5 Steps to Get Baby Poop Out of Clothes
Diaper blowout? It happens—here are some tips for getting baby poop out of clothes.
At some point, most parents will come face-to-face with some kind of unfortunate baby-cleaning task. From meal time to playing outside to the inevitable diaper blowout, messes and stains happen.
But if you need some advice on how to get baby poop out of clothes, you've come to the right place. Here are some tips for getting even the worst baby poop out of your clothes and your baby's clothes.
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5 Ways to Get Baby Poop Out of Clothes
By following these five steps, you can effectively clean clothing after a diaper blowout.
Step 1: Clean off the big chunks with baby wipes
Baby wipes are a go-to for many parents and caregivers to change messy diapers, but they can also come in handy when the diaper mess escapes the diaper.
Baby wipes can actually be more effective for cleaning baby poop out of clothes than other disposable cleaning products, like paper towels, because they shape better to your hand, says Courtenay Hartford, author of The Cleaning Ninja.
Step 2: Rinse and don't rub
Rinse off the remaining mess with warm water in the sink, says Liz Turrigiano, cofounder of Diaperkind, a cloth-diaper service in New York City. Avoid excessive rubbing and let the water do the work!
Step 3: Wash it
Follow up the rinse and removal with a wash in the laundry machine using the heavy-duty setting and the sanitize or hottest cycle. It's okay to throw in other clothes to make it a full load.
Step 4: Evaluate your work
Once the clothing has gone through the washer but before drying, take a close look at it. If the garment still has stains, rewash it, but add bleach or hydrogen peroxide to the cycle when you wash it again.
Step 5: Dry it
Once the baby poop stain has been removed, it's time to toss the clothing into the dryer or line-dry if you prefer.
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More Tips for Removing Tough Stains
Need more help getting tough stains out? Here are a few more tips for removing baby poop from clothing—or any tough stain, for that matter. Because, well, parenthood.
Don't let stains sit.
Address any spots as soon as you can. The longer a stain sits on a piece of clothing, the more it might "set" and the harder it could be to remove.
Rinse the right way.
When you rinse the stain, be sure to rinse it carefully with room-temperature water from the opposite side of the fabric so you don't inadvertently push the stain into the fibers.
Don't use a brush to scrub.
Harsh scrubbing, especially with a brush, could wear down the fabric.
Do use a stain pretreatment after rinsing.
Try OxiClean, a favorite of both Turrigiano and Hartford.
Don't throw the item right into the wash.
Let the pretreatment sit according to instructions. If you launder immediately, the stain remover gets washed right off.
Don't dry until the stain is gone.
Heat will set the stain, so always be sure to check that the stain is completely gone before moving onto to the dryer.
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