7Yr Old Afraid of the Bathroom

Little kids are so funny with their fears & thought processes. He may be more afraid of people walking by hearing the tinkle, or of the door accidentally opening, etc. When you go to pick him up maybe go in the bathroom with him while he uses it. (Or stand outside the door). By having mom nearby to guard the door maybe he'll re-learn the process and feel more confident.

I remember having a deathly fear that someone would open the bathroom door while I was in there (we had a single bathroom outside each classroom that faced the hall). I would only use the bathroom if I was horribly desprate.... I eventually got over that but sometime the way the bathrooms are laid out is just poorly planned by men with a blueprint who apparently have no memory of being a little kid at school....!

-he needs to be taken to the bathroom, by an adult, who will wait outside-this has to be repeated with great frequency-like once/hour for an entire day of school to begin the desensitization process. As bizarre as his irrational fear is-he needs to balance it with disproportionate modification of his behavior.-and reinforcement. Phobias are treatable and curable-it just takes time and successful repetition. Good luck getting the help at school.

I went through something similar with my DD. For a while, when I could I went to pick her up and casually told her to use the bathroom before we left. Like NY Metro said, making it not a big deal and having her use it while I was waiting for her eased her over the hump. It still took a while and she still (12 now!) avoids using the school bathroom but CAN use it if she needs to.

my daughter is terrified of the soap dispenser at school. It squirted her in the face because the nozzle was stopped up with dried soap and it shot her on the cheek. So the first week she refused to wash her hands. I had to send her, her own personal bar of soap for the first week. I eventually bought a couple different dispensers and used them at home and rewarded her with stickers every time she used one with out my prompting. It finally worked after a few more weeks, and now I can stop sending the travel container of Dial everywhere she goes. :)

I was expecting it to be that he was afraid of the autoflush. My DD will stand as far as she can with her hands over her ears to get away from it. It really freaks her out.

What is his fear, specifically? The noise or that he won't know what to do? Find out that and go from there. If it's not knowing what to do, his teacher can explain how to leave the building and find them in an emergency. If it's that the fire alarm was loud, then maybe offer him earplugs to take to the bathroom.

In the meantime, just make sure he goes before school and when you pick him up and don't feed the fear.