"I want" plus a new theory

I didn't get much of a chance to "sleep on it" (in reference to yesterday's depressing revelations) because Ronin woke everyone up at 6am. I suffered the rest of the day being tired and irritable, but caught a catnap with Audrey on the living room floor while Misty Island Rescue kept Ronin and Nikko occupied.

With Nikko's language therapy in mind, I was determined that when he wanted something, I would prompt him to say, "I want _____." Twice today he wanted a food from me and I would not give it to him unless he said "I want." He was requesting peaches and pizza, I believe, but not at the same time. When he would say, "Peaches, please." I would counter with "I WANT peaches please." He'd say part of the phrase, but I'd keep restarting it. Nikko caught on that I was forcing him to work and so he started to wail and scream, darting back and forth, down the hall and back to me as if he couldn't believe I wasn't going to give him peaches right away. I stuck to my guns, and in a big tearful yell-fest he screamed, "I WANT PEACHES PLEASE!" I praised him heavily and went to get his peaches. Simple. The same thing happened later for pizza, and it ended up in a screamed "I WANT PIZZA PLEASE!"
But you know what? The next time he wanted Mater's Tall Tales, or cheese puffs, he would ask for it by object, and then the second phrase coming out was preceded by "I want ______." He is totally capable of doing this. And maybe, just maybe, it is clicking stronger in his head that if he asks for something with "I want" before it, I will give it to him. I think he already knew this, but today I think he might be feeling the power of words just a little stronger. And to add insult to injury, Jenna told me after their ABA session that Nikko did AWESOME. He completed all the tasks, he was focused and had great eye contact. He was drawing lines straight down on a paper and it accidentally dragged onto the table. Jenna said he looked up at her with his eyes wide and his mouth opened in a circle as if to say, "Doh!" She had never seen him react like that, and I was warmed to hear it.

My Verbal Behavior book came from amazon today. I've got some reading to do.

I had a good feeling about Nikko today. But now I'm going to mess it all up by playing around with his bowels again. The miralax is working again, and by adding a little MoPo to the mix I can see his poop having that soft but fibrous texture to it. Starting tonight, I am going to test a theory. You see, Nikko's poop is soft and comes out all afternoon. He doesn't have just one movement and he's done with it for the day. It's akin to "leaking" out but not in a liquid form. "Squeaking" out? Hard to describe. But at every diaper change yesterday and today, there was poop. That's not normal. And I am trying to change it by adding or lessening that miralax, which is indeed a LAXATIVE so I have to remember that he will poop more frequently. So what's my theory? When Nikko wakes up, his diaper is poop-free generally, maybe up until lunch. And then he will have continual poops in his diaper throughout the afternoon. I don't want him to poop during preschool, because the kind-hearted Mrs. N has to clean him up. It's not easy wiping that kid, he's 40+ pounds. What I am going to try is switching when I give him miralax. It's usually in the morning, and I have to watch his juice like a hawk to make sure he drinks it all up. Many times he doesn't finish it until almost lunch, and that miralax is either not getting absorbed totally in one sitting so maybe that's causing this slow, dragging poopfest all afternoon. I am going to give him the miralax at dinnertime. In theory, when the body goes to sleep for the night, the digetive system slows down to a crawl. My hope is that the miralax will also slow down in his bowels, possibly working at a slower rate to form. And when it's time for him to wake up, the digestive system kicks into gear and he will poop in the morning. Maybe he will finish his pooping by mid-morning or lunchtime. Hopefully he will not need to poop during the afternoon. And I will reduce the miralax back down from 1/2 a capful to a 1/4 capful, to maybe reduce the frequency but still maintain some softness in his poop so he can pass it. In the morning, I will put at least 1/4 teaspoon of MoPo. I tried the digestive enzyme again this morning but it hardly dissolved in the juice so it looked lumpy. I don't even think Nikko wanted to drink it, and he definitely didn't finish it. At lunch I put a little more MoPo and put a teaspoon of fiber. At snack it was a drug-free cocktail. Then at dinner I put in the 1/2 capful of miralax. I really hope that he doesn't poop in the middle of the night, or that he doesn't poop upon waking up and then reach in to scratch because he feels uncomfortable. I will probably go crazy if he smears his poop in the morning, so I hope to intercept him. I've been setting the alarm for 7a every morning for this very reason, because sometimes he'll pee in his diaper and if it gets full while he's alone in the room, he'll strip. It's happened a few times already. I hope he's not waking too much earlier than 7a, because I don't want to set the alarm for 6:45.

So that's my plan. I hope it works. If it doesn't, then I'll be unplugging Nikko on Saturday or Sunday. Just so you know.