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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Pooey paddling pool. AIBU to ask YOU what to do as I haven't a clue?

35 replies

ViviPru · 07/07/2013 02:08

A child had a runny poo while in our paddling pool this afternoon. Its a fairly large one (the paddling pool I mean). I had been intending to empty it gradually over the course of the week via the joint methods of filling up the watering can and letting a bit gradually drain out from time to time but I feel those options are no longer open to me.

I have no idea what to do with upwards of 700 gallons of faeces infused water less than 3m from the house. None of the parents present offered any real insight on how best to remedy this situation.

I have the fear of the Googles on this one, god alone knows what I'd even put as a search term anyway. AIBU to ask a load of strangers what to do when as a grown woman of sound mind I really ought not only to know what to do, but to have already done it?

OP posts:
BOF · 07/07/2013 02:11

Scoop and bleach.

BillyGoatintheBuff · 07/07/2013 02:13

empty asap surely? yuck. Do you have a manhole cover and access to the sewers can you sort of dump it down their with buckets?

MrsWooster · 07/07/2013 02:14

Use a hose to syphon it into drain? Immerse hose to fill it up, cover end with thumb and take it to a drain lower than the pool and let it go iyswim.

AgentZigzag · 07/07/2013 02:15

Fucked if I know either Grin

It's not just how long the diarrhoea virus/bactaria survives outside the body, but the general shit germs as well.

Is there a swimming pool solution that you'll be OK tipping into the garden?

People with big pools must have some way of keeping them clean, or is it all done with a filter?

Original poster
ViviPru · 07/07/2013 02:18

No there is no accessible drainage nearby. It's all around the front of the house. ASAP would have been preferable, but I was reluctant to spoil what was an otherwise lovely afternoon by getting all OTT about sorting it out there and then, with 15 adults and 8 kids present and looking forward to the imminent barbeque...

I guess it's just going to have to be a bucket-by-bucket job then??

OP posts:
Bogeyface · 07/07/2013 02:19

Could you get a pump to get the water out and use a hose to direct it straight into the drain?

Although I would be inclined to use swimming pool chemicals and then take the water (bucket by bucket if needs be) out and straight into the drain as it is probably cheaper.

MrsWooster · 07/07/2013 02:21

With a long hose just let it drain to road gutter..?

Bogeyface · 07/07/2013 02:22

You have my sympathies btw. After spending 4 hours filling our pool (large deep paddling pool and low water pressure, not a swimming pool!) my DD did a poo in it that missed her swim nappy and disintergrated when I tried to get it out. I had to empty it less than an hour after finishing filling it and start again!

Original poster
ViviPru · 07/07/2013 02:24

We considered the gravitational syphen hose idea but the pool is lower than the nearest drain (which isn't very near) I'd be prepared to tip chemicals into the garden but I'm reluctant to tip the pool out as it is right by the house and the house is slightly downhill from it, and its on a separate smaller patch of grass from the main lawn so less ground to seep into...

OP posts:
Bogeyface · 07/07/2013 02:28

I have had a more honest rethink and I am now fairly sure that I would tip it out, keep the back door closed, bleach the pool once empty and hope for the best!

Original poster
ViviPru · 07/07/2013 02:28

I think maybe Bogeyfaces chemical and bucket suggestion is the way to go.. Thanks for sympathies and all suggestions everyone, I was totally stumped earlier and was thinking 'this MUST happen all the time, there MUST be a universal plan of action for this situation that I'm just not privy to'

OP posts:
Original poster
ViviPru · 07/07/2013 02:31

Ah I would do but you see though BF, if I tip it out, it will run downhill down into our side passage that is semi-indoors and semi out in that it has been roofed and we think of as 'indoors' but not watertight at ground level. Grr. What a bugger.

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 07/07/2013 03:23

See if you can rent a submersible pump and a hose long enough to bring the water around to the drain at the front of the house. Is this the sewer drain or the storm sewer? Don't direct pooey or chemical-contaminated water into the storm sewer. Find where the sewer drain is - that is the one to use. As the water disappears from the pool you can spray with a hose to clean the insides. When you get down to the bottom you can turn off the pump and use buckets and mop. Bleach the insides when the water goes way down.

If you end up using buckets, same advice goes wrt using sewer and not storm sewer.

Fakebook · 07/07/2013 05:48

Ask someone who had a homebirth with a birth pool.

Perhaps scooping the bigger bits and then throwing bleach in there and bucket by bucket down the sink?

Original poster
ViviPru · 07/07/2013 06:06

Oh god Math that all sounds perfectly sensible and wise but renting a pump sounds expensive... I'm usually all for throwing money at the problem (my first thought when the shit hit the proverbial was 'is there a man we can call to sort this? A 24 hour Pro Paddling Pool Poop Eradication service to call on with specialised equipment and chemicals?') but we're particularly skint at the moment and having everyone over yesterday tipped us over the financial edge already.

It seems an extreme solution but I'll look into it, I'm guessing it might be a struggle to find somewhere to hire such equipment on a Sunday, so it would have to wait until Monday... in which case we'd have to make the decision that that is indeed the course of action we'll take without being aware of the potential costs and leave the poop pool a whole 'nother day in the sun. And then run the risk of not being able to find/afford a pump to hire and the poopy pool problem will stare impinging on a busy full-time working week :(

Ironically, I've a £240 unpaid water bill looming large in my to-do list....

OP posts:
Original poster
ViviPru · 07/07/2013 06:09

Fake, there's an interesting point, what do people do with home-birthing pool water?! Confused

OP posts:
Idocrazythings · 07/07/2013 06:32

Can't the pooers parents help with the costs and work?

thegreylady · 07/07/2013 08:02

Do you have a downstairs loo? If so scoop up phooey worst and tip down loo and flush. Maybe set up a relay. When pool is nearly empty tip remainder onto border then disinfect pool with Domestos solution or Milton. Leave empty in sun as long as possible then wipe with more bleach solution then refill and forget about it :-)

Original poster
ViviPru · 07/07/2013 08:18

Ido, under usual circs (very close friends living nearby) I would have no qualms about suggesting the poopy child's parents take on a share of any clean-up work/costs, but the couple had travelled from quite some distance away (and have long since departed now) and mother is physically disabled. They were suitably apologetic, but there was no offer by the father made at the time to clear up, but he was so preoccupied with cleaning up his child (understandably so) that I think it didn't cross his mind. It was a bit of a melee of removing children from the p-pool, consoling said hysterical children and before we knew it the BBQ was ready and the pool forgotten about. (Except by me, bloody thing is PLAGUING my thoughts)

Greylady, there's nothing to scoop out to speak of. It was a runny poo and just dissipated immediately turning the water a bit murky

OP posts:
ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 07/07/2013 08:32

I would stick with your original plan.Unless the poo perpetrator had something exceptionally nasty it will be fine. UV kills lots of stuff anyway.

Justforlaughs · 07/07/2013 08:37

Had a similar thing a couple of weeks ago, when my 4yo submerged under the water and was promptly sick in the pool. We did the whole bucket thing (and next time we put it up, placed the hole right over the manhole cover) Parenting is a learning curve! Grin

insancerre · 07/07/2013 08:41

I would use a smaller jug and scoop the water out by hand into a bucket. Empty each bucket out in to the loo.
It will take a long time but I really wouldn't want dirty water all over my garden
When the pool was empty I would spray and clean the pool with anti-bac.

BreastmilkDoesAFabLatte · 07/07/2013 08:42

I dealt with this one yesterday

We sieved the more solid bits out and scooped the rest out with a bucket before bleaching everything. Poor rubber duckies...

Original poster
ViviPru · 07/07/2013 10:48

Oh I'm heartened to hear so many of us have suffered this problem in some shape or form!

Update - DH and I have bucketed out the majority of the water into the nearest herbaceous border (took AGES and we suffered some wretch-inducing splashback and drips down my wellies - yeauuuch) and tipped the final eighth into the patch of grass the pool was sitting on.

There was a scary moment when the patch of lawn reached saturation point and it started running off towards the side entry passage but luckily it just stopped short of the inside\outside part. A patch of VetBed that had been minding its own business became a victim of the run-off but in the scheme of things that is a minor casualty. The paddling pool (which is a lovely, brand new one I may add) is now drying out in the sun still inflated as suggested and I plan to attack it with the disinfectant later.

Thanks for all your contributions ladies, I felt less alone with all of your advice than I did yesterday evening when all the parents were studiously ignoring the elephant in the garden and no doubt feeling smug they were neither A. the poopy child's parents or B. me Grin

OP posts:
SnoogyWoo · 07/07/2013 10:57

I would have put a couple of small bottles of tea tree oil in there. Then dumped the water.