Help - cleaning wee out of a mattress

[Selfsettling3]

Small child has wet the bed and some of the wee has gone through the mattress protector. How can I clean the mattress?

You can't. It's a real bugger. Best you can do is sponge off, dry and use some febreeze.

Apparently white vinegar is useful for getting wee smells out of fabric

Also sprinkle on bicarb of soda, leave for 10 mins, hoover off

Thanks everyone. Luckily I think it’s just a small amount.

If it's ever sunny and dry again, putting it outside in direct sunlight is good for getting the smell and discolouration out.

Enzyme cleaner will “eat” the smell. Then always use waterproof mattress protectors (John Lewis are the best I’ve used, no crunchy sounds).

Pissed on mattresses are my secret Mastermind question as have dealt with quite a few over the years from housekeeping and nannying. Have a three pronged attack for this:

Surface cleaning unfortunately is just that, the problem is penetration of mattress and potential for mould growth if there's wetness deep inside and around coils.

1. Cat litter. Seriously. Best when damp or wet though. It draws out the urine and moisture and locks it in for you to just chuck away. Leave layer on for a few hours. This will hopefully draw some of the deeper moisture out as well

1. Clean as best you can with biological washing powder (enzymes) 1:10 ratio in warm-hot water. Don't use any other cleaning stuff before as could denature enzymes.

The gamble is just doing the surface and the wee festering unchecked around coils or dumping enzyme water through patch to penetrate inside mattress and destroy the urine BUT then you have to try and get that completely dry and dry on the inside as soon as you can to inhibit mould growth. And you can't check really without slicing down into a coil. As a child mattress likely to be thin and single and dry more easily I'd take chances on option B and dump biological cleaner into patch.

1. Mattress upright in room with open window with air circulating and as much as sun as possible. Turn it around after a day and same thing. Blast heating on as well if you are able / want to to speed up drying but keep window open. It's not about bring warm but warmth from radiator plus circulating air / breeze from window.

If you are lucky it takes about 2-3 days to properly dry inside as well. If it takes longer I would be squeamish about what's brewing on the inside of it.

To be honest once a mattress piddled there's always risk of wetness deep inside mattress.

If it sounds OTT, I used to work as a housekeeper for a number of families and dealt with it a lot. Mould inside a mattress is actually pretty common and usually from bedwetting or pets spaying on bed. It just festers on undisturbed in the middle of the mattress so no one knows it is there for ages.

If most of it was caught by protector you will likely be fine though and your mattress live to fight another day

The times I've needed to dry a mattress I've leaned the wet bit up against a radiator, preferably for a few days while the child responsible sleeps in with me.

I took the mattress outside on a warm sunny day and soaked the area. The mattress lasted another few years and there was no smell.