Skip to main content

The only "trick" I've learned to keep my poop somewhat contained is putting toilet paper on top of the water. Unfortunately with loose poop, with bearing down hard, with gas launching poop at supersonic speeds, it splashes hard onto the water and ends up on top, underneath and around the toilet seat, back and bowl. I use wipes to clean each time but frankly the residue too often doesn't show up until later when it dries out. Not ideal but it's been okay. However, now I've got my daughter, son-in-law and their soon to be born twins moving in with us for a year or so; I'm concerned about the twins health. I can of course be extra careful, wipe each and every time with Clorox wipes but I'd like to know just how big a health deal it is to be exposed to a little bit of someone else's poop. I have to believe it happens in normal households on a regular basis in some form or another. Can anybody offer any words of wisdom? Is a little poop a health hazard to infants?

Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

If you don't have an infectious disease it's entirely a comfort/cleanliness issue rather than a health issue. Even with an infectious disease the infectious organism generally has to get in a person's mouth to cause an infection. I know this is yucky, and some of you wish you hadn't read this far. In any case, the folks most at risk are those that don't scrub their hands after using the toilet. Just sitting on this stuff or even handling it doesn't cause disease. Young children are much more likely to not wash their hands adequately, but they are still much more at risk from public toilets than from toilets used by just a few people. IMO your current cleanliness measures are quite adequate. If you develop signs of an infection, that's a different story.

Keeping the toilet clean definitely became a greater chore after I got my J Pouch.  Some of the suggestions made here are good ones.  As far as stool on the seat, I don't think in most cases it poses a health issue but rather a cleanliness and hygiene issue.  That being said it's still a good idea to use hand sanitizer afterwards and I always keep a bottle of Purell around for me and my guests, if I have any over to my condo.  When I have overnight guests I clean all my toilets scrupulously and meticulously.  I like Pine Sol for this task, as it leaves the toilets with a fresh odor of cleanliness.

 

Having a toilet with a very powerful flush also helps.  The toilet in my master bathroom double flushes, and I kind of like it, even though I probably did something incorrectly in installing the toilet flush valve. A master plumber I am not, but sometimes a bumbling self-repair leads to an unexpectedly positive result.

Last edited by CTBarrister

I keep a bottle of Lysol All Purpose Spray next to my toilets. Any splatter that hits the bowl edge or seat gets sprayed and wiped with toilet paper before flushing. That keeps it as sanitary as possible. I used to use bleach spray, but I found I was getting bleach spots on my clothes from time to time. I don't like to use those premoistened wipes because they are not flushable (even if they say they are) and they dry out if you don't keep it perfectly sealed. Plus, if you toss them in the open wastebasket, the kids could get into it.

 

Hand washing is the single most important thing anyone can do to prevent cross contamination and passing of infections. But, we do not need to be in a sterile world and kids need exposure to everyday germs for their immune systems to develop. So, keep it clean, but don't make yourself crazy about it.

 

Jan

So far some very helpful responses. Pine Sol or Lysol does make sense and both do smell "fresh". Scott F, your explanation was particularly enlightening. Considering ten of millions of people living, surviving, without the kind of sanitation facilities we take for granted I thought it wasn't any kind of health threat. Still, I'll remind people to wash their hands. Jan, thank you as always. 

The j-pouch "backsplash" is one of my every day annoyances. I find I'm constantly cleaning the toilet seat and bowl.  When I visit friends and family, I always check for the dreaded splash and then clean the toilet if necessary (wiping with TP if I'm at someone else's home), as I won't leave a mess like that for friends and family to deal with.

 

However, I have over the years come up with a couple of tricks that help keep toilet clean at home. After I flushing, I spray the bowl with Tilex Fresh Shower or a similar product. I actually prefer the Method Daily Shower spray ( https://well.ca/products/metho...wer-spray_33336.html ) as it smells less like a cleaning product and is supposed to be more environmentally friendly. This seems to keep the backsplash from sticking to the bowl and it rinses away more easily when you flush the next time, hence cutting down on the number of times you actually have to get in and scrub the bowl. 

 

If I'm at someone else's place, I will also lay a row of toilet paper down on the back of the seat and fold it under just slightly. This helps to catch any mess.

 

I'm also lucky enough to still have an older toilet in my condo. Although the newer low flow toilets use as much as 3x less water, I find the flush is not powerful enough to rinse away the mess. I loathe the low flow toilets my parents have at their home for that reason alone.  Unfortunately I will probably have to replace my good old power flush in the near future as my condo corp may start mandating low flow toilets to cut down on water consumption. I'm generally an environmentalist first - this is the one area where I don't feel guilty slacking!

Last edited by Spooky

A *partial* (and expensive) solution to this problem is the Toto Washlet bidets that have the "e-Water" feature. This feature sprays down the bowl as you walk up to it, which dramatically reduces anything sticking to the bowl. This does nothing, though, for splashes on the underside of the toilet seat or along the inside of the bowl rim. OTOH for some reason I'm *much* more comfortable wiping these areas than the bowl itself.

This is really interesting, as I'd forgotten toilets in the USA have a different design - I'm about to go back on holiday there next week and won't look forward to this! I think I'm right in saying yours have a kind of shelf, which is covered in water? Ours still have water, but much further down, and in a smaller area. Some toilet paper is usually enough to stop the splashing.

Add Reply

Post
Copyright © 2019 The J-Pouch Group. All rights reserved.
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×