Amanda Booth is getting incredibly vulnerable on Instagram, crowdsourcing advice for how to best help her son. The model and mom of one shares 10-year-old Micah with husband Mike Quinones, and their son is going through a bit of a “regression.”
Micah, who has Down syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), is refusing to sit or stand in front of a toilet. “He just closes the lid and wants to walk away,” the actress said in a video. This is despite years of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy and using a reward system.
“He holds it and will go hours and throughout the school day, seven hours straight, without going,” she said.
The only place Micah will go to the bathroom is in the shower. Even though he’s nonverbal, Booth says Micah has “effective communication” to let people know he has to go to the bathroom. He just won’t go in the “appropriate place.” And so she’s asking parents of nonverbal and neurodivergent children for guidance.
“Has anyone else gone through this?” she asked her nearly 90 thousand followers. “Because it’s causing him a lot of discomfort and I really don’t know how to make that transition for him.”
She reiterated the message in her caption and asked, “Do you have any feedback? Help!”
Followers were quick to offer suggestions:
“Can you put a training toilet In The shower? And get him comfortable trying that and slowly move it out of the shower?”
“I know that he likes water, could a bidet work? As a transition to sit on the toilet.”
“Have you tried a urinal? You can get them to attach to the wall with a hose that goes into a bucket. It might be just ‘different’ enough for him to try.”
Other parents explained that their children have a fear of falling into the toilet, so having a travel toilet or potty training seat to put on top of the larger one has been key.
Other parents are working on creating more positive associations with the toilet by letting their kids sit on the closed toilet to watch a show on their iPad or creating songs and dances that they do in the bathroom.
“I feel like a nut with my pee party songs and dance, but it feels better than yelling or crying 😉,” one parent said.
As for parents and caregivers who didn’t have advice — they were so appreciative of Booth and her vulnerability:
“Amanda you’re such a beautiful mother to your boy. I just want to send you my solidarity from my equally tired heart ❤️ … I’ve slipped into the ‘I guess it’s not for [my daughter]autis, not right now’ ideology because pushing for her to use the potty has become exhausting,” one person shared. ” … I see your big heart in this big ask for help. Thank you for leading us in courage – I will be you in not very long, and I’ll be so thankful you asked this question so I could hear an answer.”
“I’m in the same boat but just wanted to offer solidarity to you as u get how tough it is!” another added. ” … I wish I had the answers 💙💛💟”
Booth has spoken in the past about how she hopes there will be more open conversations about kids with special needs — even if that means a vulnerable Instagram post about toileting.
“For so long, the disabilities community was shunned because people thought that’s what you should do. ‘Don’t stare, don’t whisper. Don’t talk about this person with a limb difference. Don’t talk about this person who wears their disability on their face, like Down syndrome,’” she said. “Now, as parents, we’re like, ‘No, let’s talk about it. Hey, are you curious?’ Like, ‘Hey, kid at the park, come and ask me why my kiddo is stimming or doing these different things and I can tell you about autism and you can learn something.’”
Before you go, check out these celebrity parents who have opened up about raising kids with disabilities.
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