washing baby items

[Cumberland]

I was wondering what most people do when it comes to washing baby items since I am about to start washing the mound of items i have collected so far. Do you guys use Dreft only? ( but i love the smell of Gain!) What about handwashing some things but not others? Whenever i look at baby things on ebay, they always claim they were handwashed, never used bleach and line dried. Do people actually do that?

[SueC]

I never did the handwashed, line dried thing, but I did always wash the baby items in dreft or the All or Target version. I especially liked the fresh smell of the All baby detergent. I do this for almost the whole first year, for some reason I feel wierd about throwing these tiny little garments in with the rest of our laundry.

We actually had a bib that was supposed to be handwash only. 8O

If you can't tell already, we didn't do the handwash, line dry, no bleach thing. It's survival of the fittest for the baby clothes, IMO, and there is enough laundry to stay on top of as it is. There were one or two really delicate outfits that she had and....can't remember....maybe we did line dry those or put them on a gentle cycle. As far as bleach, I think Eric did an extra rinse cycle if he used bleach to make sure it all washed out. White or light baby clothes + breastfed infant poop = stains. We couldn't get them out any other way (open to suggestions, though).

I don't think we used the Dreft and did ok with regular detergent. But if you have the time or inclination, it may be a good idea since babies have such sensitive skin.

[PrincessFiona]

8O

Am I suposed to be washing baby clothes in special soap????? Wow...how did I miss this 4 times? 8)

kris

[Cumberland]

If you missed it four times, that tells me it must not be too important!

[Phoebe]

We used Dreft the first time around because I got it as a baby shower gift. I didn't buy it again and used regular detergent. We never had any problems with skin irritation. I have used bleach on whites to get out poop and spit-up stains. One thing I recently found was the Clorox Bleach Pen. It works wonders on getting stains out around the neck where kids drool and spit-up. It saved a couple outfits without having use bleach in the wash cycle. My two year old likes condiments and gets it all over her clothes and refuses to wear a bib.

With our 2nd baby, I rewashed all the old clothes in Dreft, but have since started putting all the clothes in the regular wash. So far, no problems with doing that.

I think it is a personal preference and may depend the sensitivity your little one's skin.

Jennifer

My two year old likes condiments and gets it all over her clothes and refuses to wear a bib.

Condiments....that is so two!

First baby, did the Ivory/Dreft thing. By the time #4 came around I was using Purex and now when I use anything else both my DD have allergic reactions. Go figure. I wonder if we train our skin at a young age tolerance to chemicals and irritants?

[mommax3]

With my first, I used a small box of Dreft that I received as a gift (or as a promotion....can't remember) and when that was gone, everything went in together. I didn't do anything differently the second and third times. My kids don't have allergies, but they are very fair and all had pretty sensitive bottoms......but the detergents I used never seemed to affect them.

For nursing baby poop, I found that Resolve carpet cleaner works really well! I used a lot of stain stick and Shout spray stain remover, too, and there's some stuff called "Zout" that works pretty well, too.

There is so much laundry associated with a new baby that it makes sense to integrate it with your own if you possibly can.

Sally

[HeartRN]

It all goes together, and so far no problems!--(Although I still can't keep up with the laundry piles!)

I did the same thing as others have: used the little box of dreft until it was gone and then it was all laundry together. My husband had a lot of soap allergies when he was a kid so I thought there was a chance our daughter could have some of the same problems. But so far so good. I don't like doing laundry much anyway, so one less load is a good thing. And as for the nursing baby poop, I've also found that the Shout stain remover works wonders. It has saved many little outfits so far, whites and colors alike. We also received a sample of OxyClean and that also worked well. I have never hand washed and line dried. I sure don't have that kind of time!