Underwear!

The short:
I put Nikko in underwear today, for the first time ever, and sent him to school.

I felt like having a heart attack.

He came home dry. His aide reported that he remained dry all day but used the toilet at the appropriate times. He kind of pulled on them a little during the day, but not too bad.

HOORAY!!!!

The long:
There were two reasons why I put Nikko in underwear.
1.) He gets sweaty. As of late, after lots of running around he would come up to me saying, "Change my diaper." I'd take him to the bathroom expecting that he already peed in his pull-up, but they'd be dry. He'd also be frustrated because he didn't need to pee; he just wanted to take off his sweaty pull-up. This was also happening in school, and with warmer weather on the horizon I could see that frustration would build up tenfold.
2.) Before the San Francisco trip, I chatted with Karin the Speech Therapist about Nikko's potty training. She highly suggested that I put him in underwear as a way to help his speech. I'm sure I looked at her with exasperation and dread. It wasn't so much the peeing, but the fact that Nikko doesn't have consistent bowel movements and is prone to eeking out poop smears preceding a backup was/is a constant source of anxiety for me. Karin pointed out that putting Nikko in underwear was akin to moving up to the next level of speech, where he would/should start communicating independently that he would need to go to the bathroom since I currently take him at scheduled times ("scheduled" meaning within 30-45 minutes of the last time I saw him drink juice, or at least on the hour every hour he's at home). Nikko may also not like the feeling of wet underwear and could/would ask to be changed. That is the hope!

Yesterday the temperature was in the mid-60's and Nikko was sweaty at school. Therefore, I decided to put him in underwear today to jumpstart my fears of the above two reasons. And he did great. The aide was very excited for this new development. I'm extremely pleased that he didn't have any accidents in school, and I hope he'll continue this way. I think that when he has signs of gassiness is when I'll determine when to help him out on the toilet ("help" meaning to use a suppository), which will hopefully reduce/eliminate any chances of seeing poop smears in his underwear.

Today seemed to be a good day for Nikko overall.
OT notes: Good session. Participated in warm ups, practiced writing 1st name and last name - did well, worked on more detailed drawing and then did spelling sight words on iPad. 

Later in the afternoon, they wrote about a Lucky Day. Aide: "Nikko said he wanted to write rainbow. I drew first ring of rainbow, Nikko did the rest!"

Nikko also did well in his discrete trials. He did a fantastic job counting, according to his aide. His notes also said that he mastered two skills: Body Parts #2 and Sight Words #2.