To stop an autistic adult from bed wetting takes patience. Bed wetting is very common among autistic individuals of any age, as autism is a developmental disorder that may hinder an autistic individual from fully potty training. It is important to find out why it is happening in order to effectively solve the problem. Autistic adults have bed-wetting difficulties because of lack of muscle control, issues imitating the consistent action of going to the restroom, problems understanding the concept or not being aware of the feeling of wet.
Instructions
1. Observe the 's bathroom behavior during the day. It is important to be aware of the level of his current potty training capability. Not being potty trained during the day can point to a developmental problem of not being able to imitate the concept of going to the bathroom in the first place. In this case, you should be patient and potty train the individual in the same fashion you would most children. Autistic individuals may take longer to understand the concept as a whole. If they go to the bathroom with no problem during the day, you can assure yourself that they are able to grasp the concept. If this is the case, you need to explore other options of what the problem might be during the night.
2. Take advantage of dry protection. For the comfort of the autistic individual as well as creating an easier clean up for you, use plastic mattress liners. In addition, have the individual wear adult disposable moisture-locking underpants to bed. If needed, she may also wear them throughout the day. This will help contain most of the moisture from her pajamas and the bed sheets. Use these dry protection methods while you are working with the autistic individual's bed wetting situation to allow more comfort for both of you.
3. Reduce the individual's fluid intake. Schedule a time a few hours before the individual usually goes to bed that he will not be allowed to intake any more fluids. Dinner should be the last time he drinks a fluid. In addition, urge him to go to the bathroom right before he goes to bed.
4. Adjust the individual's diet. Autistic individuals commonly have a poor immune system and resulting food allergies. Because this may be one of the causes of bed wetting, perform an allergy test on the individual, with a physician's permission, to rule this possibility out. Common allergies among autistic individuals are dairy, grain and strawberries or citrus fruit. To test the individual, take one of these categories of food at a time out of her diet completely for two weeks. At the end of the two-week period, give her the food item on an empty stomach. If she is allergic, she will react within 15 to 60 minutes. Continue on to a different category every two weeks until you have tested all three food categories.
5. Wake the individual up every few hours in the middle of the night and explain to him that he needs to go to the bathroom. Take him to the restroom. If you do this consistently every few hours for a few weeks, it will help implant the idea in his head to get up when he has to go to the bathroom.
6. Consider a bed-wetting alarm. A common problem among bed wetting in autistic individuals is that they can't recognize the feeling of moisture. Also, some autistic individuals are not bothered by wetting their bed. Bed-wetting alarms are waterproof censors that attach to bed sheets. When moisture occurs, a beeping alarm goes off. This wakes them up and prompts them to finish going to the bathroom in the restroom. It seems to be very effective for many autistic individuals, but there are exceptions. Some individuals get very frightened by the sound, so it is important to consider the individual's personality and consult a physician before attempting to use a bed-wetting alarm.
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