Night time poop smearing in diapered littles

by Kate
(NH)

Saw many posts about this - wanted to share what worked for us. Posted as a comment, then decided it might be best to repost as a thread.

There are better days ahead <3

For those of you with little autistic kiddos - while not all people potty learn, most will - keep at it! What worked for us with one child was a potty in her room (along with timed trips to the bathroom and reinforcers while in there). At 5 years old it clicked for each of mine, with a ton of support.

One of our littles was all about the poop smearing, particularly at bedtime. The other would take her diaper off and pee or poop everywhere (potty in the room didn’t work for her). What we wound up needing to do was, backwards one piece pajamas (with the feet - just rotate the footie part so it faces forward), with a “non-stretchy neck shirt” that buttons up the back the neck can not be stretchy or my little would just stretch the neck to pull it off. We had a few NSNS (non-stretchy neck shirts) that were tanks tops that buttoned up the front, that we just put on backwards.

It works great though, and keeps the poop off of the - everything!

I feel for you though - I never thought we would see the end of it, but just keep at it. Our littlest I had to bring to the bathroom when I went to bed up until recently - she finally wakes herself up to go in the night!

Still wiping butts when they poop, but I will take it, hands down!

You’ve got this, parents and caregivers - just keep doing your best, whatever that is on a given day. Give them your love - give yourself some grace - sending lots of both to all of you <3