another pottying question (sensation)

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My son (age 5) is potty trained and has been for a little over a year if I recall correctly. He has this lingering issue that I'm not sure is an ASD thing or not. He knows how to go and poop, but at times, he'll tell me that he thinks he has a stain in his underwear, he'll go in the bathroom to check and then call out that yes, it is there. (Sometimes it isn't but 9 times out of 10 it is.) He needs me to fetch him some clean undies. Sometimes this is happening three times a day. When I question him about it, he says that he can't feel it come out. I'm guessing, he can't feel the sensation of just a little bit coming out, but he can definitely tell when he has to go for real. He doesn't have any similar urination problems.

Does this situation sound familiar to anyone? Is this an ASD specific problem? Should he outgrow it?

I can't remember who said it but not too long ago, a parent posted here about telling their young (I think about 5-7 yo) ASD son, "Never trust a fart!" and although the gist of the thread was that the kid repeated the adivce to his teacher at school it got the point across to the child that any sensation should be treated like it is the "real thing".

Don't know if it's the same thing, but I had a friend who's son had encopresis. Does this sound like the same thing?

Perhaps he's just not "finished" then? Or is to engrossed in other stuff to go as soon as he needs to, leaving it all till the last minute.

Just tossing around some ideas.

That sounds exactly like my son and he had/has encopresis. But my son had constapation. I wonder if its possible your son is not going "completely" and he has hard stool remaining.
The doctor told us that the child can't feel the leakage and its totally out of their control. The doctor prescribed a mild laxative that we used for a "clean out" then the dosage was reduced for a period of time for "maintenance". and eventually we will go off it completely.
Our son has some control issues with the potty anyway so this has been a struggle.

No, it isn't that he hasn't emptied completely from another movement. He actually needs to empty his bowels, but it seems as if he has several false starts throughout the day until he 'feels' it and goes to the bathroom for real. Just today we went through three pairs of underwear until I said enough, and told him to put on his disposable training pants he usually wears at night.

His stools are always soft and easy to pass. Also, he has no control issues about the toilet that I'm aware of. It took him a good while to be trained, but he was never under high pressure by anyone to go.

My kiddo would worry about potty things endlessly when he was getting used to being potty trained. He still has a fear of a stain being in his underwear. If even a drop of pee gets on his undies, he wants to change them. I think it just super grosses him out for some reason. Maybe you kiddo is worried/anxious about that too?

I think there is a bit of anxiety, but I think it is for good reason. When he thinks there is a stain, there usually is one. I'm not talking about a drop, but a decent sized stain.

We kept a basket of clean undies by the toilet. If he wanted to change them, they were right there. Maybe knowing that a clean pair is available will help decrease the anxiety?

i was just going to suggest the wiping check, too. my NT 7 yo has perpetually stained underwear, and its from simply not wiping well enough (or at all ). flushable wipes help, but only if the child is diligent enough to use them well.

incidentally, we also have the opposite problem in our aspie, he took it to heart when told by his stepmother at the age of 4 to wipe until he was clean. 10 years later and every BM still takes him 15 minutes and half a roll of toilet paper. no amount of reasoning will change his behavior. im gonna have to institute a TP tax on his allowance soon.

No, wiping is not the problem, because I still do it for him. Every time his behind is wiped clean. There is fresh, moist stool there when the next incident happens.