What to do about ruined baby clothes?

[User36258]

I’m currently pregnant with my first baby. My mum (who has been so amazing and generous about this pregnancy) offered to take the baby clothes we have bought and wash them for us so they’re ready for the arrival of the baby. We gratefully accepted this offer of help.

Unfortunately, due to an unnoticed pen which was in the pocket of some of my dad’s trousers when they were washed, the majority of the clothes have been ruined by the pen exploding and ink leaking everywhere. They are still technically usable, but covered in huge, ugly, black ink stains.

My mum is beside herself and has said she will replace everything. The trouble is, we are talking a couple of hundred pounds at least, and it’s money she doesn’t easily have to hand as she is now retired. She has also already paid for so much - she bought all our nursery furniture for instance and has spend days helping us paint and decorate.

We can’t really afford to replace the clothes either. But I feel guilty accepting her offer of replacements when it was a total accident, and it’s not easy for her to replace them. So I’m thinking I could just buy some inexpensive basics to replace what has been ruined, knowing that people will likely gift us nice things when the baby is born anyway.

My mum is really pressing us to let her replace the clothes, and I think she might feel less guilty if she did. But I don’t want her to feel guilty, she was doing a nice thing and accidents happen. So should I just insist that it’s fine and she doesn’t need to replace them, or should I accept her offer?

@Oysterbabe

I would just put the baby in them and not worry about it. They'll only fit for 5 minutes anyway.

This. x100. You’ll be too tired to notice or care what the baby is wearing and probably only use a handful of the easiest quickest sleepsuits before they’ve grown out of it all. Congratulations!

If its white clothing you can buy a bleach pen on Amazon that takes the stain out but it might take a few goes and you may need to rub hard. Otherwise, and if the clothes can take boiling hot water stretch the clothes over a heatproof bowl and pour boiling water over the stain. Literally rinses the ink out. Or at least it did to DH's work shirt after a similar biro based incident.

I've used a mixture of vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, a beer bottle and some hair bands to lift stains before. Put plenty of bicarb into a dry beer bottle, aim stain over the top of the beer bottle, indent it a little bit into the bottle and secure with hair bands. Pour plenty of vinegar over the stain and let the foam fizz through the fabric.

Biro should come out. It'll be a long boring job but most stuff will be fine.

You can get bundles on eBay.

I also second hand sanitiser. I often put my uniforms in the wash with a pen in the pocket!
Put hand sanitiser in the stain and just keep blotting.
This works best on fresh stains but can shift those that have been through the wash a few times.

Yeah dye them in the washing machine it's so easy. I did that to DC1s clothes which were all puke stained before dc2 arrived.

Ps in my experience this is motherhood Something is always going to shit!

When trying the stain removing techniques op have mentioned make sure the machine isn't too full. I'v found stains always come out better if there's few items in together. Anything that the stains don't come out of I'd still use for overnight clothes, and a spare change when out and about.

Try strip washing , it supposedly works miracles with stains (www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning/a33588329/laundry-stripping/).

You'll probably still get some use out of them - nighttime clothes, spare clothes in the changing bag, messy play clothes, weaning clothes. I wouldn't replace them all, just get some multipacks of babygrows and vests and a couple of nice cardigans.

Soak in baking soda and white vinegar for an hour then wash as normal. I've successfully saved clothes from the same fate with this method. I promise the vinegar smell doesn't linger.

Could u dye some of the clothes black? Dylon colour balls for a fiver. I know black baby clothes aren't exactly the norm / ideal but maybe just for some of the stuff. Just an idea.

I'd just use them, you will be inside most of the time anyway with a newborn (especially with covid) and you honestly dont care. Not to mention all.the other less palatable stuff that they will get covered in.

If I knew then what I know now I would have only bought onesies and vests for the first 3 months... so much easier especially the amount of times you change them! Suggest she buys a couple of these perhaps and then buy some yourself and don’t spend a lot as they grow too quickly!

Your mum did you a massive favour by taking one load of washing to do? Surely it was more hassle than it was worth? It's obviously turned out that way.

Apologies if this has been said already but it’s refreshing to read an AIBU where all parties involved sound so nice !

Hi OP, I seem to have reasonable success getting stains/marks out of my children's clothes (although I haven't had biro stains). I wet the item, rub in neat Persil Bio washing liquid to the stain/mark, leave for a couple of hours and then wash, adding non bio liquid to the wash as usual. This seems to work every time, not sure if it will help you! Then you can rewash in non bio to make sure it's baby friendly. Also if it's a sunny day the sun bleaches out stains so hang it out in a sunny spot.

You could get some clothes due to match the ink so they were a bit more uniform. To be honest, baby poo will trash a fair amount of the clothes for your baby so it can be super handy not to have 'showy' clothes for them.

Your dad left the pen in his trouser pocket, let him replace the clothes! Apologies if someone has already said this, I haven't read the whole thread.

If it’s ink, try soaking overnight in milk then washing with a biological detergent.

Get yourself to Asda and don't even think of letting your poor mum shell out what she can't afford, especially when she had done so much already!

Hot water in a washing up bowl, add Blue Magic (from shopping channel with initials IW) and leave overnight. Worth a punt.

Facebook will have loads of bundles of clothes for very cheap. I have bags and bags of newborn clothes waiting to go to a charity shop, mostly just neutral babygros/vests and hardly worn outfits. Free to a good home if you want them

Agree use what you can for in the home. Let your mum buy a couple of bits but honestly you will be inundated with clothes gifts when the baby is born so I wouldn’t worry.

This will feel like a big thing now, but when you are fumbling in the dark trying to dress a baby for the umpteenth time that day after a poonami. You really really won’t care.

I had a baby with reflux who was sick after every feed. The amount of clothes in a day was epic. Mine too. I wanted easy clothes, all the blummin poppers in a baby gro were too hard for my sleep deprived brain.

Truthfully, the only thing new babies wear are sleepsuits or vests. If baby is due soon, it'll be a newborn throughout winter, and realistically will be living in a vest, sleepsuit and then a winter pramsuit when out. Just buy cheap sleepsuits, you can get lovely ones in sainsbury / Asda etc and let your mum do the same if it'll make her feel better.

I agree, I wouldn't let my child meet people or go out in public with a (cleaned) shit / sick stained outfit, but for laying around the house when it's just you lot you honestly won't care. It's disappointing and INCREDIBLY unlucky but it's just one of those things. You'll feel worse letting your mum fork out hundreds for new clothes that honestly last 5 minutes. I understand buying them ones (I did the same with my first) but buying them twice just for the sake of it is pointless.