What to Do If Your Child Has a Diaper Inflated in the Car
Jolie Kerr is a cleaning expert, advice columnist, and New York Times bestselling author of My Boyfriend Is Boiling In My Purse … And Other Things You Can’t Ask Martha About . Her flagship column, Ask a Pure Man, debuted in 2011. Here at Offspring we’ve launched a new iteration dedicated to parenting and all the mess it brings.
I often have to change diapers on the road using the foldable changing pillow in the back seat. My son hadn’t done this in the car yet … but in the nursery he did spew out jets of urine and explosive feces, sometimes at the same time.
I can usually block most of it, but still there is splatter. On that inevitable day when it gets dirty on my car, what is the best product to have on hand for cleaning on the go? I have leather seats.
To be honest, the answer is so simple that it seems like a hoax. Except that you are all busy, worried, worn out parents, so I feel perfectly fine giving you the easiest answer in the world.
The answer is baby wipes.
Aha! Look, you already have them, first, which means that when a mess inevitably happens, you’ll be ready to clean it up right away. And while you can certainly clean up the purge after blowout, the sooner you get to it, the easier it will be to remove it. (Check back for updates on what to do with older, more stubborn stains below.)
In addition, there is one more thing: baby wipes are excellent for cleaning urine and feces. In addition, they are gentle enough for the delicate human skins, which means they can also be used on skin that is just another kind of living creature.
Another great thing about baby wipes is that you can also use them on the cloth headliner of your car, as well as on the plastic console if your boy is splashing. (Probably it will!) Another thing worth mentioning is that it’s a good idea to hide the roll of paper towels in the machine to handle, mm, liquid contaminants, from urine to vomiting to diarrhea. This will be the first thing you’ll want to grab onto, even before the child has dried off when dealing with a particularly watery or thick mess.
For a deeper cleanse, use a leather cleaner and conditioner. The great thing about leather cleaner and conditioner is that a bottle of this substance, which will cost you less than $ 10, will last a long time and can be used on shoes, belts, leather jackets, etc. in addition to your car. interior. For a deeper cleaning of leather seats, use saddle soap . Saddle soap is what it looks like, a soap designed for use on saddles, i.e. leather soap. It comes in the form of a small shoe polish, similar to a tin can, and to use it you need to dampen a soft cloth with water, rub it into soap to collect some foam, and then rub it into the soiled leather in a circular motion. Then wipe off the lather with a clean, damp cloth and apply a little leather conditioner.
These are the basics, but let’s say you want to get serious about things. You probably don’t know! Because: busy, excited, exhausted. But if you want, I have two more things that I want to share with you.
The first is – and we MUST talk about this in more detail in the future, because I strongly believe that this thing should be a staple of every children’s registry – a portable carpet and upholstery cleaner will be your lifesaver. for all kinds of disorder that kids create. If you need a recommendation, The Wirecutter has provided an extensive review of these machine types that you should check out. They are especially good for fabric seats and child car seats, but they can also be used on leather seats.
And finally, big guns! One of my readers Jalopnik to actually just sent me this video detailing the car, which was terrific, because 1) May God bless and keep my Jalopnik readers, lovers, each of them, and 2) I just marked this particular question for Ask a Clean Man for parent when his email arrived, so his timing was perfect.
What I love about this video is how it describes approaches to cleaning a car interior from the simplest to the most difficult. It also shows very specifically the cleaning methods specific to a family car, making it very convenient even as it enters automotive nerd grounds.
Isn’t that so incredibly enjoyable to watch?!? Before we leave, I’d love to hear what kind of cleaning products and tools you carry in your cars to deal with the riots – and I bet your friends are parents too, so drop in the comments for any tips!