Toilets and Todlers

[Robert Fenster]

My 1.5 year old dropped a hotel sized shampoo bottle into the toilet as my 4 year old was flushing.

Despite diving at the bowl, the plasitc bottle went down. (you never expect in your life to dive at a toilet to keep something from going down....)

Our current symptoms are the water in the bowl does not really flush. Eventually, water drains, but the toilet is not functional.

My question is this: do i want to try a plunger or a snake to push the bottle through, or do i want to remove the bowl to extract the bottle.

Pushing it through maybe easier from the top side, however, where is that bottle going to end up? Will it cause me more trouble in the future?

Thanks,

Robert Fenster

[~^Johnny^~]

[Pop]

Agreed, but first, if it isn't too late, a few good, healthy pulls with a water-filled plunger just might be enough to suck it back up where you can reach it. With plenty of water inthe toilet: Just press the plunger around the toilet gently, to get the air out of it, filling it with water, and give it a good, healthy, HARD pull UP! Depending on whether it wedged there or not, sometimes that's enough to pull it up where it's accessible. Be careful: don't whack a hole in the ceiling when it breaks the suction loose! My two cents anyway; it's worked twice on light items; not sure about a full bottle of shampoo even if it is one of those little ones. You might also use a coat hangar as a hook to pull around in there if it's reachable at all.

Otherwise, get a new wax ring & pull the toilet.

IF it does go all the way down, it'll be headed for bigger pipes, so chances are it'll go all the way, but best not to chance it if you don't have to.

HTH,

Pop

[CL (dnoyeB) Gilbert]

im thinking bite the bullet and get the thing out. You never know what else is stuck in that pipe just waiting on something else to wedge in there together and have you calling the local plumber who needs to bust a hole in yoru wall to do the extraction. You can imagine all sorts of stuff if it goes down. But if you get it out the top, it may be a headache, but you can rest assured that the job is done.

Be sure to take pictures and put them into the safety deposit box with the college fund. Taht way you can bill him when he gets older and he cant refute it :P

[Robert Fenster]

I can not blame the boy... he actually flushed that time. Most of the time, he doesn't !

It's the girl with the bad timing in this case.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Best to retrieve it. If you are fortunate, it is in the neck of the toilet or just at the flange. Turn off the water, disconnect the toilet, remove the two nuts hold it down, and lift it off. If you are lackey, you will see the bottle and be able to remove it. You need a new wax seal and reveres the procedure to re-install.

If you push it down, it may block something down further and be much more expensive to remove.

[Doug Kanter]

Only when you have a house full of guests and only one bathroom. :-)

[nospambob]

[Doug Kanter]

[Doug Kanter]

Question about a different size toilet criminal: Do bigger-than-toddler girls or women also use that bathroom? Do they leave the toilet seat up like other females? Just as I thought. You know the shelf over the toilet? Remove it and hang a nice picture that's at least 6" wider than the toilet bowl. It's not a question of IF someone will knock something small into the toilet, it's WHEN.

The shampoo bottle is just the beginning.

[Doug Kanter]

Can't touch that culprit. It's usually the wife. However, she might need a spanking for placing the little bottles where the kiddies could get hold of it.