HELP! How do you clean vomit out of car seat straps

jennieliz

Banana and milk... all over... so gross!!!

 Now how can I clean the straps? 

GingerSB

I could always take my straps off. If not, just put the whole thing in the bathtub and spray it with the shower. 

 

SurfBride4

Just had this problem a week ago. I stripped everything but the straps off the seat, filled the tub with hot water & antibacterial dish soap, threw the whole seat in & scrubbed them by hand. It worked perfect.

AnnapolisLari

If there's still a stink, Extra Strength Febreze is da bomb. It got cat pee smell out of a rug when none of the enzyme cleaners did any good.

Mrs Manners

I took our whole carseat apart and washed the cover and the straps.

goodheartedmommy

You can not get the straps fully wet--that means soaking them or spraying them off is out as an option. That will compromise the integrity of the straps, meaning they could break in an accident. You can spot clean with warm water and dawn, but again, do not let it get the strap completely wet. You may have to order new straps (a lot of times the company will send them to you for free) if you can't get the smell out with spot cleaning. Dawn or another mild dish soap and water is the only thing okay to use on straps.

GingerSB

goodheartedmommy:

You can not get the straps fully wet--that means soaking them or spraying them off is out as an option. That will compromise the integrity of the straps, meaning they could break in an accident. You can spot clean with warm water and dawn, but again, do not let it get the strap completely wet. You may have to order new straps (a lot of times the company will send them to you for free) if you can't get the smell out with spot cleaning. Dawn or another mild dish soap and water is the only thing okay to use on straps.

dear lord, that is ridiculous. 

 

goodheartedmommy

Not ridiculous at all. Manufacturers clearly state not to ever get straps wet. They say it for a reason. The straps keep your child in the restraint in an accident--I don't see what's ridiculous about following manufacturer instructions (and common sense) to keep your child safe and alive.

GingerSB

goodheartedmommy:

Not ridiculous at all. Manufacturers clearly state not to ever get straps wet. They say it for a reason. The straps keep your child in the restraint in an accident--I don't see what's ridiculous about following manufacturer instructions (and common sense) to keep your child safe and alive.

So mild dish soap and water is going to compromize the integrity to heavy weave polyester. I don't buy it.

Bleach, heavy cleaners I can see. But water?

 

goodheartedmommy

Yes. You can spot clean, but no, you can never fully submerge straps. Why would they tell you not to if it was okay, and more importantly, why would you be so flippant about it if there's even a slight chance that it could make the straps fail? It's life and death, not just something small! I don't get taking a chance or what keeps your child alive. I understand doing it if you don't know better, but once you do know better, I can't imagine just being like "to hell with what the manufacturer says to do or not to do, I think it's ridiculous and I'm going to ignore the instructions."

darlene'smommy

Read your manual or call the manufacutre and ask them what they rec.  Most companies say you need to sopt clean with mild soap.  Some will allow you to put them in water just not a washer.  If you cant find the info I would spot clean.  I have had to clean vomit out of our straps before and a litle dawn and wash cloth did fine to clean them up on the area the vomit was.  You can not smell it was ever there.

Zenya

I see no logical reason why they can't be washed.  My guess is they don't want people tempted to cut them off to wash them or something ridiculous like that. 

grja

Just call the manufacturer. I did this and the told me what was ok/not ok. They also said that if i couldn't get them fully cleaned they would send replacement straps.

mgfit1

I cleaned up banana, pancakes and milk...yummy hu?  I ended up hanging them down into a bucket of soapy water and then scrubbing them with a brush/sponge.  They did come clean.....so gross!  I almost puked cleaning it up!