Sparks wrote:

I think the problem was actually something in the drain that these things
caught on!
You may have roots in your drains :-(

Or a broken pipe. Normal effluent will soak away in well drained soil.
How come the rods didn't push it all through? A blocked drain in good
condtion would have had a fair bit of pressure behind it by the time a
carrier bag's worth of baby wipes had been used.

I remember a plumber telling me about the time his firm did a test on
the sewers in an office by fitting rubber bungs in all the loos. When
they went up to the third or fourth floor and flushed them, or whatever
it is plumbers do, all the bungs on the bottom floor went down the
swannie.