Don't be scarred (or scared) by the title of this blog post. It's a fact about autism and specifically it's one way how ASD affects our son, Braden. Let me get specific. Some kids with autism don't want to poop. Others don't want to poop in the toilet. And still others can't stop pooping. Our son wants to hold it in as long as possible, until he's practically crowning, and then he cautiously walks down the hall and into the bathroom looking like he just got back from a long horse ride. Can you picture it? Tip toes and all. As if walking flat footed would apply too much pressure and he'd accidentally have a serious accident 6 feet away from the bowl.

Follow up:

It's not like the typical child who occasionally wets his pants because he's having so much fun playing that he waits till he absolutely must go. It's not like that at all. Playing and having fun is not related to why he waits. He is rarely playing just prior to pooping.

Now, to be sure, we don't know if he just doesn't want to release the excrement or if he's not comfortable doing it every day. Remember, he can't tell us much. Yes, he can talk but it's like pulling teeth to get him to speak. In the comfort of his own home Braden does his duty about every other day. Sometimes everyday. It depends. And every single time he takes a number 2 it's the size of his right arm!

The size of his 'doo' is how we know he's been saving it up. Oh yeah, he's regular, just not every day regular. His feces is the largest my wife or I have ever seen. This may be a bit disgusting, but comparing his terds and mine is like comparing a Great Dane and a Teacup Poodle. And his terds are the Great Dane! It's insane. We're talking about an 8-year-old here. It can't feel good to hold that much stuff in for so long. Being a tall lean kid his storage space is pretty small.

He has clogged our toilets a couple times too. I used to think it was because of a couple wet wipes, but I'm not so sure. Maybe we should install commercial toilets in our house? I don't know. But this thing with reluctancy to poop seems to be somewhat common with children with autism, based on my discussions over the years with other parents.

I'm not sure why I'm writing about it, other than to discuss it and put it out in the open - raise some awareness I guess. It's true, autism robs our kids of speech. But it also robs them of... ummmmmm... their ability to poop like you and me.