How can I remove the smell from badly soiled clothes and washing machine.

[Usernamenotavailabletryanotheroneplease]

Sorry - a bit of a grim one. My 6yo accidentally soiled himself at an overnight camp early this morning (rules about needing to have an adult to escort children to the toilet and him being too scared to wake them).
All of his belongings were placed into a bin bag. I just shoved them into the washing machine on a 60 degrees celsius wash and two Lidl washing tablets and prayed for the best. I do not have a strong stomach. It’s been at least 4 years since I’ve dealt with soiled clothes - he’s literally never had an accident since he’s been toilet trained.
However, after the wash, everything still STINKS. I e now bought Surf tablets and Dettol laundry cleaner and bunged two tablets in.
Does anybody have any tips if these don’t work? I could possibly let go of them clothes, trainers etc but would rather not buy a new washing machine. It has a drum clean option, which I was planning on doing afterwards.
any help would be greatly appreciated.

For truly bad items, soak in vinegar for several hours, then rinse and leave outside. Sometimes you want multiple days of sunlight and fresh air. Then finally wash them.

for your machine, do a hot wash with vinegar.

Dettol laundry sanitiser!

For soiled clothes do a rinse wash first - put the clothes in a 30 degree wash with no detergent. Consider this a prewash. This first wash will get the worst of the soiling off the clothing, otherwise the machine juat washes everything in heavily soiled water. Wash again on the longest hottest wash your machine has and that the clothes will tolerate. Use a biological washing detergent. Make sure the machine is properly loaded - chuck in a load of flannels or tea towels. They will help with agitation or scrubbing to get everything actually clean. Have a look at cleanclothnappies.com they are a collective of laundry gurus who advise how to wash reusable nappies, which are effectively heavily soiled clothing items. Afterwards run an empty 90 degree cycle for your machine to clean it. Good luck!

I second this. Pre wash with it plus add it to the main drawer. A longer wash if possible.

OP - just in case anything like this happens again, next time throw away the badly soiled pants and then rinse everything else in the washer before washing them properly. Or alternatively, put them to soak before washing. Get some Ariel washing machine cleaner to put through your machine - you do a wash with an empty machine and the cleaner.

I’d put the washing machine on a 90C cycle with no laundry in it and a large dose of detergent.

as for the clothes, give them another (normal) wash and hang them to dry on the sun. UV eliminates poo stains.

Did you remove any solids before washing?
I would have ditched the underwear and washed the rest of it using a prewash cycle and bio powder and a laundry sanitiser

Put a capful of zoflora in the softener bit of the machine. I usually do that then put it on a 90c wash every month to clean it.

I would throw that clothes away. And the washing machine needs a 90 degree cycle - put bio detergent in and let it run the full cycle with an empty drum.

Oh bless your son. I know that’s not that point of the thread but poor little guy not wanting to wake the adults ☹️(I’ve got a 3 and 7 year old and can actually imagine my eldest doing this if abit intimidated and in a new environment).
I’d probs just bin all the clothes now and keep putting a wash on at 90 with washing machine cleaner a few times. That hopefully should do the trick after a day or so!

I think you can rescue the clothes, use biological powder, but dont use a hot wash this time as it destroys the enzymes in the powder. If you are worried about germs use a dettol rinse after. Modern washing machines use very little water, add a couple of jugs extra once it has filled, and also add an additional rinse cycle.

the drum clean cycle is very hot so you wont need to run it at 90 if your machine has this option.

There is no point putting bio in if you are running the machine at 90 as the heat destroys the enzymes

Did you separate the poo into a bin bag first?

I used to launder nappies and wipes all the time and it never stank afterwards. Make sure you wash twice though at high heat - 1st gets rid of the remaining stuff, 2nd washes it clean. You'll be fine!

Then drum clean on high heat after.

For the machine, after a few cycles of running on empty for rinsing purposes, do the following. Take 3/4 dishwasher tablets, put in a heatproof jug, cover with about 500ml boiling water straight from the kettle. Stir until dissolved. Pour into drum of machine. Run on a 95C cycle. Then a few more rinse cycles with no soap. Then clean the seals etc in the usual way. Take out the lower filter and give that a good clean too. Clean out the space the filter came out of. Good luck!

Poor wee boy. Only 6 on an overnight and he has an accident.
That must have been very traumatic for him - I hope it was dealt with sympathetically by whoever noticed and bagged up his clothes.
Do find out from him.
I would rewash the clothes at a higher temperature than you have done already. Have you used washing powder rather than those awful gel pods ?
“Which” rates the powder over the pods.
I would then do a 90 degree empty wash with washing powder also.

Thank you to everyone for your replies. I really do appreciate them. The dettol laundry sanitiser and a drum clean seem to have done the trick. Fingers crossed for no repeat scenarios.
His pants and pyjamas were removed and put into a bing bag with ALL of the kit he took for the weekend, so everything stunk, despite not actually being dirty. If they had been bagged separately they definitely would have just gone in the bin.