This video shows how Mike Carr has used and modified P Guard to eliminate messes in the bathroom when his severely autistic son uses the toilet. Mike and Kay Carr are the founders of Autism Labs and parents of Michael, their thirty-three-year-old son with low-functioning autism. With the help of the University of Texas Special Ed & Speech Departments, Kay and Mike have researched and implemented effective at-home systems to promote Michael’s safety, communication, and independence, including strategies for autistic toilet training.
Finding Bathroom Solutions for Our Son with Autism
Having a child with severe autism means dealing with unique challenges every day. Some seem small at first but end up being really complex. In our house, one of the biggest struggles has been bathroom hygiene. While it might not be the first thing people think about when discussing autism care, many parents know exactly what I’m talking about. For our son Michael, who’s 33 and has severe autism, using the bathroom was stressing everyone out – until we found something that worked.
The Daily Struggle
We had a frustrating problem that went on for years. Whenever Michael used the toilet, there was a small gap between the seat and base that caused leaks. Everything would end up on the floor, soaking the bathroom rug and creating a huge mess that took forever to clean up. We tried everything we could think of – putting towels around the base, different toilet seats, even making our own barriers. Nothing worked. It felt like we were stuck doing damage control instead of fixing the actual problem.
Our Game-Changing Discovery
After trying so many things that didn’t help, we found the P-Guard. The name isn’t fancy, but when we saw how it worked, we knew it might be the answer we’d been looking for. It’s basically a curved piece of plastic that catches any leaks when someone’s sitting on the toilet. It sticks under the seat with a magnetic strip, and it works like a shield to keep everything from getting on the floor. The best part was how easy it was to clean – just pull it off, rinse it, and put it back on. Finally, we had a way to deal with the bathroom situation without constant cleanup.
When Things Don’t Go As Planned
Of course, no solution is ever perfect. Michael, who loves tactile activities, soon discovered that he could dislodge the P-Guard by banging the toilet seat. One fateful day, he knocked it loose, and before we could react, the guard disappeared down the toilet. At first, we panicked. We tried everything to retrieve it, but it wasn’t until we used a coat hanger to fish it out that we finally got it back—lodged just beyond the drain. It wasn’t an easy task, and certainly not one we’d recommend, but it led to a crucial realization: we needed a way to secure the P-Guard more firmly.
Getting Creative with Solutions
First, we tried making the P-Guard more secure. We used super glue to really stick it under the toilet seat and sealed around it with caulk to stop water from getting trapped anywhere. This worked great for a while, but then the caulk started cracking. Water got underneath, and we were back to dealing with smells and cleanup. We knew we needed something more reliable.
The Solution That Finally Worked
After lots of trial and error, we found something that really worked: having two toilet seats we could swap out. We bought identical seats – one to use and one for backup. When the seat with the P-Guard needed cleaning or fixing, we just switched them. It only took a few minutes and made everything so much easier. We could clean and fix things without messing up Michael’s routine.
Tips for Other Parents
If you’re dealing with similar challenges, here’s what we learned:
- Try the P-Guard – it might not be perfect for everyone, but it’s worth a shot. Look around for products that match what your child needs and what problems you’re trying to solve.
- Make sure everything’s really secure – don’t be shy about using glue, caulk, or whatever else keeps things in place. You don’t want anything coming loose.
- Keep extras on hand – having a spare toilet seat or P-Guard ready to go can save you when something breaks or needs cleaning.
- Check things regularly – make sure everything’s clean and working right before problems start.
- Be willing to try new things – every kid is different, so what works for us might need tweaking to work for you.
Looking Forward
We’re going to keep sharing more tips and stories as we figure things out. We try to post a couple videos or blog updates each month to pass along whatever might help other autism families. We believe every shared experience helps build a stronger network of families going through similar things.
For parents raising kids with autism, even small improvements in daily life can make a huge difference. The P-Guard, along with our adjustments to make it work better, helped us handle a constant bathroom challenge. It’s made things cleaner and more comfortable for Michael and less stressful for us.
Final Thoughts: Reducing Stress, One Step at a Time
For parents of children with autism, even small improvements in daily routines can have a profound impact on overall quality of life. The P-Guard, along with our creative modifications, has helped us manage a persistent issue with bathroom hygiene, reducing stress and making Michael’s environment cleaner and more comfortable.
If our story resonates with you, or if you have your own solutions to share, we’d love to hear from you. Let’s continue to support one another as we navigate the challenges of raising children with autism. Together, we can create a more resilient and inclusive community.
What’s Next?
Stay tuned for more updates from our journey. We’re in this together, and every shared experience helps us move one step closer to a brighter future for our children.
Follow us on YouTube: @autismlabs
We have a second video for you today, dealing with a lighter but nevertheless still important topic: bathroom hygiene.
When our son sits on on the toilet, there is a little crack between the toilet seat and the base of the toilet, as probably many of you know. And sometimes it leaks, right?
It ends up running down onto the tile and onto the bathroom rug and it just makes a total mess. We’ve been frustrated and we finally found something that’s worked pretty well for us, so we wanted to share this with you.
It is simply called P Guard, although I prefer “Mr. P Guard”.
It comes in two pieces. You get this little plastic curve thing that you will attach underneath the toilet seat. And the way you attach it is, you use this strip and it has this adhesive and you just attach the strip underneath it and then it’s magnetic. So the curved plastic piece can be pulled off and pulled on and cleaned as you need to.
This worked very well for us until our son decided to bang the toilet seat, in which case Mr. P Guard came off, fell down into the toilet… and then of course he loves to flush the toilet, so he flushed Mr. P Guard down underneath the visible area. Fortunately, it didn’t go all the way down and we didn’t have to call a plumber. But we absolutely did have to get a coat hanger and dig the thing out! And of course, that was no fun.
So we have a solution to that. My wife figured out that if she super-glued the Mr. P Guard underneath the toilet and then caulked all the way around it, that actually worked really well. And the caulking prevented any water from getting in there. It prevented any odor over time, as long as you kept it clean. It was a great solution.
However, we also discovered after a month or two that the caulking would crack and Mr. P Guard would start to look like he was coming off. And of course, things got underneath there, and it caused that odor again.
So what we ended up doing is we bought two toilet seats, an original and a backup. And so any time that we need to replace them, it’s very easy. It takes about 5 minutes. You just screw it off, put it back on, and we’re good to go.
We hope this helps. If it does, please let us know. And of course, if it doesn’t, please let us know.
Also, with respect to our frequency of videos, we’re planning right now on producing at least two of these a month. If we get lucky, we will hopefully produce more.
We want to thank all of you and hope that your autism adventure and the journey that we’re all on as parents is a little bit less stressful in the future than it has been in the past.
