How do I stop my washing smelling of poo?

[Coffeesnob11]

My son is potty training and sometimes does a poo in his pants. I get rid of the poo and wash his pants put before washing them but no matter what I do, the whole wash comes out smelling awful. I have tried washing at 40, 50 or 60. I have tried softener, no softener and a cap of zoflora but it all just smells horrible. Does anyone have any good tips?

I second binning the worst of them. Seriously cotton pants are better than nappies.

Also Dettol laundry cleanser will sort you out if not. Designed to get rid if horrible smells and germs, both needed in the case of potty training!

God don’t bin them! How wasteful. As if there isn’t enough landfill already.

I don’t recall many poo incidents with potty training so maybe he’s not ready?

Pre wash liquid for sports kit is good.

I used to hose the pants in the garden first then napisan added to the wash.

Soak and hand wash the pants separately before washing with everything else. I would always wash at 60c and try soda crystals.

Overnight in napisan. Then hot / boil wash. Bio liquids at low temps do not get stains out!

Have you checked your washing machine is heating up water? My washing didnt smell fresh for a while before I realised the heating element was broken, run a maintenence hot wash with an empty drum. You should not be able to hold your hand comfortably against the glass

If the pants are really bad, I'm afraid I'd chuck them out. Rather than .......

@ContadoraExplorer

Do you put powder into the drawer too? I always assumed it should go in there so it was released at the right time and no just all washed away in the first lot of water. We use cloth nappies and whilst we get the odd time we need to re-wash, most of the time the washing machine and nappies smell OK after.

This ^

Don't put the powder in the drum

[quote me4real]@Tippexy [/quote]
What’s your point?

I used to deal with soiled clothes from an older relative.

You know those plastic flexible gardening trugs (40litre)?
My method was to rinse the most obvious soiling under the bath tap, then put the clothes in one of those tubs inside the bath and soak with some bio laundry detergent. Rinse, and if really bad soak again (usually one was enough).

Then a normal wash in the machine.

You say you use "plenty of powder"

It's possible that your tub contains a resident sludge composed of soap, fabsoft and grime.

Give it a hot hot hot cycle with no powder, no fabsoft, and a cup of washing soda crystals. The water will probably go grey and foam up as the soap sludge dissolves. Do it again until it comes fairly clean.

As routine, you can do white cotton towels on a hot wash with soda and no powder once a week or so.

God don’t bin them! How wasteful. As if there isn’t enough landfill already.

It would probably be less wasteful to do this with one or two pairs rather than using the extra water / soap / heat / chemicals to try and clean them.

Throw out the pants.

I wash anything that’s got poo on separately. On a hot wash.

Soaking first and then lavender oil and vinegar in the fabric softener drawer

Bin them. Life's too short, seriously. When mine were all potty training, we had dozens of pairs of cheap pants!

The life of the planet is also too short! What an irresponsible attitude. People used cloth nappies for decades, many still do, they seem to manage.

How often is it op?

If it was multiple times a day then yes, there are plenty of methods/products available to clean them without aggrivating his delicate skin.

If its once a week, then just chuck them. Seriously. You're spending a fortune on washing detergents, extra washes, super hot washes, and your entire laundry load is coming out still smelly. The environment isn't going to be saved by op not binning a pair of pants rather than use electricity/water/detergent to clean them.

Disclaimer - I used Terry nappies for both my dc and used a liner/soak in dettol and washed only nappies in one load, I still use them for cleaning the car 20 years later. I've 100% experience of dealing with shitty nappies from bf newborn soup to toddler turds. Just throw the pants out if the poo is ingrained.

I bet there are plenty of parents on this thread who thought nothing of binning literally thousands of disposable nappies (a quick Google says the average is 7000-9000 from birth to completely dry), a few pairs of dirty pants is a tiny drop in a very polluted ocean.

Do you clean the filter every month?

Wipe all the poo off, put anything soiled or wee wet on a rinse cycle first, and get your washing machine serviced. I did reusables nappies for both kids and nothing should come out of a 3 hour wash smelling bad.

@Spottybotty20 you mentioned that ‘it’s a massive myth that bio is an allergen it’s more likely to be fragrance.’
Do you know any fragrance free bio laundry detergents?

@MsMarple no I don’t think they are available and I believe it’s because the enzymes that make bio powder what it is has an unpleasant smell so the fragrance is necessary but I can’t back that up as I can’t find a source at the min. I guess if you are having a skin reaction (which is rare) then you’d have to try alternatives with a different fragrance.

I do have a source for my point about bio not causing skin reactions though if that helps. www.medscape.com/viewarticle/575890

I agree with the vinegar recommendation. We had this issue when DS was potty training and I'd soak his pants first to get the worst off and sometimes scrub with soap (wearing gloves!), then put them in the machine.

That usually did the trick, although occasionally I had to run them through again. After a machine cycle, I'd put white vinegar in the powder draw and run a short wash to clean out the drum. It seemed to work.

@Tippexy Just agreeing.

[quote me4real]@Tippexy Just agreeing. [/quote]
A biscuit isn't agreeing.....

Thanks @Spottybotty20 - I was asking as I’ve been looking for unfragranced bio powder/liquid forever, as I do have fragrance allergies. You’ve explained why I probably won’t succeed!