Ah, the sweet smell of a clean baby! You may be tempted to enhance that clean, fresh smell by running baby diapers and onesies through a final rinse with fabric softener – but don’t! The perfumes in fabric softener can irritate a baby’s sensitive skin, or spark allergies that cause uncomfortable rashes. With all those adorable babies and teddy bears on fabric softener packages, who would have guessed?
Here’s another handful of tips for taking care of baby’s clothes during the first year, focusing on laundering and stain removal.
Choose a detergent that’s free of dyes and perfumes. There are a number of brands of laundry detergent that are specially formulated for baby’s clothing, including Ivory Snow and Dreft. It’s really not necessary to resort to those, though. You can wash baby’s clothes with yours, as long as you use an allergen free, no-dye, no-fragrance detergent.
Baby’s sleepwear especially should be washed in a mild detergent made without animal fats or other water conditioners. Flame retardant sleepwear is specially treated to keep children’s pajamas from flaring into flame if...