Hi,
I"m a newcomer to this forum. I am the mother of a beautiful 23 year old woman with autism. She has other disabilities also. She lives at home with her parents, brother and sister. She is the middle child.
She is so loved, everyone really feels it when she is sick, or even just attending respite care. It would be great if I could get some tips from anyone out there on toiletting. I have never had much success, therefore she wears incontinence aids. Should I give up now? Is 23 too old to keep trying? :?:
Hi
and welcome.
Since I never raised children myself, I cannot answer your question about toilettraining. I think she has to do and to want to do it herself.
If there isn't a physical problem with the bladder, I don't think there is much you can do about it. She might even feel bad or guilty about it, if you keep trying.
Sometimes a change in diet can improve things because there are certain kinds of food, like milk, that can irritate the bladder(it makes the urine more caustic).
And there are really many teens and adults out there who use incontinence-pads (or diapers) most of their live, (a recent article in a newspaper said 8% of the adult population), but it's embarrassing for most people to talk about.
Hanne Sofie
HI.
Do you know if she feels the sensation of needing to go or not? If she does not feel the sensation then there will be no way for her to manage without them. Unless that urgency signal is reaching the brain and being understood, continence won't happen.
Some people never develop the nerve signals sufficiently and need continence aids, as the last poster said.
If she does feel the need to go, but cannot communicate it, there are some techniques that might work.
yeah, you really need to assess why she struggles with it before we can help you.
Welcome to the forum! My child is only 9 so the issues I am facing are quite different, but I enjoyed the way you expressed the beauty of your daughter.
On the incontinence, I can't really help, except that I know one website I've read, set up by an adult autisitc woman, explained that she simply had to go too frequently to be able to make it to the bathroom all the time, and she wasn't embarassed at all about wearing adult incontenance aids. As she wrote, if she was the only one who needed them, you wouldn't be able to buy them at EVERY grocery store!
Do you mean diaper when you said incontinent aid? Sorry to be dumb but it can also mean those incontinent pads too but I'm assuming you mean diapers. What are her other disabilities too and how bad is her autism?
Thanks everyone for your responses. Its great to know there are people out there who can really hear me!I am looking out for that article about the autistic woman who wrote about her incontinence.
As well as being in the "severe" category of autism, my daughter also has a chromosomal abnormality on chromosome 15. In short, she has half a chromosome too many, which leaves her intellectually disabled, but she has a very pretty face.
She also has focal cortical dysplasia which is a kind of abnormality in the make up of the brain, and lastly, epilepsy which is now under control.
Yes, she wears pull ups during the day and diapers at night.
It all sounds very bleak in the toiletting department doesn't it?
After all this she is still the light in this house, and we will keep trying to improve her quality of life.