Fabric softener for sensitive skin?

[SnugSheep]

And so begins the season of indoor drying, aka ‘the season of mustiness’ 😭🤢

Can anyone recommend a fabric softener suitable for babies (with eczema) and/or those with super sensitive skin? I’ve avoided it mostly because got a house full of them, but I want washing that smells nice!

I think washing that smells nice and washing that is suitable for a baby with eczema are mutually exclusive, sorry @SnugSheep

It will still smell nice of you use washing powder but it just won’t have tgat overpowering smell from the fabric conditioner.

It's generally fragrance that causes/aggravates sensitivities. Maybe invest in a dehumidifier to speed up drying time?

Persil non bio washing liquid alone smells lovely.

I’ve got sensitive skin and I use either Comfort Pure or Fairy fabric softener

A dehumidifier might help, actually @Jitterbuggs. We use Fairy non-bio and I find that all of our washing smells horribly musty, probably because it takes so long to dry indoors. But we don’t put the central heating on until it’s genuinely cold out, due to how drying it is. My sense of smell has been horrifically acute since giving birth this time, so I’m hoping I can do something about the stench. I’m actually considering washing my clothes separately to DH and the kids 😂

I’ve never had trouble drying clothes in the winter on an airer. You have the heating on at some point. Put the airer in front of the radiator. Hang the small stuff directly on the radiator. I find it dries faster and better than in the summer. You just need to do it in normal sized loads so it isn’t all crowded. Never needed a fabric softener in my life. Clothes smell nice.

If clothes already smell musty, you need to clean your machine and possibly strip wash everything. Somewhere there is a lot of bacteria growing, which shouldn’t be, even with normal washing. We don’t have heating on and I dry clothes indoors year round. None of them smell.

Do you wash the clothes at 60? That tends to kill off a lot of the bacteria and do you have the windows open for a while in the morning? I do this and it really seems to help to keep things smelling fresh.

@SnugSheep
Fabric conditioner is completely unnecessary. You just don’t need to use it.
If you want to remove detergent residue and soften fabrics white vinegar does a good job. Try 1/4 to 1/2 a cup added to the dispenser drawer.

I worked in a pub years ago and my manager had twin daughters who both had severe eczema, She sent me to Sainsburys for 'Surcare' .They do Detergent and Softener, She swore by it.

Just don’t use one. It’s truly terrible for skin and worse for the environment

Don't use fabric softener if your baby has eczema, the poor little thing.

Put washing machine on a cycle that does extra rinses. Our Samsung can do 4-5 rinses.

Learn to dry clothes indoors properly without creating a stick. Do an extra spin cycle, spread them out, get a heated clothes airer maybe.

This.

My daughter had hives on her otherwise healthy skin randomly age 8.

I looked into it and changed all bedding to pure cotton and switched to Surcare washing powder. No hives since then.

Wouldn't it be better for skin not to use it all? We habe never used it specially when our child was little there is no need

just don’t use it, it makes clothes feel cheap and grim anyway imo

RE musty smell after drying in the winter - I have one of those “drying pods” - can’t remember the brand of mine off the top of my head, but there’s a few different ones that make it. Mine was approx £35. You just use your normal airer, and it comes with a cover and a fan heater type thing you put underneath. For me, baby/kids clothes are dry in 2 hours. Adult stuff especially thick jumpers will take a little longer. Zero musty smell, lovely warm dry laundry! :)

Goes off to google Drying Pod…

Be careful using vinegar as it can corrode the innards of your washing machine.

The musty smell is from drying your clothes indoors in a cold, under heated home. Personally, if you want soft and fresh without softener, then you need a tumble dryer.

heated clothes airer and dehumidifer really helps plus keeping house well ventilated

Fabric softener smells awful - I certainly wouldn't want a baby's clothes to smell of it. I've never used it, in nearly 40 years of doing laundry, much of which is dried indoors. Just ditch it, and get rid of the sickly smells!

You need a fragrance free fabric softener if you are concerned about sensitive skin. It is the number one cause of skin irritation.

Depending on the individual’s sensitivity, using a fragranced product in some loads and not others will still leave residue that causes irritation to the person suffering from eczema. You likely need to use safe products all the time for all washes.

I have very sensitive skin when it comes to laundry, can't use most detergents only ecover or oddly m&s jasmine and green tea which I picked up by accident instead of the fragrance free extra sensitive one and DH used it on our laundry and I'm fine. Softener the only thing I can use is again ecover the apple blossom and almond is nice or I recently tried comfort pure dreams cashmere soft which smells lovely. My mum has equally sensitive skin and I used a towel last time I was there and it smelled really nice and it was that. I've since used it on our towels, bedding and clothes with no issue 🤞 . I get horrendous reactions from most fragranced laundry products

Have you space for a tumble dryer? No washing lying around and it saves a lot of work. Modern ones are very energy efficient

So your baby’s clothes are already minging and you want to try and cover it over with vile smelling fabric conditioner? Double stench. Ugh.

You need to wash at a high temperature, spin well and dry quickly. No fabric conditioner. It’s a non product and totally unnecessary chemicals on your baby’s skin, in the water system and up everyone’s nose. It really is retch worthy. Especially if it’s trying to mask ‘musk’.