrooms- the hand dryers and automatic flush toilets- all out refused to even go near them. This was because of his SPD and sensory overload

It was really hard on us as parents to understand and the pressure of having to potty train him by a certain age. I realized tho and took me awhile to accept it that he is on a diff schedule.

It took a whole year of slow exposure and psych therapy to work toward being able to go in a public bathroom. He had therapy and OT private and school to work on it at school too. Eventually he was trained to go pee on the potty. Completely independent by 5

Now BMs it’s been a long journey… he got in the routine of going super early morning in his pull up. When he was younger than 5, from the anxiety associated with bathrooms his body couldn’t regulate and also he held it. So then the constipation caused problems. Then he had diarrhea which you get also from holding. We stopped trying to potty train altoghet and continued pull ups at night and he started to go early morning

For months we had him trying to sit on the potty on a schedule (3 times a day) for a very small treat and also blowing into a kazoo to get the feeling of pushing. The sensation of pushing was the hardest. He got comfortable sitting so we thought we could try undies overnight. He held it for a whole week and extreme behaviors… got really sick. So back in pull-ups.

This past week- he finally was comfortable enough to go with us and poo in the potty in the morning 👏👏 he was ready and had to wait until it was on his own time. We also continued to do small treats then offered a bigger prize if he did it.

Before we offered a bigger prize too for just sitting and then actually pooing and he couldn’t. Extreme tension and scared- screaming when he tried to push

I just wanted to tell you all our potty journey. Don’t beat yourself up. Also GI Psych Children’s hospital of Philadelphia really helped us and there is services like that that exist!! Haha

Hope this may help someone struggling with a 3 year old and know you aren’t alone! Feel free to msg me