bathing-older child

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My AS daughter is 11 and does well mainstreamed in school. She has been bathing herself for quite sometime. We have always had an issue though with her destroying bath/body/hair products. She can't keep herself from dumping entire bottles of lotion, shower gel, powder, etc in the tub w/ her or randomly down the sink drains. Most recent she has been peeling the tub caulk & eating/chewing it (yes, I have called poison control) . She is far too old for me to bath her. We only have 1 bath right now, we are building. She is supposed to get her own bath when we are finished & then I am thinking about having the room completely void of "products" & setting out a daily allotment of single serving bath/body items each new day.

Does anyone have suggestions or similar situations?

I had a friend with a daughter a little older than yours (also on the spectrum) who did this same thing of putting all of the bathing products in the bathtub. It almost drove her crazy as well. I don't think (?) she ate the caulk, but that could have been a possibility as well.

I think that if this were happening to me, the only alternative would be to sit in the bathroom with her until she is done bathing. All of our kids on the spectrum are behind in maturity, and until they mature, we have to do things to care for them that last beyond the norm with other neuro-typical kids. You can't be constantly paying for new bathing products, and your daughter just has to be watched until she has learned not to throw things into the tub with her. She also really needs to be watched until she stops eating toxic stuff. She may reach a point where she is embarrassed enough by your presence in the bathroom where she stops doing these things.

I have no experience with that kind of kid. Only the little ones. Dumping water from a bottle or cup is fun. And educational for the little ones. Conservation concepts and all that. I've heard that blowing bubbles is good for speech therapy. Would it be bad to let an eleven-year-old have bath toys?

As for the toxic stuff, I don't know.

If you are building new, then use silicone caulk that is basically invisible. It should be put on thinly too and I have to agree with sitting with her while she bathes to keep her company. Heck, I used to sit on the toilet seat and talk to my Mom every time she took a bath. It was like our 'time' together to chat - just the two of us. My bff and her sister STILL will do that when they visit each other - like special bonding time and that's with no disorder going on there.

give her hotel size shampoos, etc. Refill as needed. that way she can't waist more than what's in there.

when I was a kid there was this product-soap thing that turned to foam
it was awesome-it was like silly string but turned into foam
but it was great

Maybe your daughter was just trying to clean out the pipes with that stuff so that she doesn't have to live in a house with yucky pipes.

My AS son J is 10, I still have to sit with him in the bathroom. If I don't nothing gets done, he just sits there or he will play for hours and hours (if I let him) with his bath toys.
He has cups and bottles for pouring stuff, he has a little liquid soap in a pump bottle to make bubbles or do what ever with (face it some of that stuff is pretty to watch when your tipping it upside down and pouring it out, it also does cool stuff like make bubbles. Its all a little like a lava lamp) J also has bath flutes-I found them in the baby section (I would never tell him this) at our local supermarket. You fill each flute with water to a different level and it makes a different sound, they also came with water proof music sheets that stick to the tub walls. He has the standard soldiers, dinosaurs, lizards etc.
J doesnt wash himself unless I specifically go threw each and every body part with him.

Perhaps your daughter is trying to do the right thing, and use just a portion of the products but is having a hard time measuring this out and pouring it for herself. Perhaps she is accidently pouring too much and then trying to get rid of the left overs.-Just a thought.

Here's something you can do. Buy a bunch of travel-sized bottles of bath products: shampoo, liquid soap, shower gel, etc. Most pharmacies and larger grocery stores sell them. Each time your daughter takes a bath, fill up a small bottle from the normal-sized bottle. This way, if you daughter pours the whole thing down the drain, it will only be a small amount.

If I were you I would just be in the bathroom with her as she baths so I can stop her when she starts doing it. If she doesn't like having her mother in there with her, tough luck, she should learn how to control her actions and not do it. Or just take all those bottles out of there she doesn't need to that when she baths, she won't use it all up.

no real experience with this only with my 3 year old who has tendancies to dump bottles full of stuff but i agree with many of theother posters in suppplying her with travel sized bottles, put a little bit od shampoo soap etc in them adn let her have those.
or perhaps if it is an issue with portion control (for lack of a better term) they have shampoos and conditioners with pumps liek soap bottles pehaps a one pump rule with something liek that.
and perhaps let her have some containers or cups in ther so she can fill them up and dump them out something about pouring water out is very relaxing.
just my 2 cents.

Thanks everyone. I have been sitting in the bath with her. It is actualy a good excuse (time) to clean the bathroom while I am there.

I think I will def use sample sizes & refill when she is in her own bath. Untill then I am just trying to keep everything out of reach.

I let my child (9) play for a while, then I go in and direct his washing. (As far as I know he isn't eating the culking though.)

I'd put the shampoo and conditioner and soap out of reach and just leave cool stuff to play with.

I get all my bathroom cleaning done when I have the 2 year old in there.

I remind him what to wash and then I do his hair for him and wrap him in the towel.

Same with my 9-year-old. He does a great job of washing, but if I don't redirect him, he will take all day to bathe. Drying is another story all together.

Usually my son is OK in the shower, because he just loves the water. But any other time, give him a tube of anything. He CANNOT help but squeeze it out. If I find an empty tube that I know was once full, you can bet it was him.