Looking for alternative for newborn babies laundry, not talking about diapers. ivory snow and dreft to over priced.

-- Bruce Burdge (comfreybruce@richmond.com), March 01, 2002

Answers

I have 6 kids, and have never used any special soap for baby clothes. Always do all my wash together. If need be through in a little borax for whitening.

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), March 01, 2002.

Arm and Hammer, or any brand that is "free" of dyes and perfumes. I am due with baby #6, and I only ever buy one box of special detergent for the newborn babies... after that box I wash their things in our regular detergent and have never had a problem.

-- Leighanne T. (robertt@click1.net), March 01, 2002.

I never used anything special, laundry wise--we were already using the clear (no dyes/perfumes) All, because guys generally don't like smelling of "mountain rain" or other such nonsense (grin). I never understood all the fuss about the fire-retardant sleepwear, either. I mean, it might be an issue if you have a fireplace and use it, but otherwise...those chemicals (for fire retardance) might also cause problems.

You might want to try a prewash cycle (or last rinse), then use half or a quarter of the detergent you normally use with a normal cycle. I know a lot of people who have problems with Tide, so maybe just switching your detergent will help.

By the way, dreft and ivory snow are both detergents, supposedly just milder--ivory snow is no longer flaked ivory soap. I think dreft was always a detergent.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), March 01, 2002.

The homemade laundry detergent we all talk about would work fine. It is all natural and the borax in it is also a sanitizer.

-- Karen (mountains_mama@hotmail.com), March 01, 2002.

I second karen's suggestion! Pure soap is not hard to make. And jsut grate one bar up to make 2-1/2 gallons of laundry gel. I just LOVE this homemade laundry soap. Wouldnt go back to store-bought detergent for anything! Used to be, if I had to hang clothes up in the house, they would be stiff as a board when dry. They are much softer now that I use this homemade soap. And hanging out in the sun makes those white cottons pure white. If you can order a freeze or a stiff breeze, it does a very good job of softening those clothes as soft as a drier would make them.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), March 01, 2002.

Just use your normal detergent! If it irritates babies skin, put baking soda in the rinse water.

-- Ardie/WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), March 01, 2002.

we never use harsh detergent in general...dr. bronners sal subs, arm & hammer....anyway, did all the special stuff for baby #1, including double rinses, washing separately, etc., for about 1 year. Gave up. We just then washed as we did everything else. One rinse, with other clothes....no big deal, no problem..

-- marcee (thathope@mwt.net), March 01, 2002.

I didn't have much luck making my laundry soap - don't know what I did wrong, but went back to store-bought because my clothes just weren't getting clean. Anyway, I always use liquid soap because it's better on the septic and lines, and our pediatrician told me not to bother with buying special stuff, as long as I used liquid it would rinse clean and be just fine for the babies. I used the dreft that was bought for me as a shower gift with the first one, and never bought another box.

-- Christine in OK (cljford@mmcable.com), March 02, 2002.

just soak in cold water overnight. no soap necessary.

-- Elizabeth Quintana (rockshelter@webtv.com), March 02, 2002.