Mom Seeking Advice - Abington,PA

I didn't bother with dreft because it didn't get rid of stains well. I use bleach on whites and Tide with all laundry. Tide is the only detergent that passed all the stain tests. We have and HE washer and dryer now so we use Tide HE and if its not whites I add a scoop of 20 Mule Team Borax to each load (not whites, don't mix borax and bleach) and never have a stain left. Borax has been around forever! It's cheaper than Oxi Clean and works sooo much better on stains. Back in the day people used it to wash kittens that had fleas, that's how gentle it is!! It even got crayon out of clothes after going through the dryer!! Good luck with stains!

When my kids were little, I accidentally discovered THE BEST stain spray! It is called Totally Toddler. It smells like baby powder. It worked on everything! Formula stains, grass stains, blood, dirt, you name it! I would spray it on the clothes when I took them off my child and throw them in the hamper, then wash as usual. It worked all the time. It is the only spray that I have ever used that worked on formula stains!

Oxyclean! And a good soak in lemon water then hang up in the sunshine. Or.....this might sound crazy.....but don't buy white baby clothes. I stopped buying anything white for my children when I had my second baby. Much. Less. Stress.

I asked this exact same question a few weeks ago, and got great responses. What worked for me, from the responses I got was this:

Take any stain cleaner that says it is enzymatic (I used Shout). Spray down the stains really well, until they are soaked through, and let them SIT for at least 24 hours. Then wash as usual is whatever detergent you want to use (I use All free and clear).

This worked with 1 treatment for almost all the clothes, even though the clothes had been washed, dried, and stored for 3 years. For a couple really dark stains, I repeated this treatment, and by the 2nd wash, the stains were gone.

I now do the same thing on fresh stains, works great with 1 treatment. And it's also saved my clothes from spitup stains on the shoulders :)

My little ones are 3 1/2 and a newborn also. It's been a great age difference, the toddler LOVES to help with the baby. Good luck!

I don't know how it would be for your newborn but I use Tide and also the new Tide Release. It's worked great on all kinds of stains for my 2 boys.

I always used Dreft on all baby clothes. actually until my daughter was like 3 or 4 and then I discovered OxI CLEAN. It is a miracle for stains and my son has had no problems with it.

For the formula/breastmilk stains you need something with enzymes in it. Doesn't really matter what. You can use a detergent, or a spray, I have seen people recommend a pet stain remover, a toddler stain remover, all kinds of things, and they all have enzymes that "eat" the milk proteins.

If the proteins don't get eaten, they keep coming back (like pet stains on carpets will come back). I used an enzyme detergent if I had a full load, let it soak with a good amount of detergent and hot water, then drained it and ran it with a scent and dye free detergent. Dreft is not scent and dye free, and is more pricey than the Free & Clear detergents, so I never used dreft.

If I had really set in stains (like before I found out about the enzyme thing and pulled out old baby clothes and all the stains had resurfaced really bad) I let it soak 24-48 hours starting with hot water to activate the enzymes. Now I do a soak like that on the outgrown last season of clothes before I pack them away for the next baby to keep the stains from coming back.

(PS- the wellness businesses are probably melaleuca. that is what I use personally, but the detergent does NOT have enzymes in it. the spot treater does, but I got a cheaper enzyme detergent from the store just to do those whites that might have milk stains.)

Dreft makes a stain spray that works really well. I even use it on my clothes. It took out the formula stains in his clothes. I swear by it. Still use it now and my son is 2 1/2.

Oxi-clean in the spray form. I buy it at BJ's near the laundry detergent section. It's the best stuff ever!

Spray 'n Wash has always worked best for me. We even used it on my son's clothes when he was a baby and it never bothered his sensitive skin, or made the excema (or however you spell it) worse.
Good luck on the new one. My son is 3 1/2 and we just had our second, I love the age split, hopefully it is a good one for you too! Congrats!

I use non-toxic cleaners that work. Perfect for babies, and the whole family. I loved them so much I became an Independent Distributor and now sell them. I'd be happy to send you a link to look at them yourself if you are interested.

I had that problem too.... I used Oxyclean Baby. Follow the directions for the soak. It worked like a charm!

Dreft is one of the worst detergents... overpriced, overscented, and doesn't work! Same thing for Ivory Snow. Any of the "free and clear" detergents will be gentle enough for baby. I have found that OxiClean and Spray and Wash (or Shout) were the most effective at removing stains. I've heard that formula stains are very difficult, so I would make sure you are using OxiClean and a pretreater on them all the time. I use Method or Mrs. Myers laundry detergent and am very happy with it-- the only thing I've found is that if a newborn has a diaper blowout, I just pitched the onsie because nothing I did ever totally got rid of the poop stains... they grow out of them so fast that I just didn't worry about it!

i use this to this day for me and my kids they are 7, 4 1/2 and 22 months. in every load i put a scoop of oxiclean and i spray all stains with the dreft stain spray, it gets everything out even blood! if its a stain that is really bad i will spray and let soak in oxiclean for about a day and then wash with the rest of the clothes in just a free and clear detergent.

We do what's recommended in the book, Clean House, Clean Planet: use 1/2 detergent, plus 1/2 cup Borax (and sometimes 1/2 cup baking soda). The more detergent you use, the less effective it becomes, the more it builds up on fabric and ruining it.

Our son had severe reflux his first 20mos, projectiling up tp 8x/day. My husband works manual labor, sometimes with grease & chemicals. Our laundry looks great :)

Personally, I use organic detergents... they might not be as efficient but I'd rather have my kids healthy with a few clothes "not so white", then exposing them to all the chemicals.

UGH....did you really want all the offers for buying overly priced detergent offered through MLM's? I doubt it.

I've raised 4 daughters and washed daycare laundry for years. I have no problem with tide and a little bit of a bleach soak once and awhile if needed. Even my most sensitive babies with skin problems did fine when we kept them slathered with hand cream.