I'm sorry, I know it's gross! My mom borrowed my car today b/c hers was in the shop and I just got a call that my son had a migraine & threw up all over the car. My car. My less than 1 yr old car. With fabric seats.

How on earth do you clean that so it doesn't smell? or stain?

The car I traded in for this new one had an odor we could not get rid of b/c the same DS spilled milk in the carpet (didnt' tell me till I noticed the smell 2 weeks later). Oh and he somehow locked my SIL's cat in over night and it peed. :'(

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

Take it in to get it professionally cleaned. My husband is a mechanic and he says some of the stuff they have to clean is awesome, he's watched the chemical guy demonstrate stuff to their wash bay guys.
If you do it yourself be very careful about water, newer vehicles have alot of stuff in them (think wiring and such) under/in the seats and water usage should be minimal if you don't want to mess up seat controls etc.

Agree with the professional cleaning, especially since it's such a new car. My husband works at a car dealership and they have access to cleaning materials and tools that will Git-R-Dun. Plus they do this for a living, so they know the tricks of the trade. (Kinda like hiring you to make a cake vs. thinking they can do a topsy turvy themselves.)

I hope your son is feeling better. Being a migraine sufferer myself, I know how terrible they can be!

As for your car, I was in a similar situation about a year ago, a few months after I purchased my new car! I was taking my 2 year old cousin home and halfway there he threw up all over the back seat... yuck.
I had to stop and clean out the car with napkins and wetnaps. I have a carpet cleaner, so I cleaned it once I got home. And again right after it dried. And then a day or two later. I can't remember if I did it again but I cleaned it until the seats got their nice new fabric texture and look back. Everyone said it didn't have a smell after that, but I bought febreze and sprayed the car daily for a week. Then I was convinced there was no more smell. I think there is a product called Zorbex (sp?) which is supposed to be better than febreze.

And, there are currently no smells or stains. I can't say that for the few stuffed animals that were in the backseat that day... they are stained...

Now to figure out how to get the grease and oil out of the trunk from my boyfriend putting random car engine parts in there...

My son hurled up his guts in my DH's truck not too long ago ( either car sick from riding in the back seat without being able to see out the windows or bad strawberry milk for breakfast..not sure) and he cleaned it up with a carpet cleaner and Febreeze for the smell.

Don't forget to clean the seat belt straps too. DH couldn't figure out where the smell was still coming from a week later and a friend got in the back seat and grabbed the seat belt strap....ewwww!!!

KimAZ

P.S. I just have to add that I had to silently laugh that my DH had to clean up puke for once and not me!! I wasn't with them at the time.

Thanks for the suggestions guys! When I got home from work, my mom had used Resolve and God knows what else. She got most of it up and there was no stain, but Oy! the smell! We've got one of those big carpet/upholstery cleaners that they rent at the hardware store and I spent about 1 1/2 hrs on it. I can still smell it. DH says it's fine, but I don't think he took a good whiff . Not sure why *I* always have to clean up these things!

I think I have to get some Febreeze - I used the spray lysol since that was all I had.

If that doesn't work, I'll have to take it to a professional; I just don't have a couple hundred dollars to spare!

If you don't really detest the smell of vinegar you can put an open container of it in your car overnight. It will absorb ALL of the smell as long as everything else has been cleaned up first. Then it is much easier to cover up the vinegar smell later.

Maybe sprinkling some baking soda or Carpet Fresh on it would help. Good luck!

If you live in an area that you feel safe doing so, I would leave the windows on your car cracked open just a little bit for a few night to let the car air out. Al;so, the febreeze for auto works great! You may have to use it a few times, but I once completely cleaned the smell of cigarette smoke from my DH's truck before we sold it using the Febreeze!

Well this morning it was still pretty bad, even after the carpet cleaner/lysol. Bad enough that I couldn't drive it to work I cracked the windows to get some air and re-lysoled it.

I was going to try to saturate it w/ a mild baking soda solution tonite b/c it must be really into the cushions. Oh yah, and buy some febreeze!!

gmcakes - i didnt know they made febreeze for auto - i'll have to look for it!

Go to petsmart ( do you have petsmart?) get this stuff called odorzout. I used it for my house and car all the time to get the pet smell or whatever else the kids have left behind. No more smell. Here's a link to find it in yourneck of the woods http://www.88stink.com/

HTH, it sure has helped me!
Michelle

I second the suggestion for professional cleaning. They can pull up the carpet and disinfect/clean the surface below.

Don't forget about the floor mats. Take them out scrub them, hose them down, and scrub the floor under the mats. This has happened to me twice, in the dark in the dead of winter I was scrubbing the car with a scrub brush and bucket. Also if you have baby car seats take them out and scrub them also. You may need to let the mats, car seats sit outside over night. The febreeze also works really well.

How old is your son? My son is 7 and also gets migraines, which are relieved with OTC ibuprofen. I've trained him to tell someone immediately if he gets a headache, before he gets to the nausea, vomiting stage. Good luck and you are not alone!!

You know I was reading this post last night thinking about my 3 yr old DD. She gets car sick fairly easy. So I've had my fair share of having to clean up messes from the seats and the floors. I've found that if you use liquid laundry soap and water it takes it up pretty easily. The ironic thing about this topic is my 3 yr old decided she was going to throw up in my truck today. YUCK! One good thing about it is we got a new truck just recently that has leather seats in it, so it cleans up a whole lot easier than cloth seats. I will recommend febreeze as well. It definately helps with a persistent throw up smell. I usually keep some in my truck just in case. It helps with the ride home if you are not in an area you can stop and clean the car seats. I will also recommend keeping wet wipes or hand sanitizer in your vehicle as well because there's nothing worse than trying to clean up a mess and then you get the smell on your hands. It's nasty. HTH.

Me again! Last night I mixed about a tablespoon of baking soda w/ warm water (I used my wilton chocolate squeeze bottle LOL) and squeezed two bottles worth out all over the seat & carpet. Be sure that there are no motors in your seat! Luckily it was the back seat. I let that sit 1/2 hr then sucked it all up with the carpet cleaner. This morning it smells so much better!!! I was even able to drive it to work. I think I'll do that once more tonight and it'll be back to normal.

vww104, my son is 10. He gets migraines a few times a year. I tell him anytime he feels a headache coming on to take Tylenol and it always works. He was with my mother that day and I had taken the Tylenol out of the car and she didn't have any. She thought they could make it the 10 miles to the pharmacy, instead of going the other direction which was only 1 mile. I can't imagine scrubbing the car in the dark in winter.

Sweetness, I wanted leather seats (i wanted the butt warmers!), but the car package had two options - leather & sunroof or cloth and no sunroof. DH is 6'6" and the sunroof takes up more of the headroom and he didn't fit I just bought myself Febreeze this morning, so hopefully that'll take care of it!

Oh man, have I been there, done that about what seems like a hundred times. My 5 year old son gets car sick when we go to my mom and dad's house. It is a really curvy road and he hurls almost everytime. We now make sure we have at least two bags within his reach everytime we go. I bought a Malibu when he was 3 months old and he puked in it so much I started calling it the Puke Mobile. I got SO tired of cleaning the seats, car seat, seat belts, carpet in floor, and floor mats that I could have screamed. I used Lysol and just scrubbed the heck out of it and Febreezed it to death. Eventually it went away until the next time
DH and I started to think it was the car and if we got something a little higher off the ground then it might help so we sold the Malibu and purchased a Trailblazer and stupidly got cloth seats. Well guess what? We Einstein parents were wrong Sooo we traded the Trailblazer for an Envoy with leather seats and it makes cleaning the puke up so much more easier. I usually donate his old carseats but I honestly couldn't give that thing to someone in good conscience. I mean I clean it and all but it's just been puked on too much! GOOD LUCK!!

Oh no Dordee! You poor thing - I can't imagine doing this again & again! I traded in my last car b/c i couldn't get the sour milk smell out of it.

Probably a good idea not to donate the car seat