That you just wash the baby clothes

[glitterglitters]

I'm in a fb group about babies of an age similar to mine and there are a lot of mums in the US.

A post popped up about nappy leaks/poo explosion/poonamis and the US mums are saying they throw out entire outfits weekly?!?

Now, this is my second child so I'm no stranger to a horrific code brown, but am I being silly I find this incredibly wasteful?

Sure it's hideous, but don't you just crack on with it?

When I said I just scrap/recoil/soak where necessary/loadsa stain remover/wash/job done I was basically a minority.

I know some blow outs are bad but aibu thinking it's just plain frivolous?

I have five US-born DCs and know a lot of young families right now - nobody I know now or knew when my DCs were babies throws out perfectly usable baby clothes if they are salvageable at all.

Have seen my fair share of (EBF) poop to the armpits, especially after a trip in the baby car seat because the angle of the baby while reclining meant it was all shot backwards along the back. However, I used the same sets of Irish retailer Dunne's (very durable) one piece vests for all five.

If the women you are in contact with tried to get the stains out using bleach in the washing machine, it's possible they ruined the original colour of the clothes or broke down the fibres so much that holes appeared, and they decided to get rid of the items. ExH is American and used bleach abundantly - ruined many items of mine and the DCs. He really believed in household bleach and wouldn't hear of using Clorox 2, which promises to be colour safe.

Also, sometimes a soiled item will end up being missed by whoever is doing the laundry, and will then be put in the dryer where stains will be baked in. Nobody hangs clothes out to dry in the US. I can see someone throwing out an item with baked-in pureed carrots/sweet potato stains decorating the front or sleeves, or poop stains on a large area of a little vest.

Also, sometimes a cleaner will do babies' or children's laundry in my area, and sometimes they are pressed for time. Laundry is done weekly if a cleaner is doing it. A poop or food would potentially be sitting in the clothing for six days, even if initially rinsed.

I have always thrown out period-stained undies that were beyond salvage. Life is too short...

Another note - when my DCs were babies and small children my friends and I used to send bags of used clothing, jackets, wellies, snowboots, snow bibs, ice skates, etc. to each other and we used to look out for things we knew another family might use if we were ever out second hand shopping or trawling garage sales. The Americans I know are incredibly thrifty and frugal, and mainly UMC.

Yes, it's incredibly wasteful, but you'll never convince the type of people who do it to think otherwise.

I do think based on the group a bit of "look at me" as it's a lot if (well meaning) ftms who get super excited about sharing everything the child has done. That in mind certainly a bit of hyperbole going on.

@mathanxiety half of my family see from North America and they always exclaim at our laundry stuff and get super confused so you're definitely right on those counts I think.

Also I do have a lot of American made baby clothes but they wash so well normally, even with the super stainy ones. I just find it so unusual though.

YANBU OP. I had a friend on FB comment about throwing away clothes after a poonami, like it was something everyone did and I was quietly very judgy.

I see no excuse whatsoever for throwing out any clothes - I'm even perplexed by PPs on this thread cutting babies out of clothes. Eh? You pull the clothes off, if it spreads, even into fine, easily wipe-able baby hair, you wash the baby - and yes, I've done this with wipes when out and about, but it really shouldn't happen that often. If it's happening daily, then look for a different nappy.

I used cloth nappies with both my DCs - the nappies were never stained, so I don't understand why people can't get poo stains out of clothes which don't get anything like the coverage of a nappy. You use the right amount of a decent washing powder and a washing machine with a pre-rinse cycle - bleach is not required, nor is soaking, nor is any other real effort, TBH, so I don't buy this 'life is too short' argument. I used a dryer - hanging out does feck-all to remove stains most of the year round as you need direct sunlight.

And as for throwing away period stained underwear...it takes two minutes (if that) in the sink with a nail brush and stain remover then straight into the wash. If you're buying cheap baby clothes and underwear then using that as an excuse to justify throwing away and buying new, think of the sweatshops you're supporting by doing that. Congratulations.

???? I just used to bag it all up if out. Then do a quick soak in a bucket of Napisan when home, then fish offending items out, plop in laundry sink, empty bucket with poopy water into toilet and flush. Get fresh bucket of Napisan, give proper long soak overnight then wash in the machine.

Never threw anything out. Some things stained though no matter how much they were soaked. I just earmarked those items as ‘around the house’, no big deal.

I've got an incontinent DS17, one day I had 11 pairs of pants that "had issues" at £9 for 3, I have to deal with cleaning them. I have a nappy bucket, Milton, oxy wash, detol wash and, sometimes, I add zoflira. At 17, they're big poos. My washing machine has a steam setting too. And lots and lots of disposable gloves.

We are trying to get him toilet trained, hence the large amount of dirty pants. I couldn't afford to throw them.

Why are people cutting babies out of vests? Those envelope neck vests can be pulled down over the shoulders! Undo vest at bottom, deal with nappy and poonami as much as possible, slip baby arms out of armholes and roll vest DOWN and off. No need for anything nasty to go near baby's face at all.

I would never dream of binning anything covered in poo - that's so disgusting. Get the worst off with a soak in plain cold water and salt, then soak in hot water and napisan or biotex. Wash in a 60 deg wash, dry in sunlight. Never had a stain beat me yet!

You don't need to soak! Completely unnecessary. Never soaked a poo-ey nappy in my life - can't imagine why you'd do it with clothes. Just chuck them in the washing machine! You'll never convince the binners it's hassle-free if you insist on soaking.

I've lived as an adult in the U.S. for 45 years and I have never heard about people throwing baby clothes away that were poopy. On our local FB page young mothers are always posting well-used baby clothes for sale, very cheap or for free. Kids wear hand-me-downs here just like they do in England.

We use reusable nappies so don't have many poo explosions as the elastics are tighter but my washing machine is regularly washing poo things. Newborn poo really isn't offensive and is water soluble. YANBU - they are very wasteful!

I probably soak clothes once or twice a week. Things that are washed but stained go to the bottom of the pile. In 3.5 years of having children I’ve binned stuff 2 or 3 times. Only ever when out and only cheap things, vests I think. Once was a toddler poo when nappy training because I wasn’t willing to carry shitty pants around with me all day.

Sun bleaching is good for getting poo stains out or at least faded.

Sorry but I don't fancy washing the family wash in a dilute solution of sewage. Only the laziest person in the world could not be arsed to soak something really dirty in a bucket first!

I’m on baby 2 and was given a tip recently of using washing up liquid (for plates) on poo/sick. It seems really effective when applied direct to the ming, much better than napisan.

I've read plenty on MN about throwing out poop-hit clothes. I thought the posters were very British.

I was lucky to avoid serious poonamis with both my boys, but the leaks that did happen I never threw anything out. Always soaked clothes etc. in Napisan.

But then I used cloth nappies as well, so this was standard practice on a regular basis - clothes weren't really any different to nappies.

I very rarely throw out clothes, even ones that are ripped - unless they're beyond repair, I'll usually sew them up again. Brought up by 2 parents who went through the war and rationing, so they were always very careful and "make do and mend" in attitude, must have rubbed off on me too.

I am genuinely surprised by the number of posts here that throw away dirty clothes. It has honestly never occurred to me.

Hole-ridden clothes that are no use to man nor beast, yes.

Yes, for blood in undies two minutes is all it takes. However that requires a bit more care than some of my DDs were able to muster until they got to about age 16 or so.

I often found underwear of one 10 year old in the dryer that should have been dealt with before it ever got to the laundry basket, but wasn't. It's hard for what is basically a child to suddenly have to deal with periods and their attendant problems, and hard to send a girl off to school wearing knickers with baked in stains in them when you know she will be changing for gym.

I bought lots of black knickers but also bags of cheap ones that nobody minded discarding when they got too yucky after they did a few months of night time duty.

I’ve binned one or two vests that were ones I didn’t like or were already faded to death anyway.

Blah posted too soon- I meant to say that I did bin several pairs of pants while DS1 was toilet training. He got it with wees very quickly but kept having poo accidents and some of them were just too unbelievably grim to clean, especially when we were out and about.

I think I've thrown out 3 or 4 vests/pairs of pants in nearly 13 years of parenting and 3 children. Obviously a bit more than that at the end of wear, i.e. when they had been grown out of, and I felt they were too grubby to pass on/put away for the next child.

I generally don't soak. Rinse off if necessary and then put them in a 60° wash (very rarely boilwash, if there's been illness involved) with prewash.

@mathanxiety in fairness, I don't know what it is about Dunnes babygros but they are the most durable items of clothing ever . Nothing I every got in the UK came close. I passed all of them along after two DDs went through them.

I've thrown vests however. DD2 had a lovely habit of not pooing for 8 days and then, well, some things are just beyond saving. And when you've had no sleep for four months, you're beyond trying.