Recently I experienced two epiphanies, one that left me feeling relieved and the other that gave me a huge sense of dread. The relief came from my discovery that there is actually a strong link between autism and potty training problems (so it’s not just my child! so it’s not my incompetent parenting! so there might be an explanation for this mess!) That was followed closely by a sense of dread as I realized there’s no way to predict when he will ever get this under control. I’m reading stories of autistic kids who are seven, eight, even 10 years old and still untrained. Please please please don’t let that be my child.

It’s so very frustrating because all the gains we made last month seem to have evaporated, and we’re nearly back to square one. I read somewhere that autistic kids are the most difficult ones to train, and knowing that does make it a bit easier. But no one wants to do diaper duty forever. I get an ulcer just thinking about kindergarten starting in September.

I need a drink…