Poop in the tub -- what to do?

Believe it or not, my kids are 18 months and today was the first time someone has pooped in the tub. (Sarah had not had a poop all day, so I knew we were taking a risk, but they had to have a bath!)

I yanked Amy out of the tub (figuring that I'd dry her, then remove the poop, let the water out, and wash Sarah again under running water), but while I was drying Amy, Sarah started playing with the poop (of course -- it floats!). So I yanked her out too, let her just sit there wet & naked while I dried Amy, then dried Sarah, then removed the poop. (Fortunately, they were rock-hard poops, so I could just scoop them out with my hand. :bad: ) And now they are in bed and the tub is getting bleached.

If you're bathing yours by yourself and this happens, what do you do?

 

This has happened to me on several occasions. What you did is what I have done. I remove the child who didn't poop and clean them up. I have yet to have the other one start to play with the poop. Right now they both get upset that poop is in the tub so I have lucked out there. I then rinse off the "pooper" and bleach the tub down.
Amy

 

We only have had that happen once as well. I have robes for the girls so I just grabbed them both out and put their robes on. Then I took them to the shower in the other bathroom and cleaned them off.

Unfortunately, our "poop" was not solid and it didn't occur to me that I should scoop it out so I just let the water out of the tub. It clogged the drain though so that was a lesson learned.

 

Yes - it happened to us several times! I can laugh about it now... There's something about being naked and in water that seemed to trigger the poop for about 6 months there.

Both of mine would get upset about the "foreign object(s)". I would pull them both out, attempt to put a hooded towel on them (which invariably fell off), hurriedly drain the tub, scoop out as much poop as possible, dump some Comet cleanser (it has chlorine) on tub and toys, scrub and rinse tub and toys, then put kids back into the tub if we weren't done w/ the bath. When I was alone when this happened, the "real problem" was that the kids ran around the house wet and naked - no one to make sure they were safe; so I learned to shut the door to keep them in. I also had to stop them from "helping" me clean the tub.

After a few times, you get amazingly good at disinfecting a tub and toys while keeping 2 wet toddlers within arms reach! This is one of those "twin accomplishments" that you just can't talk about anywhere but here!

 

Yep, that's about right. Get them out and clean it up.

But one thing I think is very important is: remain calm. Once Jade pooped in the tub and grandma went into a tizzy and Jade was afraid to bathe for about a month.

Just get them out, clean the tub, if you need to rinse hair or whatever either do it in the sink or the shower, and just don't even mention the poopy.

 

A common occurence in my household . . . I think the warm water triggers something in Elliot and makes him poop, even if he just pooped 10 minutes earlier (Clarissa has never done this). He actually just did it in the splash pool too. I've gotten pretty good at getting kids out and cleaned up, tub cleaned up, and everyone back in to finish the bath. After the first 2 or 3 times I guess I just got used to it, so it's not such a big deal anymore.

I now keep the potty chairs by the tub when they're having a bath, but we're just beginning potty training so it hasn't helped yet.

The funniest thing is that Clarissa loves to announce "Elliot poop in tub" at totally random times.

-Rachel

 

I think it has happened twice to us. Once when they were babies and once in the past 6 months. I agree with PP. I did it in this order: remove babies, remove poop, drain water and clean thoroughly later. Luckily last time it happened the only body part in water at that time were feet and that was easy enough to wash and rinse elsewhere.

 

A cat litter scoop is great to fish out the poop from the tub. My son pooped just about every day in the tub when he was a baby. My girls have only done it a couple of times.

 

Ah, the good moments. LOL Aiden has pooped in the tub twice, and coincidentally Noah was already out. Aiden hates it and freaks out. The first time my DH was there, and Aiden handed it to him. hahahaha The second time I pulled Aid out of the bath, cleaned him up, and then clean the bath. [plastic baggie over my hand to scoop out the poop, and then a lot of bleach and soap]