How often should you clean a play mat? Dealing with milk, urine and food, in order

Children eat, sleep, roll and crawl on the mat, so it is going to get dirty. But when it comes to how often to clean it, most people either clean too little or too much: too little and it moulds, too much and you wear the surface out.

We break it into three levels.

1. Three cleaning schedules

Right away. Spilt milk, drool and baby food: wipe them off with a wrung-out damp cloth before they seep into the grain of the surface. Do this properly and the next two steps become much easier.

Once a week, wipe the whole mat. Warm water with a little neutral detergent, cloth wrung out to half-damp, wiping in one direction. Always finish with a plain-water cloth: never leave detergent on a surface your child touches.

Once a month, turn the mat over. Wipe the edges and the underside, and check for damp between the floor and the mat. Taiwan’s plum-rain season and winter are when this matters most: mould almost always starts on the underside where you cannot see it.

2. The three most common messes

Milk: warm damp cloth, wiping from the outside in. Wiping from the centre outwards only spreads it.

Urine: blot first with a dry cloth or paper towel; do not wipe straight away, because wiping pushes the liquid into the grain. Once it is blotted dry, go over it with a damp cloth, then a plain-water cloth to remove the smell.

Oily baby food: avocado, meat purée and other oily foods come off with neutral detergent diluted in warm water. Never pour detergent straight onto the mat.

3. Three things never to do

No alcohol or bleach. This is the most common mistake. Alcohol strips the oils from a PU or silicone surface and hardens it until it cracks; bleach blotches the colour. Damage of this kind is not covered by the warranty.

No soaking. Once water gets between the surface and the core it is very hard to dry out completely, and mould follows.

No drying in the sun. UV makes the foam brittle. After wiping, dry in the shade or with a fan, not in sunlight.

4. What if it has already moulded?

First work out whether the mould is on the surface or inside.

Black spots on the surface usually come off with warm water and a little baking soda, wiped gently. Dry thoroughly in the shade afterwards.

If it is coming from inside, reappearing in the same spot a few days after you wipe it off, moisture has reached the core and wiping will not help. At that point it is time to consider a replacement.

Prevention beats treatment: lift the mat to air it once a month, always dry it fully after wiping, and do not leave it pressed all year onto a floor that gets damp.

To see which problems we repair and which fall outside the warranty, read Warranty and after-sales. To compare the surface and durability of the four materials, see Compare the four materials.