Dear Noah: one of Noah's favorite activities....

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

one of Noah's favorite activities....

6 comments:

Anonymous said...: I am trying to figure out whose toilet this is. Noah if the price of water gets as high as the price of gasoline a gallon (now $4.09 here) then you would have to find something else to flush.

Love you,
Grandpa; 8:04 AM
Melinda said...: it's the toilets at the park....and I have told him he cannot continue to flush over and over again and how that wastes water.....I do limit him on flushes; 8:06 AM
Anonymous said...: I would start trying to curb this hobby of his-there must be something else. It is just too weird and creepy to see a kid going into public restroom to flush the toilets over and over. Sometimes you just have to say no-and not be afraid of him freaking out-you are just just allowing him to feed his habit that is not ok. If my kid had a friend who went around and loved to flush toilets in every restroom that he sees-I would not let him play with him-because who knows what else it will lead to. Noah is a cute, lovely boy who has LOTS of great things going for him in life-seriously. And maybe I am WAY wrong-maybe you should get advice from a doctor or someone to see if it really IS harmless. I just have visions of him being older and getting into trouble with this because he was never broken of it early on-lurking around bathrooms and doing things he should not be doing. And then there is the germ factor-at least teach him to use his foot to flush! I love your blog and love reading about Noah but this toilet thing just has me bothered.; 11:37 AM
Melinda said...: Anonymous:

First of all let me thank you for your visit and comments.

Everything with the flushing is cool seriously. Noah goes in spurts with his stimming/obsessions and he has not wanted to flush toilets for a long time. He did recently express interest in doing so again.....mostly he goes into a public bathroom only when he has to go and when we are out in them anyway. WHEN IN public bathrooms he only uses and flushes once.....maybe another toilet once....he mostly oogles the toilet models and makes.

I take him to the park for PLAY time though I have informed him he cannot do this all the time and especially when he gets older....he will have to find other things to do....or an outlet to be able to flush toilets and do things with toilets like be a plumber or someone who cleans restrooms..etc.

This is not something he does every day or even every week. He has always loved toilets and has BOOKS on toilets. His obsession with FLUSHING began back in kindergarten and we had to work hard to teach him even then he could not go down there to just PLAY with the toilets all the time.

His obsession recurred again when he began third grade but quickly did eventually fade off and stopped altogether.

I find ways to allow Noah to GET IT OUT OF HIS SYSTEM so to speak...and if simple flushing of toilets somewhere gets this accomplished faster I allow him brief spurts where he can do so.

HE rarely uses his hands to flush....if he does he washes thoroughly.....and he DOES usually flush with his feet.....because trust me....I have explained to him all about the germ factor and toilets!

So all is well. He has not been flushing anywhere now for probably about 2 weeks or more. It is a pretty random thing and he will outgrow it and as he gets older he will know it is not something adults do....I have already had this talk with him.

Again thanks for your visit! ;); 12:08 PM
Melinda said...: oh......I have talked with a doctor about this and they understand GET the reasoning behind allowing him to occasionally have a trip where we go somewhere and he flushes a toilet once or twice. It is no big deal and I am not causing more harm than good by allowing him to do this. In fact....it is just the opposite. The obsession fades pretty quickly when I allow him to visit a public bathroom ONLY WHEN we have to go anyway.....and then flush after going. No big deal....we had to go anyway.

The only time I have allowed him to MULTIPLE flush is at the park bathrooms.....because he is so impressed by them and then I limit his flushes.

Noah does not do anything weird in the restroom....other than flushing...which is a pretty standard behavior in the bathroom...especially after one goes to the bathroom. Again he is aware of how this is NOT considered "normal" behavior and would be frowned upon by someone such as a policeman.....general public.....etc. We have already talked about this.

I guess I made it sound like he has to go to the bathrooms everywhere we go and stand for hours flushing. It is not like that......really. The park was 1 time so far....where I allowed him multiple flushes of FIVE toilets to get it out of his system. It worked. No more visits!; 12:12 PM
Melinda said...: oh I also do not have any problems telling Noah no....just ask him ;)

and to each kid his own. What works for one child and what you think might be best...may not work for Noah. I know what works after 9 years living with him...so again ...no worries really ;); 12:15 PM

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