Is there such a thing as a toilet seat pee deflector?

January 9, 2013 2:37 PM

Warning: this question involves icky bodily fluids. Read at your own peril. My (now adult) autistic son if fine with using the bathroom unprompted on his own, but I have one recurring issue for which there must be a solution.

He only urinates sitting down, and I will frequently walk into his bathroom only to discover a puddle of urine at the base of the toilet. I am positive this is happening because he is not aware enough to "aim" downwards while sitting, and so the urine flow is striking the top edge of the toilet bowl and then running down the front side of the toilet and onto the floor. I have tried searching for a solution, but I have no idea what keywords to use. "Urine shield" seemed promising but did not yield any useable results. Basically I am looking for something that I can affix to the inside front edge of the toilet seat in order to guide the urine downwards into the bowl. Does this thing I am imagining actually exist, or do I need to somehow invent it myself?

posted by Lokheed to home & garden (11 answers total)

Something like these is what you want.
posted by Tanizaki at 2:39 PM on January 9

...and this one specifically says that it extends down to close the gap between seat and toilet. You could probably dremel off (and smooth out) the upper shield if it's too high-profile.
posted by jquinby at 2:53 PM on January 9

I don't think it would be too difficult to fabricate exactly what you want with a plastic milk jug and a few small wood screws.
posted by stephennelson at 3:11 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]

here is an ableware splash guard that is under $12. We used these when the clients at the residential facilities I managed went on outings. works on any seat, cleans up easy and is portable.

CDM
posted by Country Dick Montana at 4:36 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]

Thank you for the tips. Unfortunately I don't think any of those devices will work exactly, partly because the part that rises up would be uncomfortable for him to straddle over when sitting, and partly because it would become a potential distraction to him (I.E. - something that obvious, he would probably just pull off). Those designs did give me some ideas on how to construct something on my own, though.
posted by Lokheed at 7:59 PM on January 9

Seeing as the main purpose of the bottom part of the toilet seat lifting at all is to facilitate peeing while standing, just fill the gap between the bowl and top seat with caulk. Alternatively, attach a piece of weatherstripping big enough to fill the gap to the bottom of the seat.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 8:40 PM on January 9

You could try a trial with some duct tape to see if closing the gap helps.
posted by dottiechang at 9:46 PM on January 9

Tyler - other people need to use that toilet as well, so affixing the seat permanently closed is not an option. Also, sealing the seat shut would make cleaning the toilet more difficult.
posted by Lokheed at 5:20 AM on January 10

A raised toilet seat may help. The added thickness of the seat should prevent streams from escaping the toilet, and some also come with a built in splash guard.
posted by orme at 7:04 AM on January 10 [1 favorite]

I wound up going with a solution that was unobtrusive and did not require attaching or removing a specialized device. Basically I put weatherstripping on the underside of the toilet seat. If anyone stumbles across this question in the future, you can see step-by-step instructions on my blog describing exactly what I did. This solution has been in place for several days now, with a 100% success rate. Yay for weatherstripping!
posted by Lokheed at 6:10 AM on January 16

Nice! If you need something wider than weather stripping, maybe to hang down a bit past the edge of the bowl, a short skirt of vinyl and some hot glue would probably do the trick as well.
posted by jquinby at 6:41 AM on January 16