eco balls/soapnuts - are they good enough?

[gretagrape]

Hi. Along with a lot of other changes, I'm thinking of changing to one of these in an effort to blitz my son's eczema from all angles as I've heard they can help. We use Ecover at the moment but anything that reduces our chemical use can only be a good thing for his skin.

I've seen tons of reviews saying they are brilliant, but also tons saying they are rubbish.
Anyone used them?
Thanks
x

Eczema isn't just irritated by chemicals but also by dirt, dust and bacteria. Have you tried washing his clothes in a hotter wash and double rinsing?

Yes, I've done that but there are also other factors at work - he has multiple food allergies and is only 9m so it's still early days working out what he reacts to. So, I want to go back to basics on everything - as few chemicals as possible, blitz the house (and keep to it!), etc, so I can try to differentiate between reactions to food and reactions to the environment.

I'm afraid that I tried the eco balls after they were recommended on here (and by Aggie from How Clean Is Your House) and I have nothing astounding to report.

In fact our clothes started to smell slightly off. After a while I had to rewash everything in washing powder and fabric conditioner.

Only last week I found a tshirt that smelt bad left over from my eco ball days.

I may not have been using it properly, it will be interesting to hear what other posters say.

Soap nuts left my clothes dirty and stained

You could make your own, which is easy and works well. I did it for years but am out of the habit now. Baking soda + borax + glycerin or castille soap.

I think you can also make it without borax if you think that might be an irritant; it's supposed to be pretty mild, but just in case, I believe to do that you would want baking soda + washing soda + glycerin/castille soap + perhaps citric acid.

DS2 had eczema and has multiple food sensitivities so I was doing this exact irritant purge a year ago. I started with soaps etc. Only natural soap and shampoo bars, I found goats milk soap to be really soothing when he was sore. I found this company online who do some lovely cleaning and laundry products that are doubly good for us as we have a septic tank. You do have to give everything a good shake as they don't use emulsifiers and some of it is a bit pricey but the laundry liquid is really good value and everything lasts forever.

I could never quite get on board with washing my clothes with balls, just felt wrong. I have heard other people rave about them though.

Thanks - mixed bag then! I'd have to be careful about the goats milk soap as he has a dairy allergy so not sure yet whether other animal proteins might be a problem. I'll look into the make your own stuff as well - as long as it would keep for a while then it shouldn't be time consuming to make a big bottle.

FlankShaftMcWap - how far did you go, and did you find it worthwhile to some extent?

I've heard others complain that their clothes came out a bit whiffy, but then they were told that it's because you have to do a hot run on your machine every so often to clear it out, so I think I'll have to look into it a bit more.

Thanks all
x