Cleaning up the mattresses after a bed wetting incident could be tricky. Some children are very sensitive with their night time accidents, so be sure that you would not be blatant about changing the mattresses or complain about too much laundry.
Some parents would however involve their child in changing their sheets and clothes once they wet their beds. Some parents would say that this motivates that child to wake up the next night when they feel like going to the bathroom. However, it is important to keep it as a no big deal issue to avoid too much pressure on the child. Too much stress and pressure on the child could make bed wetting even worse.
When involving your child in the cleaning process, make sure to keep a low-key attitude. Dealing with bed wetting is not about blaming, replacing the sheets is not about making your child embarrassed or being punished by the situation, it is about undergoing and dealing with the problem as a family.
To reduce night time accidents, you could use mattress protectors, bedcover of rubber and plastic. You could use a garbage plastic bag, split it open and cover it. You could even use old vinyl table cloth with the fabric side up. This could help protect your mattress. Always have plenty of sheets available.
When cleaning up after a bed time accident, doing it fast is important to make sure that the smell would not set in the fabrics. Remove the sheets and the blankets so the urine will not soak the mattress. Immediately place the sheets and the blankets in the washer. Your child’s clothes should also be washed immediately to avoid odor stains.
Aside from that, make sure that your little one is also clean. Wash with soap and water. Urine could cause rashes and irritation, so make sure that they are rubbed clean and wearing fresh clothes. Avoid punishing them, you may be irritated by waking up in the middle of the night to strip some sheets, but do not dump them on your child.
Dealing with mattresses may be more difficult, especially if there are no protective covers. You could start by pressing some rags or towels in the area where urine has soaked up the mattress. This would remove the urine that is still there. There are some fabric cleaners which could be used to clean a wet mattress affected by bed wetting like Urine-Off. You would just have the scrub the area with a sponge and dry it up with towels.
There may be instructions along with the mattress on how you could clean them. You could call the manufacturers if you are unsure on how to clean mattress. Vinyl mattresses are easy to clean, since you would just have to wipe it with cleaners. Spray it first with some germ-killing spray before remaking the bed. If your child is frequently bed wetting, then you would need to have the mattresses steam cleaned on a regular basis.
However, the most affordable option is buy a vinyl protective mattress cover.