Wee-soaked mattress - help, what's the best thing to do!

[Indiestarr]

DD (5) crawled into bed with me last night, and at about four o'clock there came the dreaded murmur of 'Mummy, I've had an accident!'. A nice big wet patch had soaked through to the mattress - my immediate response was to blot up as much as possible with kitchen towel and then give it a wash over with hot water and a cloth, and I've now left the mattress to dry, but I can't help feeling this doesn't seem thorough enough and am wondering if anyone else has a tip or two for dealing with this?

DD's own mattress is protected with a plastic guard under the sheet but I hadn't considered what could happen to mine - I don't think they make them in a double bed size anyway!

Make a paste out of baking soda and layer it on. Wait until it dries and then vacumn it up. The baking soda is meant to neutralise the acid in the urine.

White vinegar is good - cleans and shifts any smells. But ideally you need a sunny day (or a warm room) to dry it off properly once you've cleaned it.

You've already cleaned the mattress up, so all you'd need to do is sloosh the white vinegar liberally over the bit which was wet, and leave it somewhere sunny (or warm) to dry out completely.

Don't know what to suggest. Maybe talk to a professional upholstery cleaning company.

I know it's a bit late but they do make the protectors in all sizes. John Lewis do a nice towelling one that doesn't get as hot and sticky as the plastic ones. I guess they have to for all the incontinent adults out there. We've had one on our bed every since we discovered the extent of our DS's reflux as i used to BF in bed. Just didn't get round to taking it off again.

Hope you find the answer.

Bio washing powder and hot water works for cat pee but I'd be worried about making it wetter and it getting mouldy or sour.

Indiestarr

They do make them in double size, I've even found king size in the shops before.

I have no advice I'm afraid but taken note myself of the previous posters advice.

I've not had to deal with this despite a formerly leaky child regularly getting into my bed. This is because I have some not-very-nice man-made fibre blankets which I use as underblankets. They are sufficiently non-absorbent to protect the matress for a while, and they wash quite easily.

These are all great tips - thanks! Think I have some baking soda so will give that a go right now. I haven't got white vinegar, only the chip shops stuff which I don't think would work as a substitute! I'll be putting it on my next shopping list though along with a giant Jonelle incontinence blanket!

x

Hah - good to know this happens to other people as well. This has been a constant problem with my DD (now 11) and one of my DTs (age 6). My DD used to wet her bed until about the age of 7 and it would drive me nuts that her bed had mattress, pillow and quilt protectors, but she'd get into ours and more often that not, pee up my back while her bed was completely dry (usually when she been dry for a bit and I'd taken her out of pyjama pants)! My DT also did the same thing (not for a few months now thank god). This used to happen once every few weeks and I used to scrub the mattress with a well wrung cloth dipped in boiling hot (use rubber gloves) water with some disinfectant (not bleach) in it and the mattress never smelled. Normally had to throw out the quilt though if it got wet as I could'nt fit it in the machine and they are relatively cheap anyway. Did get a waterproof sheet for our bed once but it made us sweat like pigs. Our DTs still get into our bed though, some mornings I wake up and can't move my legs and think I've had a stroke or something but it's them lying on me!!