How To Disinfect Babys Clothes
You must not only wash you should also disinfect your babys clothes. Here are a few steps on how you can disinfect your babys clothes.
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Wash Your Baby’s Clothes The Right Way With These 10 Tips
Bringing home a newborn baby comes with a steep learning curve of new schedules, new budgets, and loads and loads of laundry. “Babies make a lot of mess between spitting up, drooling, and having diaper leaks,” said Sandra Crawley, BSN, RN at a Level II Family Birth Center in central Illinois and medical consultant at Mom Loves Best. “You’ll be doing a lot of additional laundry as a parent.”
With delicate skin and evolving immune systems, the little bundles of joy are extremely vulnerable to the environment around them. Luckily, there are many steps you can take when washing your baby’s clothes to limit their exposure to unnecessary germs, chemicals, and bacteria.
How To Prepare To Wash Your Babys Clothes
The first step towards cleaning and disinfecting your childs clothes is to understand how important washing your babys clothes for the first time is. Washing the childs clothes for the first time requires preparation. Before you prepare your childs clothes for a wash, it is important to remember that you must wash their clothes for the first time before they wear it and not after. This is because these clothes are exposed to a lot of harmful bacteria from before buying them to during the journey or even at home. Here are some things to keep in mind when washing your babys clothes:
- Check the brand label for washing instructions. This will help you understand the material and the manner in which it can react to a wash.
- Be wary about the kind of detergent used. If you can help it use non-chemical laundry soap that is specially made for infants.
- Pre-soak in water. If the material allows it, the pre-soak in hot water will kill a lot of the germs.
- Wash the baby clothes separately. This way, the bacteria from the other clothes do not transfer to the babys clothes.
- Soak in warm water after the wash. This ensures that the detergent and other allergenic bacteria are killed.
- Dry in the sun or in heat. Sunlight acts as a natural disinfectant. Ensure you dry your babys clothes in natural sunlight if possible, if not, ensure the clothes are dried in a clean, sterile room that has heat.
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Washing Baby Clothes: Frequently Asked Questions
- Hygienic Laundry
Welcoming a new baby home brings huge changes to your regular household routines. Amongst all the adjustments and new things to learn, laundry might be one of the last things on your mind but knowing how to wash baby clothes properly can help ensure they are fresh and hygienic for your little one, while also being kind to their delicate skin. Here are all the basic things to know about doing baby laundry.
Should You Wash Baby Clothes Separately
It can be tempting to throw all your washing into one load, especially when you have a million other jobs to do.
But while you can wash your familys clothes together, its important to separate out any underwear, towels or bedding. These can all carry germs and need to be washed at a higher temperature of 60 degrees.
To keep your babygrows bright, youll also need to separate your lights and darks before popping in the washing machine.
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What Should I Look For In A Detergent
Because babys soft and delicate skin is more sensitive to cleaning ingredients, its best to look out for detergents free from irritating enzymes, optical brighteners and dyes. For a start, choose non-bio over bio , and prefer using detergent with allergen-free fragrance. Generally speaking, I would recommend avoiding detergents that leave deposits on the fabric because they can potentially irritate the skin of a baby or even a full-grown adult with sensitive skin.
Why Should You Pre
You never know where theyve been! From hand-me-downs to brand new purchases, fabrics go through a lot before they touch your babys skin.
For example, clothes are often stored in warehouses that may also house a variety of bugs and rodents right next to your little ones new onesie. In addition, baby clothes are sometimes treated with formaldehyde to keep them looking fresh during shipping. As for hand-me-downs, who knows how long the clothes have been in storage collecting dust or possibly even mold?
Whatever it is, chemicals, pests, or dust, at the end of the day, you just want to keep your baby protected from the outside world. Thats where Dreft comes in! Trusted by moms for more than 80 years, Dreft is the #1 pediatrician-recommended babydetergent* for a reason: It is designed to be tough on stains while still being gentle on your babys delicate skin, ensuring a thorough clean every time.
*2018 survey of US pediatricians conducted by Dreft
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Do You Really Need To Pre
When you have a newborn, get ready to start constantly swapping new outfits both theirs and yours! But lets focus on the baby. Nothing fits for more than a few wears, and the kid is always growing! With all of these new duds, many parents find themselves asking if they should pre-wash baby clothes before letting the child wear them.
Today, well tackle this issue and share some tips for gently washing babys clothes to keep their little bodies extra safe.
Why Would I Need To Pre
As most of us realize, babies have very sensitive skin. They call it baby soft for a reason! Their skin can become irritated by certain fabrics and materials quite easily. This also applies to whatever chemicals may have come into contact with your babys clothes on the way to the store. Put simply, you just cant know where those clothes have been or what theyve touched.
According to an article from Dreft baby detergent: 9 out of 10 dermatologists say its important to wash your babys new clothes before they wear them.
Beyond listening to a company that specifically makes baby detergent, heres an additional warning from a professor of dermatology at Columbia University Medical Center: Dr. Donald Belsito. Dr. Belsito told the Wall Street Journal that it is possible for certain bugs to linger in clothing.
“I have seen cases of lice that were possibly transmitted from trying on in the store, and there are certain infectious diseases that can be passed on through clothing.”
That goes for hand-me-downs as well as outfits youve purchased yourself. You can just never be sure, but if you pre-wash babys clothes, youll be able to eliminate any lasting residue or harmful irritants. Its a precaution worth taking.
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How To Machine Wash Your Babys Clothes
Although we recommend you hand wash your babys clothes, unfortunately, this can be time-consuming and exhausting. If handwashing baby clothes arent your thing here are a few steps to machine wash your baby clothes.
1. Wash the babys clothes first before washing yours
Washing machines can be a hiding spot for bacteria, to avoid transferring some of the bacteria from your clothes to your baby clothes you must wash your babys clothes first.
2. Pre-soak using soap
One way of ensuring that your baby clothes run a full cycle is by getting a bucket of water at the temperature of 35 degrees Celsius, then add half a cup of mild detergent and allow it to soak for 30 minutes before adding it to the machine.
3. Use the rinse option twice
To ensure the soap residues and the bacteria are fully removed from your baby clothes, you must run the rinse cycle twice. Do this with the detergent in your washer and another time with no detergent, for the second spin and rinse cycle, use only water.
For more references, you can also ask your doctor for guidelines on how to wash baby clothes in the washing machine.
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Essential Tips For Washing Baby Clothes Every Parent Should Know
Learn how to launder baby clothes effectively with these handy tips. We’ll show you the right way to prep, choose a detergent, remove baby stains, and more.
Parenthood involves plenty of stressors, but learning how to wash baby clothes shouldn’t be one of them. In fact, baby laundry requires much of the same care as your regular clothes and linens. One of the major differences, of course, is the size of the garments. You’ll have to take care not to lose minuscule baby socks or damage delicate infant clothing during the wash. Baby clothing also tends to gather more stains than adult garments, so it’s a good idea to brush up on your knowledge of stain removal techniques before washing baby clothes. With a few must-know methods and a little practice, laundering baby items will soon become second nature.
So if you’re buried in baby laundry and worrying about how to wash baby clothes, don’t fret. These tricks on choosing the best baby laundry detergent, treating common baby clothing stains, and developing a laundry routine will help take the stress out of washing baby clothes as you take on new parenthood. Read on and you’ll be tackling that mountain of clothes, baby washcloths, towels, linens, and even cloth diapers in no time. With less time washing baby clothes comes more time to cuddle your little one .
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Washing Baby Clothes: The Laundry Hacks You Need To Know
If you’re looking for tips from parents just like you then you’re in luck. Weve scoured our Netmums forum for the best advice and shortcuts from mums and dads to make your family laundry a breeze.
Start your washing BEFORE you have your baby
I started washing my babys clothes yesterday! I’m 35+3. I wanted to do it weeks ago but the hubby pointed out I would want to do it again closer to time so I did them on the first day of maternity leave!! It was lovely to see them hanging on the line in the sunshine . – Kathryn H
Don’t skip washes
I didn’t wash my new baby’s clothes and she had a rash all over her chest. The midwife pointed out that the rash followed the shape of her vest and said it was from not washing new clothes. I now wash the new clothes and Anna hasn’t had a rash since. – Anonymous
Tumble dry for 15 minutes
I found putting the clothes through the tumble dryer after washing, even if just for 15 minutes, really softens them up. In fact I would highly recommend you do this for your muslins as even after washing they can still be a bit rough. – Lauren A
Pick your laundry time
I pop a load of laundry on before bed so its finished when I get up and I have time to pop a second on before I head to work. I love ironing but it was abandoned when I gave birth. – Heather R
Looking for more top laundry tips? Check out our articles below, or swap ideas with other parents in our forum.
Can I Wash Baby Clothes With My Clothes
Generally speaking, it should be fine to wash your babys clothes with the rest of the familys but there are a few exceptions. The biggest one is reusable nappies since these will contain faecal material, its very important to wash them separately from other clothes to prevent the risk of cross-contamination. Make sure to remove any residual solid material with a tissue before putting it in the washing machine.
Its also best to separate baby clothes from laundry loads which contain:
- Clothing and linens of someone who is sick
- Items used for food preparation, like tea towels
- Items used for pets, like pet blankets
- Uniforms of people who work in healthcare, restaurants, farms and other similar occupations where there is high contact with germs
Together with properly disinfecting your laundry, separating these items will help stop germs from accidentally contaminating your babys clothes during the wash.
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A Guide To Washing New Born Baby Clothes
Staring at all the clothes your newborn has can lead to only 1 question – how can something so small need so many clothes? Whether you are an expectant parent or your little one has made their arrival, its not only an uphill battle to stay on top of the amount of clothes that needs to be washed, its also important to make sure you are washing them in the right way.
You may be thinking how can you wash a baby-grow in the wrong way? Well your little one has very delicate skin that can be irritated by rough clothes or the wrong detergents.
Drying Your Baby Clothes
Your babys clothes can be dried just like you would any of your own clothes. Things like sweaters and lacy dresses should probably be laid flat to dry. However, most other items are fine to let tumble.
You might think that all those tiny clothes would dry really quickly, but that actually isnt the case. The decreased surface area makes them take a bit longer. To speed up the process, you can toss a clean, dry towel in to tumble with the baby clothes.
Its best to either skip the fabric softener or stick to a dye-free and fragrance-free version . If youre using cloth diapers, you should definitely skip the fabric softener on those. It will cause a build up on the diapers and make them less absorbent.
There are some benefits to line drying the baby clothes instead of using the dryer. The sunshine can sometimes bleach your whites, making them appear whiter. Plus, sunlight has germ-busting properties.
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