Smelly teddy bear!

[Aranea]

Dd1 has a much-loved teddy who sleeps in her bed. After many years of sweaty nIghts he is very smelly. He is surface-wash only, and I have tried to do this a couple of times but it hasn't really helped. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Have you tryed making a solution up of washing powder & warm water and gently scrub using the solution, spray with febreze aswell and hang him out to dry?

If it is not a particulary fragile bear i would just bung him in the washer on a low setting

Yes, I've tried scrubbing him by hand. In fact I think that somehow by getting the beans inside him wet I have released a new unpleasant smell to complement the existing one!

I haven't tried febreze, as it has such a strong smell of its own, and dd cuddles him in bed.

We have occasionally machine washed 'surface wash only' cuddly toys (including ones with the 'beans' in the paws), when they've got tangled up in the bedding when it's being changed, and none of them seem to have come to any harm from being machine washed and tumble-dried.

It might be worth putting the bear in the freezer - that would kill off the bacteria that, I assume, are causing the smell - and would be less traumatic for teddy, too.

DD1's favourite soft toy is suface wash only, and stayed that way till she vomited on him. Then he met the washing machine He was fiiiiinnnneee, dried on the line and smelt much better. She now requests he goes in the machine when he gets a bit stinky (unlike my 12-yo niece, who complains when my sister washes her manky old teddy as 'it doesn't smell right!'). DD1's toy is bean-filled too, btw.

Bung it in the wash . I wash all the Teddies in our house .

I wash 'em all (surface wash ones also).

Unless there's some finish or detail you can see is blatantly unwashable,and can't be removed,it's unlikely anything would happen.

When the school bear/dog/whatever comes home it usually has a spin in the machine too!

Washing machine. DD's favourite kitten was grey, and when she was sick on it it just had to go in the washing machine. Came out pink - I'd completely forgotten it had originally been pink, must have been filthy!

I have discovered that doing them on a gentle woollen type wash in the machine is just fine.

I bung them in the machine with some towels, line dry them and then fluff them up in tumble dryer

washing machine here too on handwash cycle (or wool if no handwash) - in a pillow case first. No idea why (prevent abrasion?!) but my mother told me to, and Mothers Are Always Right.

DS has a lot of teddies and such in his cot. When he got conjunctivitis they all went in the wash and then were all pegged out on the line...it was quite a site!!

The only things that don't get washed are those which have noisy stuff inside.

I put one of ddog1's cuddlies through the wash yesterday - he is a huge stuffed sheep, and every so often, I have to repair the splits in his fur, and re-stuff him - and I once had to rebuild his face completely (and I confess, my plastic surgery skills are not that brilliant, hence him being renamed FrankenSheep).

Yesterday involved a certain amount of reconstructive surgery, and a nice, long spin in the washing machine and tumble dryer for FrankenSheep - to get rid of all the dog slobber. He came out snowy-white, fluffy and smelling lovely - and he says it wasn't a traumatic experience at all - more like being on those spinning teacups at the fair - and that the OP's dd's bear shouldn't worry about it at all.

WheresMyCow - I confess that I would definitely wash the ones with noises in - I like a quiet life (and am a bad and cruel mother).

SDTG ...if only I could stop Barney from singing, not sure that the ensuing tantrum would be worth it though!!

You could try claiming that Barney has laryngitis?

We tell DS that Barney has gone to sleep when it's bedtime and switch the bugger off Don't think he'd believe he was asleep all the time.

I believe that there is a special hell reserved for people who make irritatingly noisy toys for children.

Many thanks everybody - and especially to Frankensheep for the reassurance! Teddy is going in the machine tomorrow. I can't bear the smell any longer and he is making dd's bed stink. You'd better all be right though... If anything happens to him there will be hell to pay.

Thanks all, Bear has been washed and is sitting in the garden to dry. Dd was very upset as she likes his smell and hates the smell of freshly washed clothes. So now I need to figure out how to give him a more comfortable smell!

He will get that cuddled and loved smell back pretty quickly, I think. And it will be better without undertones of sweatiness/mank. Frankensheep says well done to Bear for being so brave in the washing machine.

Hope that Bear enjoys sitting in the garden and gets a lovely cuddle once he's all dry

On a different note, must apologise for my spelling mistake in an earlier post...obviously I meant sight and not site that's what you get for being on MN when you should be working!!

Please can I hijack this thread? Ds has a stuffed toy duck that has short fur and a "tuft" of hair on the top. I was going to put him in the wash (same smelly problem) but someone told me that if I do, the tuft will fall out - anyone know if this is true? Ds strokes the tuft of hair to fall asleep, I'd be devastated if I ruined his ducky!!!

I would put it in a pillowcase and on the handwash or wool cycle without spin.
washed my leather mittens with faux fur tuft like that and they came out fine.

If it's just that long pile fake fur, it'll be fine, just don't hot tumble or the tuft will go all shrivelled and shite. (I speak from the experience of accidentally hot tumbling a lovely plush long pile Dulux dog which was utterly ruined!)

omg i LOVED my smelly bear !!! i can't believe you washed it my parents did this and TOOK A PHOTO OF IT IN THE WASHING MACHINE!!!