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Smearing And Eating Poop
A MyAutismTeam Member asked a question 💭

This has been an on and off again issue for awhile now.
She smears poop on the wall toys anything, all over her face in her mouth.
She is in diapers but she is 10.
She knows it's bad when she does it.
We have tried commpression clothes
Body suits
Bathing suits
She finds a way around all of it!!!
She is also self harming
I'm at my whit end

posted February 13, 2016
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A MyAutismTeam Member

My ASD daughter was a poop smearer and we finally got her potty trained at age 5. We had to take her to the toilet every 30 minutes or an hour and have her sit there for while. It helped that her little brother was also hitting 3 and we were trying to potty train him, too. I put up a sign with the potty training pictures on it and went over it every time with the kids. My son got more out of it but my daughter got used to the drill as well. I did a lot of yelling about the poop smearing and having to clean the walls and other stuff. That was a real low point for us and I dreaded cleaning the walls for years to come. People that don't have to deal with that issue will never know how depressing it is so you have my sympathy. It's not the quirky side of autism and people don't talk about it openly so the public doesn't know that some ASD families are really struggling behind closed doors. Other people won't like it but I did give my daughter a spank for smearing because she may not be able to make it to the toilet but she knew she didn't have to smear poop. Of course, there are kids out there who can't be potty trained so the spanking is useless as well.

posted February 13, 2016
A MyAutismTeam Member

I think an itchy butt can lead to smearing. A yeast infection or hemorrhoids could cause itchiness. My son's constipation caused hemorrhoids. I gave him a high dose of buffered vit c to get him pooping and his smearing issue went away after his hemorrhoids healed. Although I still have to change his diaper ASAP. I don't know if this is your child's issue but it was an issue for us

posted February 13, 2016
A MyAutismTeam Member

My son, who's 14, still does this occasionally. For a while (about a year ago), he was doing it nearly every day. Couple of questions/observations--we used a pinworm paddle (from the dr) and found that he did, indeed, have pinworms, which can make your butthole itchy and possibly cause the child to "dig" at their butt and then smear it to get it off their hands. In our son's case, once the worms were killed off by medicine, he didn't do it as often, but would still do it, especially if he could feel string hanging out and he was trying to pull it out himself, so he would get poop all over his hands and then smear it on his face, teeth, wherever he touched. I know every child is different, and especially when they're non-verbal, it's hard to find out WHY they do the things they do. Hang in there, Mom. (hugs)

posted February 13, 2016

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