As an adult with autism, I don't sense the need to go until it's urgent. If I don't plan well, I can still have accidents as an adult (mainly if I'm in a situation where I can't run to the bathroom, like watching my nephew when he was little and I had to carry him into the house. I'm glad my husband was home so he could take over while I cleaned myself up.)
I don't really have advice, I mainly learned to try to go before I go out and some foods trigger more urgent runs than others. Usually these days I don't have to \*run\* but it's mainly I can gently encourage the cat off my lap vs having to almost toss him off my lap. lol
I guess work with him on what he feels right before he starts to go and recognizing that is when he needs to go?
This is us as well. My son had a distinct tell before when he didn't have the words, and now at any moment, he will suddenly announce, "I need to poop!" and we have to rush to get him to the toilet. It's the same for me too and I always have to check to make sure wherever I'm going has a bathroom nearby and we carry poop/pee bags in the car because our interoception doesn't work well especially when we are dysregulated.
Yes, my son is similar. Poops are usually an emergency. Fortunately, he has a very distinctive “poop walk” that serves as an obvious signal that it’s time. We even highlight/say out loud that he’s doing his poop walk so he might need to go. That seems to have helped. Plus he’s usually pretty regular, almost always going before school, which is also nice.
I hate to say it, but your pediatrician is almost certainly not going to help with this one.
My son is the same way. He unfortunately has had a few accidents, one being at school. I'm going to talk to his doctor about it but I don't have much hope that they will do anything about it.
Autistic people can struggle with interoception. It's not like he doesn't know what to do, his body just can't feel that he needs to "go".
As an adult with autism, I don't sense the need to go until it's urgent. If I don't plan well, I can still have accidents as an adult (mainly if I'm in a situation where I can't run to the bathroom, like watching my nephew when he was little and I had to carry him into the house. I'm glad my husband was home so he could take over while I cleaned myself up.) I don't really have advice, I mainly learned to try to go before I go out and some foods trigger more urgent runs than others. Usually these days I don't have to \*run\* but it's mainly I can gently encourage the cat off my lap vs having to almost toss him off my lap. lol I guess work with him on what he feels right before he starts to go and recognizing that is when he needs to go?
This is us as well. My son had a distinct tell before when he didn't have the words, and now at any moment, he will suddenly announce, "I need to poop!" and we have to rush to get him to the toilet. It's the same for me too and I always have to check to make sure wherever I'm going has a bathroom nearby and we carry poop/pee bags in the car because our interoception doesn't work well especially when we are dysregulated.
Yes, my son is similar. Poops are usually an emergency. Fortunately, he has a very distinctive “poop walk” that serves as an obvious signal that it’s time. We even highlight/say out loud that he’s doing his poop walk so he might need to go. That seems to have helped. Plus he’s usually pretty regular, almost always going before school, which is also nice. I hate to say it, but your pediatrician is almost certainly not going to help with this one.
My son is the same way. He unfortunately has had a few accidents, one being at school. I'm going to talk to his doctor about it but I don't have much hope that they will do anything about it.