Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Help! My toddler flushed the cardboard toilet paper roll down the toilet!

Okay, I am really not sure what to do about this one. The monkey was on the toilet taking a poo. The good news is that she is somewhat toilet trained (still has the occasional accident, but no more diapers). The bad news is that I ran to get something in the other room, and I heard the monkey saying, "Oh no!". When this comes from a toddler it is usually bad news. So I run back to find my daughter with a concerned look on her face, saying, "I flushed it down the toilet mummy!" Further questioning ensued and she tells me that she flushed "the whole roll" down the toilet. The bowl is empty and all of the poo and toilet paper appeared to have gone down just fine. In spite of the grossness factor, I reached in to see if I could get the thing out, assuming it might have gotten stuck in the pipe somewhere. There was nothing within reach for me to take out. A few test flushes seem to have gone down just fine, though I haven't tried actually using the thing. We have another toilet that we can use instead, so this isn't an emergency situation.

My question is though, what the hell, if anything should I be doing about this? Can I just let it be and assume that it will eventually dissolve? Is this a problem that requires immediate attention? If the toilet continues to flush, can I just forget about it? Any suggestions would be most appreciated.