What To Do When Your Kid Poops In The Bath

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Personally I like hearing the rain and usually sleep much better. There's just something about that rain soaked air. We didn't do a whole lot (I was able to find some time to get together with an old buddy from junior high and we smoked some salmon), but we did have quite the event on Sunday night.  

If you haven't figured it out yet from the title there's going to be some poop talk.  

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

For the most part Sunday was a normal weekend day for us. Playing around the house, watching some football, etc. The only weird thing was that Jack was pooping like a machine! He didn't poop at all on Saturday and he had a bunch of fruit all weekend so I figured he was emptying out. Sunday night is typically a bath night for Jack. Our normal schedule in the evening is to eat by 6 p.m., get Jack into the bath by 6:30 p.m. (every other day), out of the bath by 7 p.m.  and into bed at 7:30 p.m..

So I got Jack's bath ready, got him undressed and put him in. He was playing with the bubbles from the bubble bath and I was like, "What's that smell?"  His diaper had a couple of streaks in it so I tied up the garbage bag it was in and put it outside the door for Jack to take to the front door later (that's his chore).  

It was still stinky in there! So I'm now wondering what it is. Immediately I start thinking, "Oh no, I bet he pooped in there!" Luckily, I like to expect things and am constantly going through worst case scenarios in my head. I slowly pushed away the bubbles so I could get a better look at the bottom of the tub. Sure enough, there was poop in there! I immediately yelled to my wife Leslie and then we proceeded to get things back in order. So here are my tips for when your kid poops in the bath (it will happen at some point):

1) IDENTIFY THE POOP

The first thing to do if you smell poop while your child is in the tub you need to find it. If you have bubbles in the tub you're going to need to push them aside so you can get a clear look at the botom. The back of the tub usually has less bubbles in it so check there and if clear, move the kid there while you look further up. If you see poop move to number 2 (couldn't resist). 

2) DON'T PANIC

It's just a little poop, yes it's gross, but we've all probably done worse when we were little. Getting all crazy will just make your little one more uncomfortable than he/she is will be in a few mins.

3) GET THE KID OUT OF THE WATER

No brainer here. Call for some backup, pull the kid out of the water, dry him off, wrap him up in the towel (same towel) and have the backup distract him for 5-10 mins. 

4) DRAIN THE TUB

Hit the drain on the tub and go get a bowl (I used an older piece of tupperware). The thing about poop is that "good" poop should sink to the bottom. If the poop is at the bottom of the tub you at least know you are feeding him decently. Anyway, take the bowl and scoop the poop into it once the water starts to get to a low enough level. Dump the poop in the toilet and flush it away.

5)  CLEAN LIKE A MADMAN

Grab those cleaning supplies and start cleaning! Here's my approach, but use whatever you normally use. I first put the shower on as hot as it would go and gave a good rinse to the tub. After the rinse I took an abrasive cleaner, sprinkled it throughout the tub and scrubbed it out. I then rinsed it again. For the final bit I sprayed it down with a bleach based counter cleaner, rinsed again, and sprayed one last time with Meyer's to make it smell better than bleachy poop.

6) START OVER

Hopefully you have enough hot water left to fill another bath tub. We started to run out towards the end, but by that time it was time for Jack to get out anyway. He wasn't happy his bath got shortened, but at least he was clean and all evidence of poopiness was cleaned up.

So there you go. This is one of those things nobody really teaches you about when you become a parent. Kind of like taking a diaper waste bag when you take your baby in for the first doctor visit or that the stupid blue ball is a waste of time.  I'll tell you about the snot sucker thing we use in another post, as you've probably been grossed out enough by now.