posted 08-29-2003 07:36 AM         

My family room smells like pee!! Ugh! One of my little ones still
has accidents (but she's definitely getting better). Thankfully, we
have berber carpet so it doesn't look too stained, but it smells.
We were planning on having it professionally cleaned once we got
both our babies totally trained, but now I'm having second
thoughts. Should I just go ahead and buy a carpet cleaner? It
would almost certainly be more feasible, but it would have to be a
good one that works well. We would probably pay just as much for
one professional cleaning (of the carpets in the entire house) as we
would for the machine that I could use again.

When I read the reviews on Consumer Reports, stain removal seems to
be the biggest pitfall with (non-professional) cleaners, but like I
said, staining isn't a big issue.

Has anyone here had this same problem? Do any of you have a carpet
cleaner that has worked wonderfully in cleaning up your baby's
messes? I would appreciate any and all advice.

Diane in Houston
Mom to Baxter the maltepoo and Graysie the maltese/shih tzu

P.S. Don't ever use one of those black light urine-finders in your
home! Sometimes it's better not to know! Ugh -- disgusting.