Hi,
My daughter has a stuffed animal that she loves to fall asleep with, but she always chews on the ears. So now, the stuffed animal smells. I throw it in the wash every few weeks, but even after washing, there's a slight hint of the smell. When it's not washed, the stuffed animals starts smelling stinky and sour really quickly.
Any ideas on how to get rid of the smell?
My daughter has a stuffed bunny that has two ears and tale she sucks on. I thought she was the only one. What we've done is bought about 9 of them. We wash them every few days and when I dry them I put them in the dryer for the first round, then move them in with the second round. I found the smell was a bit of a mildew smell and the extra drying seems to help.
Best of luck!
C.
I'd use baking soda rather than vinegar, which will leave its own smell and may leave a taste she won't like. Put about a quarter of a cup into the wash with it, or soak for an hour or so, and then wash it as you normally do. It works really well for cigarette smell, which is pretty tough to get out as well...
We had a blanket that even after washing, we couldnt get a stale/sour smell out of, even after I washed it in HOT HOT water. I put it in the tub with scalding hot water and a scoop and a half of Oxy Clean and let it sit all day, then I washed it on the normal cycle and dried it on the normal cylce and the smell is completely gone.
Hi M.,
Don't you just love that stale spit smell! Wonderful! Well, a couple of things. Regarding the bleach, You can use as much bleach as you want. I know bleach sounds like this big toxic no-no, but bleach isn't as bad as people think it is. I'm a nurse, and we are taught to give children bleach baths for the "superbugs" that currently are all over the place. According to the best pediatricians, the solution for the superbug baths is basically 1 to 1 water and bleach and the kids could even drink the water and have no problems. So I wouldn't worry about them getting a little bleach residue from a stuffed animal washed in bleach. The other thing is, I would recommend a couple of cycles in a dishwasher, especially if you have the "sanitized" option on your dishwasher. If you don't and the other washings don't work, wash and rinse lovely on the hottest water, with bleach, 2-3 times in a row and then line dry outside so the fresh air can get to it and give it a different fragrance than old baby spit! The other thing you can try is dry cleaning. The cleaners may look at you like you're wierd, but who cares! And just one more thing, even though this isn't part of your question and you may not have any problems deciding about this at all....let your daughter have lovely as long as she wants. There is no reason to take it away just because it seems like she's too old for it. As my own mama says, "I have yet to see a bride walk down the aisle with her blankie in hand!" Same thing with her precious animal. It's comfort and stability right now, and all too soon she'll grow out of it. We need to treasure our small child moments while we can! Squeeze her a good one for me and God bless!
If you have a sterilization cycle on your washer use it. If not... just use a hot wash, and warmest rinse... You might to a presoak, Use whatever soap.. and Use bleach. You can get bleach that is safe for color... granted I just use regular bleach... I don't care if out lovey gets faded... It's almost 4 years old... and been through the wash tons of times... and has even lost and eye... sewn up during a surgury. Then dry it twice or on high... making sure it gets dry is the biggy!!!
Wash it with some white vinegar in the rinse cycle, & maybe try baking soda in the wash. These get out diaper stink, so I'd figure them to be equal to most anything.
Hi M.,
If you can get one or two copies of hte stuffed animal, do it. We have three stuffed pigs that I rotate when one gets smelly. Just tell your daughter that her animal is getting a good bath and will look and smell just like she does after a bath. Any of the washing advice given by the other Moms will work. Good luck.
Add some Borax or Arm & Hammer baking soda to the wash and then rinse twice. You can also dip the ears in plain white vinegar for a few mintues before washing to see if that kills the bacteria that's causing the funky smell. I always use a dryer sheet - my son hasn't died yet and he loves the way his lovies (he has 5) smell and feel when they are warm from the dryer. I wash his favorite every week 'cuz it gets gross - he drags it everywhere and tends to use it as a Kleenex. Blechk! I know a lot of the moms are into organic cleaning methods, etc. but I am a Clorox girl at heart and Nature is fine but when something else works better - use it!
P.S. The replacement trick doesn't work - it won't feel or smell the same - you can't fool kids!
I would use a bucket with lots of vinigar/water and let sit all day before washing again. Once the bad smell sets in that bad it might require a longer soak. If you wash it and dry it with the yucky smell sometimes it gets in the other things being washed. Personally, I would avoid bleach since you can never be sure you fully rinsed it out.
Find a replacement. I mean find the exact same stuffy. Do it now before they don't make it anymore and you loose it. (Personal experience!)
I made 4 lamby head-blanket stuffy things for my daughter when she was born. They were just about identical. One for car, daycare, home, and extra in case one was lost. It was wonderful to have different ones, so one didn't get over used and we had a back up in case of loss.
We toss her newest (since 8 mo.) love in the washer for a "sanitizing" bath. It's longer and hotter.
S
White vinegar works great in getting a lot of tough smells out and it is natural. Do a load with hot water and a cup of white vinegar. Maybe wash twice if it needs it and follow with a regular load with detergent if the vinegar smell is there.
Oxy Clean may work as well. similar to Baking Soda. Line drying outside in the sun is highly recommended as well.
For really stinky stuff, I think baking soda works best.
Good luck
Put two capfuls of vinegar in the fabric softener section of your clothes washer and wash the stuffie along with the regular wash.
Another option if the ones here don't work is to use an enzyme-based cleaner. I have two different ones at home -- one for pet odors and the other that I purchased to take that mildewy smell out of bath towels that sometimes occurs after a while. The one for the towels is natural and should work well in this case; it's called Bac Out. It is a mix of natural enzymes and botanicals and smells really nice -- lime.
Good luck!
