The Stain Library

How to remove baby sick from curtains

  • DifficultyDifficult
  • OutlookSometimes removable
  • MaterialCurtains
  • Reviewed7 September 2026

The short answer

Leave them hanging and treat the mark in place. A curtain maker's own advice is that washing or dry cleaning made to measure curtains risks uneven cleaning and shrinkage, and that even a small percentage of shrinkage significantly alters the drop. Use a diluted mild detergent on a cloth, tested first on a hem turn back, blot rather than rub, and work outwards from the mark.

If it has just happened

Hold a dry cloth behind the fabric and blot the front, so nothing is pushed through into the lining. Check the hem as well, because a spill on a curtain runs downwards and the mark is usually longer than it looks.

Heat can set this stain permanently

Do not use hot water, a tumble dryer, an iron or a steam cleaner until the mark has gone. Heat fixes this type of stain into the fibres and makes it far harder to shift.

Test on a hidden area first

Try any cleaner on a hidden part of the material first, such as a seam, an offcut, inside a hem or under a piece of furniture. Wait for it to dry and check for colour change before treating the visible mark.

Cleaning the mark is not the same as disinfecting

If the sickness came with a stomach bug rather than an ordinary posset, the surface may carry norovirus, which spreads easily and survives on hard surfaces. UK public health guidance is to wear gloves, avoid shaking contaminated laundry, wash affected laundry separately with normal powder at 60 C where the care label allows it, and disinfect compatible hard surfaces with a bleach based product afterwards. Do that after the stain work, not instead of it, and only where the material tolerates it.

Keep every kind of drying heat away until the mark has gone

Baby sick is mostly milk protein. Heat coagulates protein and locks it into the material, which is why a mark that would have washed out can become permanent after one hot wash, one pass with an iron, a hairdryer or a spell on a radiator. Cool or warm treatment, air drying, and a proper look in daylight before anything warm goes near it.

What you will need

  • Disposable gloves Sickness that came with a stomach bug is a hygiene job as well as a stain.
  • A spoon or blunt scraper For lifting solids off before any water is involved.
  • Cold running water Cold first. Warm water starts to set milk protein into cotton.
  • Biological laundry detergent What this is Protease enzymes break the milk protein apart. This is the main tool on cotton.
  • A bowl or sink for soaking Long cool soaks do the work that a hot wash is not allowed to do.

Helpful but not essential

  • An oxygen based stain remover For whites and colourfast items, against the yellowing that milk fat leaves.

Fresh baby sick on curtains

Blot it in place, backed from behind, and keep the lining dry.

Go carefully with cold water

Curtains tolerates cold water only within limits. Keep contact time short, work from the edge of the mark inwards and stop if the material changes.

  1. Hold a dry cloth behind the fabric

    This is the step that keeps the sick out of the lining. Everything you press from the front goes into the backing cloth instead of through into the layer behind.

  2. Lift the solids off and blot from the front

    A spoon for the solids, then white kitchen roll pressed onto the mark and lifted. Do not rub, because the face fabric is usually the most delicate layer.

  3. Follow the run down to the hem

    Check every part of the curtain below the mark, including the hem fold, where liquid collects and where a smell survives.

  4. Leave it to dry hanging

    Open the window, keep the curtain hanging normally so it dries in its own shape, and look at it dry before doing anything else.

  • How longFifteen minutes
  • RepeatingBlot until nothing more transfers.
  • Stop ifno more transfers to a clean white cloth and the fabric is only slightly damp

Dried baby sick on curtains

A diluted mild detergent on a cloth, tested first, is what the trade recommends.

Go carefully with warm water

Curtains tolerates warm water only within limits. Keep contact time short, work from the edge of the mark inwards and stop if the material changes.

  1. Test on the hem turn back first

    Curtain makers specify testing a diluted mild detergent on a hidden area. The hem turn back and the fabric behind the leading edge have been protected from sunlight and are the right places.

  2. Work with the cloth damp, not wet

    Dampen a white cloth with well diluted mild detergent and press it onto the mark, still with a dry cloth behind. Never spray a curtain and never pour anything on it.

  3. Lift with a second damp cloth, then blot dry

    Rinse the area by pressing with a cloth dampened in plain water, then blot with a dry one so nothing is left in the fibre.

  4. Feather the edge outwards

    Work the damp cloth outwards from the treated area so the moisture fades rather than stopping in a line. That is what prevents a ring.

  • How longHalf an hour
  • RepeatingTwo passes, feathering the edges each time.
  • Stop ifthe mark has lifted and no ring has formed at the edge of the treated area

Old or set in baby sick on curtains

At this stage the question is whether it is worth risking the drop.

Go carefully with warm water

Curtains tolerates warm water only within limits. Keep contact time short, work from the edge of the mark inwards and stop if the material changes.

  1. Try one longer contact with a damp cloth

    Leave the damp cloth resting on the mark for a few minutes to soften it, still with a dry cloth behind, then lift and blot.

  2. Look at it from across the room

    Curtains are seen from a distance and against light. A mark that is obvious at arm's length is frequently invisible from where anyone stands.

  3. Then book steam cleaning in situ

    This is the route curtain makers recommend for a full clean, because it works on the curtains where they hang and avoids the immersion that causes shrinkage. Ask specifically for in situ steam rather than take down and wash.

  • How longOne pass, then a decision
  • RepeatingDo not keep working the same area.
  • Stop ifthe mark has faded as far as it will, or you have booked a specialist

What not to use on curtains

  • Washing it hot, tumble drying or ironing before the mark has gone

    Baby sick is mostly milk protein and heat coagulates protein into the fibre. A 60 degree wash on a mark that has not lifted is the single most common way a removable stain becomes a permanent one, and the cleaning trade body's own advice is to keep the item out of the dryer until it is clean.

  • Rubbing at the mark with a nail brush

    Cotton takes firm handling, but a stiff brush breaks fibre ends and raises a fuzzy patch that catches the light and reads as a mark long after the stain has gone.

  • Reaching for chlorine bleach on a coloured item

    It strips dye in a patch and there is no way back. On white cotton it is an option, but an oxygen product does the same job on milk yellowing without the risk, and bleach must never meet vinegar or an ammonia cleaner.

  • Taking them down and putting them in the washing machine

    The layers shrink at different rates and even slight shrinkage loses the drop, which cannot be recovered. This is the most expensive mistake available on a curtain.

  • Dry cleaning made to measure curtains

    Curtain makers advise against it: the solvents clean the layers unevenly, the stiffening in the header can sag or harden, and shrinkage is still possible.

  • Spraying cleaner directly onto the fabric

    A spray puts far more liquid in than intended and it runs downwards into the lining and the hem, where it dries as a ring.

White compared with coloured curtains

Curtain fabric spends its life in sunlight and the side facing the window is often lighter than the side facing the room. That matters because a cleaned patch is being compared with faded fabric, so a genuinely clean circle can look like a mark. Test any solution on the hem turn back or behind the leading edge, where the fabric has been protected from light.

If the mark is still there

Let it dry fully with the curtain hanging normally, and look at it from where people actually stand rather than from close up.

If a ring has formed at the edge of the treated area, the answer is to feather it out with a barely damp cloth rather than to add more solution, working the moisture outwards so there is no sharp boundary.

If the mark is large, or the sick soaked through into the lining, spot cleaning is not going to be enough. Professional steam cleaning in situ is the route curtain makers recommend, because it cleans without the immersion that causes shrinkage. It costs money and it protects the drop, which is what you are actually paying for.

When to stop and call someone

Get a curtain cleaning specialist in rather than continuing if the mark is large, if the curtains are lined or interlined and the sick soaked through, or if spot cleaning has left a visible ring. Ask for steam cleaning in situ rather than taking them down, because that is the route that does not risk the drop.

Why baby sick behaves this way on curtains

A pair of made to measure curtains is several different fabrics sewn into one item and cut to an exact length.

Shrinkage is the expensive failure

A curtain is made to a drop. Lose a small percentage of it and the curtain hangs above the sill with nothing to let down. Curtain makers warn about this for washing and dry cleaning alike, which is why the recommendation is to clean in place.

The layers differ

Face fabric, lining and often interlining are frequently different fibres. They shrink at different rates and respond differently to solvent, which is what produces puckered seams and uneven colour.

The header is stiffened

Pleats and heading tape can sag or harden after cleaning, changing how the curtain hangs even if nothing shrinks.

The mark runs down

Gravity means the visible mark is usually the top of a longer one. Check the hem before deciding you have found all of it.

Sources

What we checked and when. Where a manufacturer instruction disagrees with anything here, follow the manufacturer.

  1. How to remove stains from baby clothes, Persil UK manufacturer

    UK manufacturer guidance to act quickly on formula, blot when immediate washing is impossible, rinse under cool water, soak for at least 15 minutes where the care label permits, pre-treat with detergent and then wash to the care label.

    Checked 7 September 2026

  2. A guide to newborn laundry, American Cleaning Institute trade body

    Cleaning trade body guide to pre-treat breast milk, formula or spit-up with an enzyme stain remover, soak fresh marks for at least 30 minutes and older marks for several hours, launder, and keep stained items out of the dryer until the mark has gone.

    Checked 7 September 2026

  3. How to remove baby formula stains, Purex Stain Lab manufacturer

    Manufacturer guidance identifying breast milk, formula and baby spit-up as protein stains, explaining the role of enzymes, and warning that the mark should be checked before any drying heat because heat sets what remains.

    Checked 7 September 2026

  4. How to care for linen, FatFace retailer

    UK retailer care guidance that linen is washed in cold or lukewarm water at 30 C or lower to avoid shrinking, on a delicate or hand wash setting to reduce agitation, with a gentle detergent free of bleach and brighteners, that fabric softener coats the fibres and reduces breathability, and that bleach weakens linen fibres.

    Checked 7 September 2026

  5. Norovirus: what to do and how to stop the spread, UK Health Security Agency authority

    UK public health guidance establishing that illness related vomit can carry norovirus, that contaminated laundry should be washed with normal powder at 60 C where the care label permits, and that compatible hard surfaces should be disinfected with a bleach based product.

    Checked 7 September 2026