OCD - panicking about clothes, washing machine and dryer being contaminated with harmful germs

[Servalan]

I've also posted this in Mental Health.

I'm so tired and feeling at the end of my tether. I've had OCD for the last 20 years. Sometimes I can manage it, sometimes I can't.

I had a miscarriage in September. From the point that I got pregnant over the summer I started feeling totally worn out and my housework kind of went to shit.

When I get OCD ideas into my head, instead of dealing with the thing I'm worried about, I'll often leave it, making the problem worse. Therefore there is much about my house that is not particularly acceptable.

I have convinced myself that DD's coat is contaminated with harmful germs. As is the washing machine and dryer. As are a load of DD's clothes. I'll number the things I'm getting in a state over to make it easier to follow.

(1)
DD had a sickness bug over the weekend. She was very sick all over her coat and clothes and the car. DH put all the things that DD had been sick on into the washing machine. He put in detergent (non bio) + 2 spoonfuls of napisan. He put a car floor mat that DD had been sick on into the wash with DD's coat and other clothes etc. When I found out that he'd washed the clothes with the floor mat, I washed them again before hanging them up.

Later that day, I discovered that DH had turned the heat down on the machine to 30 degrees, so now I'm panicking about whether the sickness bug germs will have been killed and if the germs of the car mat will have been killed by the Napisan if the things were only washed at 30 degrees. It does say on the Napisan box that it kills germs at 30 degrees - but now I'm asking myself if that's just some germs or all germs.

(2)DD has a top that was soaking wet (with water). I'm not sure when it happened. It could have been weeks ago. It's been wet on the side of the bath with some wet flannels for quite a while and smelt pretty musty though it didn't look mouldy. DH put it in the laundry basket after it had been languishing for a while. I put 2 spoonfuls of napisan in the washing machine with the detergent and ran a wash at 60 degrees, but am now worrying about what germs might have collected on the top in all the time it was wet and I'm wondering if I contaminated everything in the machine, even if I washed at 60 degrees.

(3) This is really disgusting and I'm pretty ashamed. I found a bag with some garments in that DD had had toilet accidents in (including poo). Not sure how long ago the clothes got soiled - they may have been there for a few weeks because everything is messy, my laundry has got backed up and I forgot they were there blush. They were in the downstairs toilet room waiting to be napisaned and I must have forgotten them. On finding them on Saturday, I soaked them in a napisan solution for a day. Then I wrung them out the next day and soaked them for another day in fresh napisan. I then put them in the wash at 60 degrees with more napisan. Then I rang a 30 degree cycle to make sure the napisan was rinsed out. Should I have killed the germs by doing this, or have I just contaminated my washing machine with harmful germs?

I'm in a total state. I'm scared to let DD wear her coat because of any sickness and car-mat germs. Also, I'm scared to wash it again in case I contaminate it with further germs from the wet top and pooey clothes incident. I don't know if I've done enough to make sure everything is OK

Gosh, you poor thing.

I do not have OCD, and know very little about it, but I to would have been not-impressed with my partner if he put sick clothes, mat etc all in at a low temp!

I really really do not think the musty-wet-flannelly-bath items are any risk at all.

So, this is what I would do to put my mind at rest:

Run the machine empty at 60' to clean it (although I am sure this is an OTT tactic

Re-Wash all the other items except the mat with bio detergent at the hottest temp recommended fo the items.

Rinse mat in the yard with a solution of disinfectant and then leave to dry outside before putting back in the car.

That will be fine.

Thanks blu.

What about the stuff that I found that had old poo etc on them. Do you reckon I did enough with the 2 napisan soaks and washing them at 60 to get rid of any germs?

Also, after I washed that stuff, I washed some towels at 95 degrees. Do you reckon they'd be OK if I washed them at 95, or would I have contaminated them with the previous stuff?

The clothes will be fine by now. No need to wash anymore.

Perhaps you should consider having some counselling. What you have written sounds totally bonkers- and I say that as someone who suffers from OCD from time to time.

Sorry, didn't mean to be nasty in my previous post- but rest assured that it's the OCD talking here- the clothes will be ok.

Oh poor you,I can see how distressing the whole thing must be for you.

Just a few pointers:Washing at 60C and above gets rid of all germs.So both your clothes and the machine will be disinfected by you doing it.

If items have to be washed on low temperature but are for example musty smelling or sweaty,soak them in mixture of water and vinegar,it will get rid of the smell and disinfect at the same time.

If you still feel anxious about washing on lower temperatures,you could always try that new anti-bacterial Vanish they advertise on telly?A scoop in each wash?HTH

I've gone through stages of having similar worries to you (probably not as severe though)
I felt reassured when I found out that at the hospital they wash their contaminated laundry at 60 degrees and it is enough to kill off the germs.
I think also that if you've done a 95 degree wash in your machine, all the germs that could have been in it (although there wouldn't have actually been any) will have been killed.
Have you though about getting some help though, it sounds very draining for you.

I'm sure the clothes will all be fine, and the germs will be gone.
DD wears cloth nappies, and I wash them every few days at 60 degrees without any napisan, and it gets them perfectly clean - 60 degrees is actually overkill and modern detergents can make things completely clean at much lower temperatures.

And if you ran a 95 degree wash then there is no way there could be any residual germs lurking in your washing machine, and you couldn't possibly have contaminated the towels.

So don't worry. Do you see a councellor for your OCD? If not, maybe make an appointment with your GP to discuss your worries, and ask for a referral to a councellor. DH has done this in the past, and it really made his worries much better.

Tumble dryers are fantastic at germ killing. Ive had a severely immunocompromised child and I was told that tumble drying was brilliant for infection control.

You can wash just abput anything except wool at 60 and it should be fine.

Thanks for your help folks

I am seeing a CBT therapist through the local mental health service. She was away on holiday last week though and I'm not seeing her til Thursday.

I'm also on medication and have seen a couple of GPs

I wish I could remember which of the clothes got washed on 30 degrees by mistake.

I've just realised that the top DD is wearing today may have been part of the vomitty stuff that got washed at 30 degrees with the car mat. I of course should have gathered everything up and rewashed them at 60 as soon as I realised they'd only been washed at 30, but by the time that happened, I was washing some other stuff and I tried to kid myself that the napisan would have been enough.

Now I'm thinking her top will have all sorts of germs on it and she's been lying on the sofa - would the sofa get contaminated...

I'm so sick of my head feeling fucked up :(

BTW winnybella, don't worry about being "nasty" to me - my DH says much worse to me on a regular basis (though to be fair on him, I'm not much fun to live with at the moment)

I'm glad that you didn't take it the wrong way.

Btw, I should have said that I used to suffer from OCD-it doesn't really happen anymore.

I had the 'if I don't tap my left foot seven times my child will die' kind of obsessions and the germs, as well.

I was so fed up that one day I didn't do whatever was supposed to save my son from early death, I think in fact I did some other combination that in mind would kill him . Guess what, nothing bad happened
I started doing that whenever I would feel a compulsion and then the OCD just went away. I do get it v.rarely now, but I now recognize it and ignore it at the beginning.

Same for germs- I 'risked' it few times with laundry/washing hands non stop etc- and no one got sick so I just let go. We don't get ill now more often than when OCD had me in its grip.

Sorry if post not grammatically correct- DD's pulling my hand and telling me to get up.

Poor you servalan :(

FWIW (and this will make me sound disgusting probably) I've washed things at below 60 with dog poo, baby poo, sick etc. many, many times and nothing has happened to me or my family.

I honestly don't think that a sickness bug germs could even live on a coat, sofa or anything for long even if they weren't washed. I'm pretty sure they'd need a human carrier within a couple of hours or they'd die anyway.

If you're really worried I would run a boil wash on your machine with a cup of bleach (this is quite good for the machine and pipes too).

As for the bath thing, again I really wouldn't worry, I'm positive that the 60 degree wash will have killed anything nasty in that.

Hope your CBT works and you feel better soon.

I think you'll be fine. You haven't contaminated anything - a good wash of all those items will have done the trick, even at 30C. Volume of water (washing and rinsing), washing liquid, Napisan stuff will have been sufficient. I have a PhD in microbiology and bugs don't generally like soapy water, or anti-germ Napisan stuff and if they're a bug that generally causes human infections they thrive in the human body, not outside of it so your washing machine and your DD's clothes after a wash should all be fine. I'd think most people just do what you did and just bung anything vomity/pooey stuff in the wash and if it comes out and looks and smells OK, then its OK! (Well...I know I do. And I've never even thought of using Napisan - just had to look up what was in it!). Its knackering when they're ill and on top of coping with the m/c its no wonder that the OCD seems to have stepped up a gear.

Thanks so much everyone. Thank goodness for Mumsnet :)

The Napisan will have been fine on the top - all germs zapped . Sofa FINE. A lot of nasties don't survive being dried out, or being removed form their preferred habitat.

Good luck with your CBT