Smell of sick

maggiesoup1 · 15 July 2019 at 8:43AM

A friend brought her three-year-old to my house over the weekend who unfortunately had a bad stomach and threw up lots of watery milk. I've tried a couple of carpet products since but the smell still lingers. Any ideas what I can use next or do I have to get one of those industrial carpet cleaners? Thanks

Ebe_Scrooge · 15 July 2019 at 12:13PM

You could try mixing up a solution of tepid water and ordinary biological laundry powder, then using that to clean the area. The difficulty is in getting it thoroughly dried out afterwards. I'd almost be tempted to give it a go with that, and then go over the whole lot with a rug doctor or similar - they don't cost much to hire for half a day.

CakeCrusader · 15 July 2019 at 12:47PM

Try sprinkling bicarbonate of soda onto the area, leave for a day or so, then hoover. It works for all sorts of smells, it should work for this too.

Brookside88 · 15 July 2019 at 1:55PM

another vote for bicarb, it does work - leave it for as long as possible

Murmansk · 15 July 2019 at 4:46PM

I heard a science programme on Radio 5 where one contributor who was a scientist suggested that Febreze is actually very good for this kind of task as there's something about the microscopic structure of the stuff that really can capture smells and stop you detecting them. There may be other products that do this too, I've never tried it. A good clean with carpet shampoo sounds like a first thing to try.

I know spilt milk can stink on its own, never mind as part of vomit!

spo2 · 16 July 2019 at 12:03PM

Please don't use biological powder on the stain - we did this once on a carpet to try and clean up after a dog's accident - and it ended up bleaching the carpet. So we ended up with a patch a different colour to the rest, and in the end we ripped the carpet up and disposed of it as the patch was so unsightly.

Smell of sick

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