SPD, the Interoceptive Sense and Toileting

Just when I thought I had nothing more to say about SPD, somehow R ends up manifesting this in yet another way.

It all started when we took R out for a day and ended up having a major meltdown in the mall.  The trigger, the toilet flush.

Now, R has been relatively easy to potty train considering he has SPD.  I've read of many parents who had such a hard time with this, even without the sensory issues.  But in R's case, his love for the toilet flushing and his dislike of wet clothes actually ended up stimulating him to use the toilet more and the diapers less.

But let's go back to the very beginning in terms of his toilet habits, shall we?  And no, please don't think I'm shaming him.  I actually want this to be a teaching moment, for me and my hubby, for R, and for anyone going through something similar.

So, let's discuss!

R had always been a bit of a neat freak, especially in terms of yucky things like sand and play-dough (I had talked about this in a previous post).  He also hated having ink on his fingers, though paint was ok.  But he hated the feeling of wet clothes, and the cold toilet seat bothered him.

When we first attempted to toilet train him, the seat bothered him so much that he would cry every time we got him on the potty.  We then decided to let it go for the meantime and watch how he progresses.  To our surprise, about a year later, hating how it feels to have poop in his diaper, he started to do his business on the toilet seat.  Not long after he would use the toilet for all his toileting needs, and his nanny noticed that flushing that toilet got him all excited.  So we used all that as incentive for him to use the bathroom and be less dependent on diapers.  And it worked very well.

Or so we thought.

It has now gotten to the point that he likes flushing so much that two things set him off and cause a MAJOR meltdown.

It's either he wants to keep flushing, and flushing, and flushing, and flushing, and flushing, and flushing, and flushing... (you get my drift)

Or it's the level of the water on the toilet bowl while it's being flushed.  R likes a full flush, half-flushes make him very angry.

At first hubby and I thought this was just behavioral, that he's trying to test his limits and seeing how much we'd allow him.  But we would wonder why it would take him a good half hour of crying and screaming if we told him to stop flushing.  I certainly took a long while to realize that this wasn't just a behavioral thing.  He wasn't just throwing tantrums.

It was also sensory.  We were experiencing a combination of a tantrum and a sensory meltdown.

This article talked a lot about toileting with SPD kids, and added another sense to the seven senses we already know.  It says, and I quote:

The Interoceptive Sense:
The interoceptive sense refers to the “body-centered sensory systems”, the “near senses”, which operate without conscious thought and cannot be observed. The interoceptive sense relates to the “sensory nerve cells innervating the viscera (thoracic, abdominal, pelvic organs, and cardiovascular system), their sensory end organs, or the information they convey to the spinal cord and the brain.”
(from www.answers.com medical dictionary, 2007)

Some SPD kids cannot sense  that they already need to go to the bathroom, or feel hungry, or thirsty, until it's really intense.  Others are so sensitive that even the slightest feeling of hunger, thirst, or need for toileting is enough to set the child off.

So in R's case, the input he's getting from the toilet is actually pleasurable to him.  He likes watching the water swirl while it's being flushed, and really loves the sound of toilet flushing.  It made hubby and me quite concerned as obsessive toilet flushing is a trait of children with Autism or Asperger's syndrome.

We raised this just yesterday with R's OT.  She said that usually SPD kids are actually afraid of the sound of the toilet flushing, but because R's a sensory seeker, this trait is actually in line with his sensory issues.  And even if kids with ASD or Asperger's like to flush as well, at the end of the day, it's still a sensory input that these kids seem to like.

So today we tried to set some limits to R's flushing rights.  Before going to the bathroom, a rule is set that he is only allowed to flush once.  And he is told as much.  This is working so far at home, but it's dealing with public toilets that's quite difficult.  The true test will be on Sunday, at church, or when we eat out with family.

So here goes absolutely nothing.

UPDATE (11/05/15): After prepping him that he can only flush a limited amount of times, we have reduced meltdowns in terms of flushing.  He has also since flushed only once when we go to a toilet.  We just have to make sure he gets his "flushing quota" for the day.