feces and spitting

[spedteacher88]

I have a 6 year old student with Autism who is smearing his feces once a day and spitting a lot. He doesn't spit on anyone, it seems as though he just needs to get it out of his mouth. I am not sure why he is pulling his feces out of his diaper? We have tried to have him sit on the toilet, which has been a struggle. This behavior started 2-3 weeks ago. Any advise besides giving him an alternate sensory activity (clay, etc)?

[MJIthewriter]

Why can't he have clay or a substitute?  Is there a fear he would eat it?

Spitting could be a sensory thing if he can't take the moisture in his mouth or post-nasal drip.

[Shireen1411]

Hi,
My 5 year old autistic son does the smearing of stools, it has to be one of the worst behaviours I have come across, my son is still in nappies, so what I do is I add extra tape onto the nappies so that he cant open them, also, the continence nurse has come up with an idea to get my son on the toilet - he is terrified of them, what we do is we have an A4 piece of paper with a photo of my son on it and a photo of a toilet, laminated, everytime he wants to pass a motion, i stand him on 'his toilet' and give him a toy or string as thats what he loves, when he has finished i change him and put a new nappy on, every couple of days I move the paper which he stands on closer to the toilet, he doesnt seem to have noticed but I manage to have him stood in the bathroom every time he opens his bowels, out of routine he knows to look for his paper with ' his toilet on'  and automatically goes for it. He doesn't smear as much now as he gets changed as soon as he has finished, also, I let him watch me drop the stools from the nappy into the toilet so he knows where they are supposed to go.
Hope it works.
Shireen

[jf34]

First you need to find a reason for the behavior before you can treat it. You need to use an ABC chart, especially since the behavior just started.Are there more people in the class room? Have teachers changed? Has anything changed with his route to school? Over-stimulation? Look at what is happening before the before, look at the bahvior itself, and then look at the natural consequence he is getting for the behavior(as in why is he doing it, is there some pleasure, if so what?) You have to find that out honestly before you can begin to stop it. I would start doing this over the next week and find that pattern, find out what is going on in his environment before the behvior occures.There could be a number of reason why, and in autism this is the way it goes! My son will have a "thing" he does for a few weeks, then it's something else for a few weeks, then it changes again! Sometimes they are understimulated and need something to stimulate him, you can try a piece of candy or a drink to orally stimulate him, since for some reason you don't want to use a ball, or clay etc. which is one of the best things to do! You can try lotion putting some on his hand for him,, you can try something to stimulte him through olfactory (smell). Like I said you need to first learn and understand why the beahivor is occuring before you try to remove the behavior and also be prepared that this could take a long time to do. Another thing you need to find out is if he's doing this at home, if not then there's most likely something in the school environment that is causing this.

As far as the spitting again use the ABC chart to determine why this is happening. My son has just started with this also who is 8. Have not yet figured out why, but trying! He has to be in control in a lot of things, or feel in control should I say, so we try and do that as much as possible!

Hope this has helped. If there's an OT at your school or that works for your district they may be able to help give you replacement items for him to "tinker" with so that he's not wanting to play with stool.

Good Luck!

[ddaniell]

My son is 20 and he would grab his poo or play with himself if I did not keep a self made body suit on him.  I took a mans muscle (stretchy) t-shirt and put some tabs and snaps on the bottom.  When you pull their pants on they can't reach the snaps.  My son will not even try to get this shirt off.  As long as he is wearing the shirt he will take it out.  I think they are not trying to make a mess, they are trying to get it out of their diaper and then smear it to get it off their hands.  It is all because he does not want it ON him anywhere.  It is not for fun.  It is hard to get them to communicate that they have filled their diaper but my son will make a small movement with his arms if he has gas or is going poo.  If you can recognize their signs....or figure out their schedule...then you can clean them as soon as it happens so they do not try to take care of it themselves.

But try the body suit, it really works for me.