You spend a lot of money on baby clothes in the hopes that they will look clean and fresh for a long time to come. What happens when your baby spills their food or drink all over them? If you’re anything like me or, let’s face it, any parent, you have a mountain of stained baby clothes piling up. They require attention but you don’t know where to start.
Lucky for you this article will take the mystery and guesswork out of the whole stain-filled ordeal. We’ve done the research and will present to you a handy how-to guide.
So go ahead, read the list, find your plan of action, and go forth on your stain-fighting mission. You’ll thank us afterward.
Not All Stains Are Created Equal
The most common stains on your tiny baby’s clothes will likely come from milk or formula. As your baby gets a little bigger then the culprit will become actual food stains. Learning how to be a human being is a tough and messy job. It feels like 99.9% of everything they ingest will inevitably be smooshed into those adorable outfits. They’ll laugh. We’ll cry.
Milk and formula are tricky because, even after washing and the stains appear to be gone, they always creep back in the form of the dreaded yellow spots. Usually, right around the collar area. There are lots of reasons why clothes yellow over time, but in these instances, it happens to be from the protein that adheres to the clothing fiber. These can be cleaned for good though with a little extra effort than a normal wash.
Food stains require more immediate attention since some dyes and colors can permanently stain the clothes if left for too long. It’s a good idea to keep a stain stick handy with you to rub it into those food stains until you can get it into the washer.
Some spots may only require a quick run under cold water. Things like applesauce, rice cereal, yogurt will likely come out under cold tap water with gentle finger scrubbing. The more flavorful stuff will need more attention, things like fruit, vegetables, dipping sauces, etc.
Whether you have to deal with the stain ASAP or you need to get rid of an old stain, the methods are the same. Let’s get right into it.
1. Good Ole Soapy Water
Any kind of soap will do, but Dawn Dish Soap is one of the best for treating greasy food stains or any stains for that matter. Resist the urge to scrub clothing stains out with hot water even though we’re used to doing that for dirty dishes. Clothing is a whole other beast. Hot water in most cases may set the spot more permanently into the fabric. If in doubt, or instructions suggest otherwise on the clothing label, test with cold water first.
Start by wetting the affected area. Add a drop or two of soap. At this point, you can either scrub it with a soft bristle scrubber brush or, if you don’t have one, use both hands and scrub the fabric against itself until a light soapy suds forms. Yay, you did the hard part! Toss that bad boy in the wash and it will be stain-free when it comes out the other side.
You can do this anywhere. In a restaurant? In a store? No problem, simply take the food-stained offense to the bathroom and use the hand soap and faucet. Easy peasy. Just be sure to always have a spare change of clothes (or three).
The key is to tackle it before the mess dries up while it’s still fresh. Rinsing with cold water and hitting it with soap before the wash cycle will make all the difference.
2. Bleach
Uh oh, your little bundle of joy has just painted their white onesie with purred carrots. Let Clorox step in and do the heavy lifting. Assuming the clothes pass a bleach test, add 1/2 a cup to the wash cycle on the hottest water setting.
This method works on fresh stains as well as older set-in stains. However, the sooner the better is always the best way to go. New stains will almost always come out but there is no guarantee with old ones.
You can also spot treat with diluted bleach as well. Take 1 1/2 tsp. of bleach and mix with 1/4 cup water. Dab onto the stained area with a q-tip or a small brush. With this method, be sure to wash it afterward so the bleach isn’t left sitting on the fabric. You can also use this method to do a bleach test on the fabric. Just make to do it under the collar or somewhere that isn’t visible just in case the bleach fades the fabric color.
3. Baking Soda Paste
For a more natural method, baking soda paste has great stain-fighting oxidizing power that can combat almost anything you throw at it. Start by mixing together 6 TBSP of baking soda with 1/3 cup water and mix to form a paste. Arm & Hammer recommends testing for colorfastness before trying this method. Cover the stain with the paste and scrub it into the fabric. After letting it dry, go ahead and toss the garment into the normal wash cycle and viola.
This also works wonders on grease stains, too.
4. Laundry Detergent Paste
This method has a little more oomph to it than the baking soda paste. You can either make a paste with 6TBSP powder detergent and 1/3 water or you can kick it up a notch by adding white vinegar to the mix. Equal parts vinegar, water, and powdered laundry detergent. Scrub onto the stain before letting it dry, then wash as normal.
I can personally attest to the merits of this method, I’ve used it for food stains on my daughter’s clothes – BBQ sauce if you’re curious.
5. OxiClean
This method is best for old and set stains. If you’ve pulled out a bin of baby clothes from the attic and all those dribbled formula or milk spots are back with a vengeance in a nice shade of yellow, then let OxiClean work its magic.
You can either use a top loader washer to soak them but if you have a front load washer then you can use a tub or even just a large bowl. You’ll need 1 scoop of OxiClean for every gallon of hot water. Once it’s dissolved then soak the clothes for a while. When I say a while, I mean like longer than 8 hours. Either all day or all night or both, the longer the better, right? When you’ve decided they’ve soaked long enough, then wring them out and toss them into the wash cycle. You’ll be amazed at how fresh and unstained your baby’s clothes will look. You may be tempted to wash your own clothes this way just to freshen them up.
Along with the powder, OxiClean also comes in various sprays and gel sticks to help with pretreating difficult stains. For example. use these products for greasy or especially worrisome stains you want to immediately pre-treat.
6. Tide Pen
This is the handiest of the methods because you can toss a Tide Pen into your diaper bag or purse for pretreating stains anywhere. It’s also the easiest, just press and rub the pen into the stain and let it sit until the article can be washed. A pack of these would make a great gift for a new mom.
Six Easy Stain Tips
For convenience, we have gathered all the most generally-applicable tips together into one place. Enjoy!
- Remove Staining Material. Scrape off as much of the stain as you can before pretreating. Don’t leave clumps or chunks of food stuck onto the clothes. Use the back of a dull butter knife, a credit card, or a car key.
- Keep Clothes Damp. Don’t dry baby clothes until the stain is gone. Drying can make the stain permanent. After the wash cycle, check the stained area. Still, see something? Repeat the process by pretreating again.
- Pretreat ASAP. That should be the stain-fighting mantra. The longer you wait the less likely it will be to disappear completely.
- Elbow Grease. Scrub, scrub, and scrub some more. Get as much of it off as you can before washing it.
- Follow Instructions. Trust the process. Follow all the directions and wait the suggested times. Don’t rush through it only to find out you have to do it again.
- Avoid Staining Fabrics, if you can. While these methods will work on most of your baby’s clothing, it’s always a good idea to check the labels and make sure you aren’t using a fabric that isn’t compatible with chemical pretreating.
Final Thoughts
Babies are messy little people who enjoy playing with their food. Us moms will never have a shortage of clothes to wash or stains to treat. While bibs can help localize some of the mess, it will inevitably spill over onto their – and your – clothing. You can even buy disposable bibs so you don’t have to deal with stained cloth ones. Let’s face it, no matter what we do, parenting gets messy. Especially when babies start learning how to use spoons. or have their own place settings in front of them, messes will prevail.
Feel confident knowing you can handle any mess your precious baby might toss at you. Let’s keep those clothes looking newer, longer. It’ll stretch your dollar. It’ll preserve more precious memories of baby smiles in those adorable outfits free of nasty stains, too!
