If the answer was a few months ago, you should probably put it on your list of things to do this weekend or upcoming week. Below are my tips for cleaning out your child’s car seat.
Ruby spilled an entire yogurt drink in her car seat. Luckily, Hunter was not with us and she was able to ride home in his. When we got home, we washed the padding and put them outside to dry. You can not put the pads in the dryer and they take close to 12 hours to fully dry in the sun. So, this morning before painstakingly putting the pads back onto the car seat frame, I gave it a quick wash outside.
WELL…that thing was GNARTSY! That is gnarly + nasty, all wrapped up into one! Here are
Food junk from collecting on the base of the car seat. How does it even get under there?
I swear, it was less than 2 months ago that I washed her car seat. I must have not done such a thorough job. And considering that we live in Florida where the humidity has already been quite atrocious, things are just going to grow. Bad things. Very bad things.
So, this weekend, or when you have a day or two that you don’t have to be anywhere in particular and you can keep the kids around the house, do yourself and your kids a favor and clean their carseat out.
Wash the pads. Wash the base. Extend the frame as far as it can go. There are goodies hiding inside of every nook & cranny of that beast that is keeping your kids safe, and they are hairy, black, and fouler than foul can be.
Kids are GROSS! Carseats breed that grossness, exponentially.
Before you begin, here the tools you need to clean out your child’s car seat:
- Q-tips
- Knife or tool that will allow you to get into small areas
- Dustbuster, vacuum cleaner, or leaf blower
- Soap and Water (avoid straps)
- Disinfectant Wipes (for hard plastic only)
Shake out and then vacuum up all loose particles. A leaf blower will force out any lodged “things”, without risking saturating any straps. Use a knife, screwdriver, and/q-tips to get into all the crevices that food or other material might be hiding. Scrub down with soap and water, rinse, disinfect, and repeat as many times necessary.
I also want to note, that comparably, Ruby tends to be a bit neater of a child. I can’t imagine what Hunter’s seat might be hiding. I think this is a good time to pretend that my children should never eat or drink anything while sitting in their car seats again, but who am I kidding? With the amount of time that we are in the car, I would be living in a dream world to think that possible.
I suppose the real solution will be to put regularly scheduled cleanings on the calendar. You should too if you know what is good for you. There are also companies like Shiny Hiney here in South Florida who will clean your car seats for you and make sure they are properly installed. I will go this route next time.
Unless I am the only one who has gross children and a filthy car? And if that is the case, this was embarrassing and you should just ignore the entire blog post for now…
From our family to yours – hope you have a great weekend!
This is why I don’t let me kids eat in the car, they really are sooooo gross! It’s important to point out, though, that the harness straps of a car seat should never be completely soaked with water or touched with cleaning products stronger than a baby wipe as it can damage and weaken the fibers of the harness straps. I have tons of information of kids and car seats here: http://www.beyondmommying.com/blog/2014/03/06/car-seat-safety/
I have cleaned every single bodily substance out of my kids’ car seats over the years. My youngest has only a few months to go until he is finally out of his booster seat and I can say good riddance to car seats forever! My worst car seat gross out was when my oldest was a baby and we took a trip out of state. He threw up the entire time. Every time I cleaned it up and dried him off and changed his clothes and put a fresh towel underneath him he would throw up again. Ugh!
Ugh [people just don’t seem to think about cleaning items like car seats, especially under the pad, I am so glad that my children are beyond car seats and my grandchildren are also, but this still can happen if they eat or drink in the car, and not clean up after themselves, you never know what spilled or happened. Thank you for reminding me
It could get so dirty, that it might be a sanitary dangerous spot.
Yes, Jerry. That is pretty much what I discovered. Very gross.
I love how you came up with the name for your blog! I also have a son named Hunter. I would write more, but I need to go clean the carseat now that I read this….. 🙂
Thanks Lacey! Love the name Hunter too…obviously! 🙂 Its probably time again to clean out the car seat. I know that is on my agenda for the weekend!