It can be very unfortunate when one of your children has an accident in the middle of the night. When your child is still getting used to being potty trained, it isn’t unusual for them to pee in the bed while they’re sleeping.
They might not wake up in time to use the bathroom and this could cause their mattress to become stained with urine.
If you’re worried about whether the mattress can be salvaged, then you should know that urine can be cleaned when you take the right steps. There are ways to clean urine out of a mattress that will work out really well.
Lots of people like to use baking soda to help with this, but what can you do when you don’t have any around?
Read on to learn how to clean urine from a mattress without baking soda. It’ll help you to determine the best way to clean your child’s mattress when it has been peed on.
This method will work for other situations that have caused a mattress to become stained with urine too, so just keep reading to solve all of your problems.
Why Not Just Use Baking Soda?
There are a few reasons why you might not be able to use baking soda for this process.
The first reason is that you might not have any baking soda around that you’re able to utilize right now. If you don’t have any baking soda in your house, then you might not want to run to the store just to clean up some urine that got on your kid’s mattress.
Another reason why some people avoid using baking soda is that it can be harsh on the skin. Some people feel as though baking soda irritates the skin enough that it isn’t worth using it.
If you’re worried about your kid getting a rash or feeling itchy because of the baking soda, then it’s likely best to use something else.
That being said, baking soda is a good option for cleaning up a bed that has urine on it. This piece just happens to focus on how to clean your bed up without using that ingredient.
You’ll have several options to consider that won’t require the use of baking soda in any way.
1 – Use Vinegar
Vinegar is a great replacement for baking soda when you’re trying to clean a mattress that has been urinated on. It’s going to work in much the same way as baking soda but it might not have such a negative impact on your skin.
This is why so many people choose to go with vinegar-based cleaning solutions instead of using baking soda.
To start things off, you’re going to want to get a spray bottle. The spray bottle can be filled with some white vinegar and you can then start to spray the area of the mattress where the urine is present.
If the urine has soaked into the mattress, then let the vinegar sit on it until it dries.
For significant urine stains, it’s highly recommended to be liberal with the white vinegar. Spray the mattress until the urine-stained area is completely soaked with the vinegar. It will take some time for the area to completely dry but this is a necessary part of the process.
Wipe the mattress thoroughly so that you can start to remove the stain. In some cases, the stain will start to come off when you use vinegar this way.
Certain stains can be more stubborn, though, and they might require some extra steps.
2 – Making a Paste
Making a paste that you can scrub into the mattress might be necessary for you to remove the urine stain completely. Many people choose to make a simple paste using salt and lemon juice.
These two ingredients can combine to create a powerful enzyme cleaner that can break down chemicals that are causing stains.
It’s also going to do a great job of getting rid of that urine smell that you might be noticing. After you’ve made a paste out of your lemon juice and salt, you can begin applying it to the stained area. The paste needs to sit on the stained area for approximately one hour.
Once the hour is up, you’re going to want to wipe the paste off using a clean towel. If everything goes well, then you should see the stain come up along with the paste.
If the stain has been present on the mattress for quite some time, then your results might not be as ideal as you had hoped.
3 – Dish Soap and Water
Dish soap can actually do a pretty good job of cleaning up your mattress when it has minor urine stains.
You can feel confident when you’re using dish soap because it isn’t really going to harm your mattress or anything. Basically, you just want to apply dish soap to the area of the mattress that is stained with urine.
After this has been accomplished, you can get a wet rag so that you can start scrubbing the mattress. Depending on the type of mattress material you have, you might be able to scrub really hard.
Be more careful if you’re worried about damaging your mattress or anything such as that.
Once you have scrubbed things thoroughly, you should be able to eliminate any urine smells that were present on the mattress. It can take time to get things perfect when using this method but it should work well enough.
It might not help you to get rid of stubborn urine stains, though, and this can be a bit disheartening overall.
4 – Using a Vacuum
Using a vacuum on your mattress might help you to get rid of stains as well. Some people like to use vacuums to clean their mattresses normally and this can help you when you’re using a paste to try to get rid of a stain too.
You could use a powerful vacuum cleaner to try to get a stain up instead of using a towel.
For some situations, it might be more practical to get urine up using a vacuum anyway. If you have a wet-dry vacuum cleaner, then you can easily use it to vacuum the urine so that you don’t have to get it on your towels.
A lot of this will depend on what type of vacuum cleaner you have access to, of course.
Even if you don’t have to deal with urine stains or spills often, it can be helpful to use your vacuum cleaner on your bed. You could clean both sides of your mattress regularly to try to keep it in top shape.
Don’t neglect to realize how useful your vacuum cleaner can be.
5 – Bleach
If you aren’t really worried about how the mattress looks, then you could simply clean the urine up using bleach.
Bleach is a great cleaning product that can eliminate germs, bacteria, and odors pretty easily. Of course, bleach is pretty potent and smelly in its own right but it can get rid of the urine smell for you.
The problem with this method is that it’s going to leave a bleach spot on the mattress. Even using bleach that has been diluted with water will still likely discolor your mattress a good bit.
That is why you should only use bleach to clean your mattress if you are not at all concerned with the appearance of the mattress.
This will clean things up and get rid of any germs that you might be worried about. You won’t have to worry about your mattress smelling of urine any more if you clean it thoroughly with bleach.
It’s just not ideal for many people because of what bleach will do to the mattress, and this makes it something that you should save for a last resort.
6 – Deodorizing Your Bed
Commercial odor-removing products can work wonders on your bed when it has been urinated on.
There are lots of products out there that can neutralize odors so that you can just focus on trying to get the stain up. If your mattress smells of pee, then you might want to give one of these products a try.
You can just spray the odor-neutralizing agent on the spot where the bed was peed on. This will allow you to neutralize the smell almost instantaneously.
If you want to get rid of particularly pungent odors, then you could use more of the spray and allow it to sit on the stained spot for a period of time.
These types of cleaning products can be great for getting rid of all types of odors around the house. They can be sprayed to remove pet odors as well as offensive body odors.
You shouldn’t ignore the other advice that has been presented but these odor-neutralizing products can be very helpful overall.
Products such as this aren’t necessarily “cleaners” that you can use to get the bed cleaned up, of course. You will still need to clean the bed using soap and other methods.
These products simply take care of the smell so that things won’t smell like pee any longer.
7 – Professional Cleaning Options
If none of the above options is getting the job done properly for you, then you might need a little bit of help.
Many people have gotten good results by reaching out to mattress cleaning professionals when they need help getting rid of urine stains. You could have professional cleaners come out to your place to try their luck and you’ll likely be able to get better results.
These professionals have many types of cleaners that they can use to get rid of urine stains in mattresses.
If you’d like to get your urine issues taken care of right away, then this is the easiest method. You’ll be able to rely on experts to get your mattress looking and smelling great again.
A thorough professional cleaning such as this can also be taken care of in a timely fashion. If you’re looking to get your mattress or your kid’s mattress cleaned up quickly, then this is going to work out nicely.
You won’t have to worry about much at all and it’ll be easy to just get the mattress back to normal.
The problem with going this route is that it will wind up being fairly costly, in all likelihood. You might spend more money than you’re willing to if you decide to call in mattress-cleaning experts.
The practicality of this idea might come down to how much cash you have and how comfortable you are spending it.
Just be mindful that this isn’t the most cost-effective idea before you move forward with it. It’ll keep you from getting disappointed that you have to spend a chunk of change to take care of this issue.
It isn’t necessary to call in the professionals if you’re willing to spend the time cleaning the mattress utilizing the methods above.
How to Keep Bed Safe in the Future
Keeping beds safe in the future will involve taking some necessary precautions. If you know that your children have issues with peeing the bed at night, then you can protect the mattresses by using rubber sheets.
Rubber sheets won’t allow the urine to seep through into the mattress and you won’t have to worry about going to great lengths to fix things any longer.
You can actually put normal sheets over the top of the rubber sheets as well. This doesn’t have to force your kids to sleep on top of uncomfortable sheets or anything such as that. Most parents find this to be a very practical solution to the peeing-on-the-mattress problem.
Another idea is to use a mattress pad that can go on top of the mattress. This essentially gives you an extra layer of protection that can keep the mattress from getting dirty.
Stuff such as this is useful even when you’re worried about staining your mattress with sweat at night during the hot summer months.
Over time, your kids will get more used to using the bathroom normally. Some kids have issues with peeing the bed longer than others but you could try to limit how much they drink before bedtime to mitigate these issues.
As long as you’re being a proactive parent, this shouldn’t be too problematic in the future.
I have two Associate’s degrees, one in Medical Assisting and the other in Computer Technician, and I am roughly five classes from a bachelor’s degree. Though I never ended up working in the medical field, I have five and a half years of experience in IT. I recently became a stay-at-home mom to my two young boys, and I’m so excited to start this adventure with them! In my spare time, I love to bake and read pretty much anything I can get my hands on.