Icheb wrote:
Hm, don't know if this is relevant, but as a kid I was scared of the sound of the toilet flushing. My mother would tell me I should flush first, then wash my hands and then leave the bathroom, but I couldn't bring myself to do that. I would wash my hands, unlock the door, stretch out my arm as far as it would go, flush the toilet, yank open the door, jump outside and close it quick to cut off the noise of the flushing.
My son went through that, too.
There can apparently be dozens of sensory and fear issues associated with a bathroom. All very, very real - regardless of how silly they may seem to us.
I would suggest that your son's issue lies somewhere in that room, and you'll need to identify and the mitigate the issue before you can make any progress.
Your son is probably a little old for this, but when my son was 3 he went though a phase of only wanting to pee against a certain tree in our side yard (an idea he picked up on a park outing with other little boys). But maybe you can brainstorm other alternatives to the dreaded bathroom and see if any click. That could be a lead in to discovering what the real problem is.
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Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).