Removing Food Stains from Baby's Clothing
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Removing Food Stains from Baby's Clothing
Dec 2001
My five month old daughter has just started babyfood and of course with that
comes a new problem with her laundry -- stain fighting! Does anyone have a
good recommendation on what products to use on her clothing? How do i get
out those sweet potato stains??!! I am still using dreft detergent. thanks,
elizabeth
I think Zout is the best thing in my laundry room. I can get out even old
set in stains in all colors. You can buy at the grocary store.
Dana
use a spot stain remover like Shout or Zout. Both have worked for almost
everything. I also have never used Dreft - I use Arm & Hammer and just
recently bought All liquid since it doesn't have enzymes in it. Good luck -
you might also put the babe in white as it can be bleached and save the nice
stuff for after meals.
Freyja
My mother in law told me about Casscade- the
dishwasher detergent. It works GREAT, just buy the
powder, make a paste with it, scrub it on, then wash
it as normal. Works wonders... Also, I used to use
Dreft, and found that it didn't work as well as other
laundry soap. My pediatrician said that using a dye
and perfume free soap would be just as good for the
baby. Rachel
use plain old liquid Tide, unscented, on my laundry including the
baby's clothes that are stained with sweet potato, green beans, etc.
I don't pre-treat, and all the stains just come out in the wash. I
think I remember reading that Tide and other laundry detergents have
some special stain-removing quality built in.
Ginger
I have had good luck pretreating stains with 'Spray and Wash' or 'Shout' as
the clothes go into the hamper, then washing as usual. You can pretreat
clothes up to seven days with either of these.
ellen
Nature's Miracle really works well on this. It's marketed as a pet odor/stain
remover. You can buy it in pet food stores. (Get the liquid form.) It contains an
enzyme that breaks down proteins. I recently used it on week-old pomegranate juice
stains--totally gone!
--
Kellie
Zout works wonders (better than Shout in my experience). Use it BEFORE you wash
the stained clothes though. Rub it in well, let it sit about 10 minutes, then wash in
regular manner. For a really bad stain, I have soaked clothes in a pail of water after
rubbing in Zout, and this worked well.
I found that the key to getting out baby food stains
is to start to work on it before it dries. Put some soap
on it, rub the stain to get the solids out and the soap
into the cloth, and put it in a tub (with cold water)
to soak until you do the laundry (in cold water).
I found that once a stain is dry it is much more difficult
to remove.
Other measures to deal with stains include dressing your
child in clothes with dark colors or patterns, and not
worrying about stains. Remember, a baby's clothes
can be clean, even if they are stained.
Suzanne
Getting food stains out of baby's clothing:
I highly recommend a product called Zout. It works
wonders on all stains. Also, you probably do not need
to spend the money on Dreft. Since my baby was a
newborn I have been using Arm & Hammer Detergent that
is free of any perfumes etc. It is a powder in the
large box and much more cost effective! Hope this
helps.
Melinda
I keep a plastic tub of water with a little Tide in it (Tide Free, available
at Target most of the time) near the washer. All messy clothes go straight
into this prewash tub as soon as possible. Sometimes they sit there for
three days before washing. I don't do any scrubbing on spots at all, except
for a few times when stains got set in. The only stain I have to treat differently
is banana. Once the black splotches appear the only thing I have found that
works is Oxiclean (available at Bed, Bath, and Beyond) rubbed directly into
the spot. I don't think that is a recommended use method, but it has saved
a couple of tops that I would have had to toss otherwise. Good luck!
Kimberly
Here's the URL of a huge web site on stain removal, hope it's of use.
. However, I think you might want to
give up on the idea of stain-free clothes. We tried a lot of stuff, but some of
those stubborn, under the chin stains just won't come out! Good luck,
-michael s.
A different remedy for stains on clothing:
For kid's clothing stains of all kinds I've used Burt's Bees Gardener's
Hand Soap (they have a web site) to scrub the stain before regular
washing. It has worked on almost everything, but like other remedies,
it matters how long the stain has been on the clothing. Even after a
day or two, however, it works well enough to fade out the stain so it is
not obvious on the clothing. I still use shout, zout, biz and/or bleach
pretreatment for situations where they will work or it is a large area
of dirt, but scrubbing with the hand soap has always worked better for
me for such things as colorful food or paint splotches. Susan
I try to rinse out her clothes when I take them off her at the end of the
day. Then I spray a little Shout on the stained area. So far, everything -
absolutely everything - has come out with this method. I really swear by
Shout!
Sarah
I never really learned how to do laundry until I had a baby, who is
now 2. My mom always just threw everything in together (yes, my dad
had pink underwear sometimes...). Note: I find no need to separate
baby's wash from the rest of the family's, unless you have a newborn
or a baby with skin issues, like allergies.
First separate colors from whites. Wash whites with about a
cup of bleach; --I've found that most baby clothes that are white
with pictures or patterns can be washed in bleach without the colors
changing. Use HOT water to wash those, along with regular detergent,
and add the bleach after the tub is full of water.
For colors, spray stains with Shout or Spray N Wash (big
containers to refill spray bottles are cheap at Costco) as soon as
possible after getting the stain, though, to be honest, I often don't
do it til I wash the clothes...and use a regular dose of detergent
with that load too (wash in cold or warm).
The only thing I have been unable to get out in the last 2 years
is mildew, which occurs when you put wet or damp clothes in the
hamper, and an indelible stain sets. I tossed out a few articles of
clothing before figuring out what it was--now I let clothes dry flat
or hanging before tossing in the hamper, or wash them promptly.
One other note-- if oil or other substances don't come out with
the above methods, rewash using more Shout and hotter
water--eventually all will be clean. Good luck! --Heidi
I have quite a bit of experience in working with
stained clothes because I happen to work at Clorox in
downtown Oakland. First, a good reference is the Tide
website. They have a PDA download for stains which is
helpful. Second, realize that it depends on what kind
of stain it is -- different stain removers work well
with different kind of stains. For example, something
may work well with oily/greasy stains but not with
berry juice. Generally, though, you can rely on 1)
pretreating with a high-quality detergent like Tide 2)
pretreating with a color safe bleach like Clorox 2 or
Biz (the powders are much more effective than the
liquids). 3) Use a pretreater like Shout or Spray n'
Wash 4) For whites, nothing beats the stain removal
power of bleach. I would recommend a thicker bleach we
make called "Clorox Advantage". It's thicker so it
doesn't splash, it whitens better, it doesn't have a
strong odor and it doesn't leave a residue. In
general, pretreating does alot. Get one of those
pretreating applicators that Tide sells (the tide Kick
-- a resevoir with a roller ball applicator). Good
luck!
Bryant
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