Washing baby clothes

[bellagrace]

I'm about to start laundering a few clothes, muslins etc. ready for arrival of DD1. My machine has a setting for baby clothes but it is a 90 degree wash (which seems a bit excessive, plus I'm worried about damaging clothing) and a 2.5 hour cycle! I'd be more inclined to go with a 40 degree wash and shorter cycle, but the FTM panic has set in and I want to make sure I'm doing everything right!

I never thought I'd be asking how to wash clothes, but any advice would be gratefully received!! Thank you :)

I would just wash everything at 30 or 40 as normal. How dirty do they think baby clothes are? If you're using cloth nappies they need to be done at 60 I think, but only when actually dirty! Don't wash all of your newborn sized stuff, leave the tags on so you can swap them if you have a big baby/get inundated with tiny baby gifts.

Also, and I mean this in the nicest possible way.....chill the fuck out!! It's washing, you can do this!

I just wang them in on a 30 wash with the rest of the washing. Everyone's clothes go in together. If he's managed to poo or vom all over it I'll give it a scrub first.

Just wash as you would normally, 40 will be fine, 90 is likely to ruin everything!
I would just be cautious with biological powder, as it can irritate baby's delicate skin.

Why am I only just hearing about this? I didn't know we had to wash the new clothes before the baby was born?

Never washed anything. Don't know anyone who did to be honest. I bought a variety of different sizes and left all tags and packaging in place so I could take them back or swap to different sizes if needed.

Now everything in our house gets washed on 30 with bio washing liquid.

Don't wash it!! Wait til baby is here as you may get a big one who doesn't fit stuff or end up with a lot of gifts so then you can take stuff back and swap for more appropriate sizes.
If you do wash, just do in your normal 30 or 40 deg cycle.
I just made baby wear stuff first and then washed it after - even as a first time mum (and dr).

Thank you v much everyone.

I'm just planning on washing the clothes and muslins I'll be packing in my hospital bag for now. Leaving tags on everything else just in case! I always wash clothes for DH and myself before we wear them - we both have sensitive skin and DH suffers quite badly with eczema, so it seems logical to wash whatever we're going to be dressing our lo in too!

Thank you for the reassurance re temperatures. 90 degrees sounded crazy! I will stick with a normal cycle!

We're the same Bella with the sensitive skin so I've always washed the DCs clothes before wearing too.

I just do 40°C as normal and occasionally chuck in some Napisan powder if I've had a particularly leaky baby. 😊

I do a 40 degree wash but also throw some Dettol laundry sanitiser in with the softener for baby stuff. I also usually put a scoop of Vanish in especially for muslins or anything with poo on it (that stuff stains like billyo!). I had no idea some people wash baby stuff separately?? Everything all just goes in together except DP's mucky work clothes

I just use a normal cycle (that's 30 degrees and 59 minutes in this house) and I've switched to non-bio detergent. Actually for new clothes I tend to put them on one of the rapid washes which are 15 or 30 minutes.

The baby wash on my machine is a 60 degree one but I always turn it down to 40. I prewashed all his clothes, muslins, blankets, sheets and towels (didnt iron them though!) together. Now I throw dirty or new stuff in with mine and my OHs washing still at 40.

I figure 60 isn't going to sterilise anything so why bother wasting money/power on it.