How to remove baby poo, urine and vomit stains from your carpet – a parents guide
Being a parent is great. Sometimes. Other times it’s a challenge. Lets face it the little darlings bring you to the end of your tether quite often with mess amongst other things. Whilst I can’t help you when it comes to your baby’s tantrums, I do know what to do when it comes to removing baby poo, urine or vomit stains from your carpet. So here you have it, a Mum’s guide that also happens to be written by a mum qualified in removing baby poo carpet stains. Heh, heh!
Baby Poo
Done correctly, a successful poo removal procedure will not only remove all of the stain, but the smell as well, and let’s face it that’s the worst bit.
You will need:
- 1/2 tsp of washing up liquid or hand soap
- 2 cups of water
- 1 tablespoon of white vinegar (this helps to remove further odours so it is worth investing in and keeping in your kitchen cupboard – lets face it, your baby pooing on the carpet will very likely happen more than once)
- a large sponge
- a clean white cloth to prevent risk of colour run
What to do:
There’s no beating around the bush with this, depending on your babies age there could be lumps of poo (lucky you!) so using a spoon, carefully scoop up what you can, be careful to scrape as as you don’t want to push the poo further into the carpet!
To make your poo cleaning solution simply combine the water, white vinegar and soap in a bowl. Now when we say soap we mean a tiny bit of around 1/ 2 tsp. Soap is sticky and you want to be able to rinse out what you can put in otherwise you’re carpet will get really dirty again very quickly. Then sponge this mixture into the poo covered carpet.
Now, using your cloth, repeatedly blot at the poo until all the liquid is absorbed. Repeat the process until the poo stain is completely removed from your carpet.
Then simply sponge (don’t rub as it can be damaging to your carpet) and rinse with plenty of cold water until all foaming is gone and the carpet feels dry.
Voila! You now have a clean poo free carpet to go with your clean baby. What more could you ask for, eh?
2. Everything else (including removing urine and vomit stains)
Yep. Pretty much everything else comes under similar advice. If the above formula doesn’t work, you need a professional. It’s as simple as that. The main points to remember when tackling any stain is to:
- Scrape up solids, note that if it is baby vomit, you’ll need to be quick as there is very likely some stomach acid present and this may damage the fibres in your carpet
- Always mix your solution with the least amount of soap and cool water. Avoid using hot water as this can spread urine and vomit further into your carpet and too much soap can make your carpet sticky. attracting more dirt
- As above, blot and rinse until the stain appears to have gone and all signs of foaming has stopped
- DO NOT rub, just blot otherwise this can damage your carpet pile
These Cleaning Products are on our “Shelf of Shame”…
Most importantly stay away from the “shelf of shame”.
This is our term for supermarket products that come in pretty bright bottles (ahem) that promise to remove poo, vomit, wee or other stains from your rug or carpet. Quite simply they might work, but more often than not they will set a stain and make it permanent, ultimately making it harder for your professional to remove. Not only that, these products mainly consist of soap and bleach amongst other nasties. Read the label on the bottle, if you can’t understand a word chances are it’s a chemical you don’t want in your carpet or near you and your family. These types of carpet cleaners can result in your carpet having lighter patches. Remember, for DIY carpet cleans, the above simple cleaning formula is really all you need.
If you’re still unsure then call us! We are happy to help with advice over the phone, appointments are not always necessary!
For all your carpet cleaning requirements call Floor Blimey on 01934 611442.