All of the top-rated bidets seem to have their water source at the back, and the difference between "posterior" wash and "feminine" wash seems to be just a different angle.
However, all of the medical sites say it's important, for front cleaning, for the spray to be from front to back. (From clevelandclinic.org: “The water from your bidet should flow front to back, just like wiping from front to back,” notes Dr. Lee.")
So I'm super confused and the more I try to research this the more I feel like I'm chasing my own tail.
We don't have electrical in the bathroom so this would be a simple non-electric toilet attachment.
Any recommendations/insights?
Handheld is not an option, nor, unfortunately, are the fancier stand-alone types of bidets.
I practiced first on the toilet that my mother cannot access and everything was easy peasy. When I installed on her toilet, however, a bunch of little things went wrong--but were eventually sorted out after hours of Google-toilet-Google-toilet.
She's used the bidet twice and seems not too bothered by the cold water (no electrical in her bathroom).
She uses toilet tissue to dry off the main bits and we use a towel to pat dry water that splashes onto rear.
It requires electric outlet and I do NOT want my DH messing around with the outlet box in the bath, so I have put off having it installed. HE INSISTS he can install it, but it was MY gift, so I will pay a professional to do it!!
This one has 'warmed' water--which is lovely. And you can set the angles. I thought of my DH who has some pretty awful diarrhea at times and has had to throw out underwear b/c he cannot get clean enough. Also hemmorhoids, (he'd flip out if he knew I was posting about this!) b/c he is NOT old--he just has some issues. This is why my YD and her DH bought this brand of bidet.
If you can keep the undercarriage really clean, then you can kind of go easy on the rest of the body. Face, armpits, then the arms and legs with warm washcloths. But a bidet? Game changer.
I don't remember how the TOTO worked, but I believe it's front to back and you can adjust it easily. I think it's super expensive, though.
Also this isn't going to work to clean up after incontinence, the stream is too concentrated for that.
I’m honestly not understanding how this from-the-back spray is even going to hit the vagina. But maybe this is my own mental block and there is no such thing as a bidet seat with a spray that sprays (literally) front to back?
Good reminder re: incontinence. For now the fecal incontinence is limited to an occasional bit of streaking, but she’s basically evacuating on the toilet. So any smears from the streaking can be handled (for now) with wipes. But the wipes are not great for cleaning the butt area. It just seems that she’s wiping, wiping, wiping and the wipe never comes up clean.
During the Covid toilet-paper-hoarding crisis I myself used a hand-held squeeze bottle bidet and observed that it dramatically limited the amount of cleanup required through wiping. So for #2 they seem great.
But if I’m going to go to the trouble of getting a bidet, I’d like to also get one that is safe for cleaning up after #1/urination. I think of my mom as petite but it seems that when she’s seated on the toilet there really isn’t room to get a hand in there to wipe (front or back). Which means standing up for every wipe, which quickly drains her of energy.
Anyway, if all bidet spray comes from the rear and I’m just misunderstanding the clevelandclinic warning, then of all course that’s the kind of bidet I’ll get.
Does anyone know for sure? I already have a mountain of Amazon returns to deal with :-(