4 minutes after we got into the car to drive to my parents house this weekend, my lo puked all over her carseat. I called my husband and we swapped out the seats. He washed the carseat cover and scrubbed the straps and all of the other areas that got vomit on them. It still smells. I took a bottle of lysol to it and inspected it and can't find any residue on it. Any other suggestions for cleaning the non-removable parts of the seat?
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Ugh I'm sorry, poor girl
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I used vinegar on my straps - it eventually got the smell to go away
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My LO had an Exorcist puke incident (multiple ones, we ended up in the ER) and I don't know if yours is that severe, but we had puke down in places that I could see but would spend my life accessing. So I brought the car seat to the car wash that always washes my car, and they deep cleaned the seat for $25. Seems extreme, but it was a Clek Foonf, and you can't remove a lot of the parts, so I just did it.
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Have you tried a pet cleaner or Resolve? My DS threw up all over his car seat. I washed the cover and took apart everything I was allowed to take apart and I soaked the straps in Resolve. I was able to get all the smell out...
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@T-Mom: we have lots of carpet cleaners (dogs...) so I may try that. I don't really know what is/is not acceptable for carseats. @Mamaof2: I'll try that, too.
@PrincessBaby: not so much exorcist as vomit that just doesn't seem to ever stop. And berries. Immediately after eating a baggie full of strawberries, blackberries and blueberries. How fun.
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Having it sit in sunlight helps with the smell. Might be tough in January tho...
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@mediagirl: uggggghhhh. Chloe exorcist puked cake with sprinkles in my car once. I will never get that smell out of my brain.
Poor kid! I made DH clean it. I was pregnant and the smell made me throw up too.
It was a hot mess. I'll ask him what he did.
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Carpet cleaners, setting it out, and stripping as many pieces as i possibly can. Can you throw them in a laundry bag in the wash on delicate??? Or soak them in a tub full of oxi clean and hot water......?
@PrincessBaby: That's good to know! I never knew they did that
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@mediagirl: Ewww:( Ours was milk - lots and lots of lumpy, 30 mile an hour milk. So it smelled GREAT!!!! I hope your LO is doing better now!
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@blackbird: I may have been the first person to request this. And I'm sure once they got "in" they were thinking they should have charged more!
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@blackbird: ohhh I just realized he probably didn't take the straps off. I'll have to see if they are keeping some of the smell in and if so, I'll pull them off and soak them. I think the biggest offender is the crotch strap fabric. I can't figure out how to remove that piece (I don't think it's removable) and it smells so bad.
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@mediagirl: Hmm.....if i had to get tricky about it, i would try to suspend the whole damn thing under water. Flip the carseat over and rig something up to saturate it. Then scrub it like crazy and take a hair dryer to it (mold smells just as bad, IMO!) Or use a ceramic space heater on it.
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@blackbird: my husband took the hose to it so he saturated it. I spent yesterday rubbing it down with towels before we put a heater up to it to dry it out. So, great suggestions because that's exactly what we did.
I'm probably going to take some carpet cleaner to the bottom strap tonight to see if that helps....
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@mediagirl: he said he hosed it down and let it air dry.
He scrubbed my car with a carpet scrubber.
And used a face mask because, and I quote, "there is nothing fucking nastier than rainbow cake puke."
He wants me to add that if was confetti cake. He said that's a very important detail.
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@mediagirl: Good luck! i think that weaved fiber type of material just holds onto stuff....if you can get it off, i wonder if you can run it through the dishwasher safely? We run our high chair straps through the dishwasher sometimes. It's hot enough to kill any bacteria but not really agitating it so that i feel like it wears it out. But i'm not sure if that's ok for car seats
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Be careful with what you actually soak in liquid - the straps cannot be removed and cannot be saturated with liquid (breaks down the webbing). My daughter gets carsick, so when I have to clean the car seat, I take the padding off and machine wash, remove the styrofoam and set aside (do not get wet!!) and then use a cloth on the plastic with a mixture of water/white vinegar/ dish soap. Once the plastic is clean, I use a toothbrush to scrub the straps with the same mix of water/vinegar/a drop of dish soap. If you scrub in a circular motion, all the bits will come out from the strap webbing
Then you can rinse the toothbrush and go back over the straps with a bit of plain water to remove the soap residue. Then let it air dry, preferably outside but near a sunny window (we use our sliding door window) will work totally fine. My daughter are pepperoni and cheese (she's 4) before a trip from NC to CT... Got sick around the Maryland line... and this method of cleaning the car seat totally worked. The car seat is seriously good as new.
Good luck!!
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@blackbird: @mediagirl: Please don't remove the straps!!! You'll void the warrantee and the straps will break down - they cannot be soaked in liquid or removed!
Leave them attached and use an old toothbrush to clean the webbing. See my (long) comment above with some tips. My daughter gets carsick so I have lots of experience (and calls to Britax) in that department
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Vinegar water and stripping it down as much as possible! We have a car-sick kid and it is so gross.
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I guess we voided the warranty or whatever but we have washed the cover in the washing machine, and then we put the rest in the shower and sort of hose it down there. I am a bit skeptical that getting car seat straps wet will make a difference in a crash. I mean, that would have to be one hell of a crash.
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@ktdid23: gah that's good to know. I've never had to disassemble mine to that level, i just assumed they would be something you could remove!
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@mediagirl: did you check the manual for your seat? Some cleaners can be quite abrasive on the seat and possibly compromise the integrity of it, straps should generally only be wiped down and never saturated. Putting the seat out in the sun will generally help with any lingering odour.
And I feel you on the spew, Miss A threw up all through her seat about thirty minutes into a sux hour trip right before Christmas!
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@mamimami: getting the seat and straps wet can result in the metal parts starting to rust and the webbing on the straps can start to degrade and lose their fire retardant properties. I get what you're saying but it would be awful to have a serious crash and have the seat potentially fail or not perform as it should.
I'm probably going to take some carpet cleaner to the bottom strap tonight to see if that helps....
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