Help! Yellow stains on baby clothing!

[Iott Family]

Today I picked up four boxes of baby clothes from a family member, they are hand-me-downs and while they are in good repair for the most part many have yellow stains spotted on the front, around the neck, etc. I imagine its formula/spit up. Does anyone have a safe way to remove these stains. Many are colors so lemon juice/vinegar/bleach is not an option.

TIA!!

 

[SpecialK]

When I got stained hand-me-downs, I washed them in regular detergent with bleach or bleach for colors then I'd rewash them in Dreft before putting them on the baby. Sometimes that worked.

 

[julia & nicks mom]

if you find a solution - I would LOVE to hear it!!!

 

[tiggersmom2]

My SIL and mother gave me tons of used baby clothes....most had never been washed! Anyway, I soaked them in Tide with bleach for 2 days and then washed them. This got out most of the stain and when I did this again later it got all of the stains out.

Maybe I am the only one...but I find it tacky to give someone used baby clothes with stains. I thought this about my own family as well. Just one of my irks.

 

[SueM in MN]

My DD has some medication that if you get it on anything, it leaves black stains that I could not find any way to get out. I soaked some things in Oxyclean for other stains and was really surprized that many of the black stains came out too (even though they had washed a number of times before).

 

[ItsonlyExperiment626]

I think those yellow stains comes from the previous baby's saliva. My Ds drools so bad his bib is soaked through in an hour after I put it on him. All his bids have a big yellow stain in front where all the drool soaks in. But don't know how to get rid of them, sorry.

 

[Linnie The Pooh]

When my son outgrew his baby things, I packed them away and most of them had stains on them. Four years later, I unpacked them and sold tons of them on e-bay.

What I did to remove the stains was use Folex carpet cleaner. I sprayed it on and washed them and all the stains came out (except on 2 shirts). I thought that was pretty amazing since they had been packed for four years and the stains still came out.

I get Folex at Walmart, it's about $5 a bottle. I hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[Tasha+Scott]

Maybe I am the only one...but I find it tacky to give someone used baby clothes with stains. I thought this about my own family as well. Just one of my irks.

Nope, you are not the only one! I also think it's tacky. I would not give stained clothes and thankfully I have not received any (yet!) either!

As far as stains, so far Dreft has removed all of the spitup, drooling, and formula stains. I even spilled infant tylenol on her bib once and just washing it with Dreft got it out. I never have to pretreat or posttreat her clothes after washing with Dreft. It does an excellent job. There is one thing that it doesn't remove though, as we recently discovered. Carrots and sweet potatoes! Those are the only 2 baby food stains I can't seem to get rid of and Dreft doesn't get those out either! She gets that on her while eating and it is almost impossible to get those orange stains out! I will have to try some of the tips on this thread and see if they work!

 

[holycow]

I use SHOUT....we have a 3 month old in the house and have been having quite a few stains so I just spray before I wash and they come out. Since the stains have been in a while I don't know if it would work as good but it is worth a try.

Good luck!

HC

 

[swanmom]

Another vote for oxyclean. Since the stain has natural 'body fluid' type chemicals that have to be broken down, this seemed to work best. Use it according directions, apply, wait, wash in COLD water and then check it before you put it in the dryer. Usually, the stain improves a lot but there is still some left. Do the oxyclean thing again. Most of the stains came out the second time.... some required three tries. But that allowed me to use hand-me downs from my girlfriend that we thought were going to have to be thrown out.

 

[Christine]

I would try Oxyclean. My DD was one of those babies that made the yellow stains. I never figured out WHAT it was. Anyway, back in 1992 they didn't have Oxyclean. If the clothing was light colored, I would use a diluted bleach solution (blotting with a paper towel) on the stains, then wash. That would work but it would fade out any print that might be there.

Today, if my kids have serious stains, I soak the piece of clothing in Oxyclean for about 2 hours. Just yesterday, my DD (who is now 14) pointed out two yellow stains on a shirt she had. Of course, I hadn't seen them before and the shirt had been washed a dried. I put a scoop of Oxyclean in 4 cups of water and soaked the whole thing for a few hours. I washed it and the stains came out beautifully.

 

[shortbun]

If it's formula with iron in it, chlorine bleach will make the stains turn black so be careful.

 

[Oh Kay!]

Really hot water. Before we moved, we had a washing machine that could boost the temperature to 210 degrees. I washed all the old baby clothes (3 + years old) twice, and the stains all came out.

 

[karebear1]

They do have an oxyclean for babies that I use on my clothes- it is really good!

 

[Conkozan]

I have found that soaking in BIZ laundry detergent or rubbing the stain with a bar of Fels Naptha (brown soap) takes out a lot of the yellow stains.

Sometimes, clothes I wash and pack away for the winter develop these after sitting in the attic. It may be possible that the hand me downer didn't realize the stains were there since they were not there when they put them away.

 

[justhat]

We use Oxyclean Baby and I have never had to pack away any clothing with stains on them as a result. We use both the spray and the powder, depending on how bad the stain is. If it's not too bad, I just spray it, let it sit a little while, then before I wash it I spray it again and use an old Shout bottle with a scrubber top to rub in the Oxyclean (I put a washcloth under the stain before I do this). A lot of the stain gets rubbed onto the washcloth and the rest comes out in the wash. If that doesn't work then before I dry the item I wash it again, 1st soaking it in the Oxyclean powder for a couple of hours. Then I wash it in Tide, then again in Dreft. We're actually switching over to Tide now so sometimes I don't do the Dreft wash anymore.

One word of caution-I have eaten holes in things with Oxyclean so be careful!! This won't happen with normal use, but the few times it did happen to me were on really bad stains that I had to keep spraying cause the stain wouldn't leave. but then I forgot about it and didn't wash it for a few days and when I did a small hole formed where the stain/Oxyclean was. It's more prone to happen where there's embroidery, and the shirt sorta separates from the embroidery (which happened to the cutest little Gap squirrel shirt!). If you don't forget you sprayed/soaked them though, that shouldn't happen.

 

[Tantor]

I add laundry detergent and bleach (1/2 cup) together and let mix in the washing machine for a couple of minutes and THEN add the clothes. Works like a charm. This has gotten out red wine stains from my light colored jeans when nothing else would work.

 

[EthansMom]

I have a toddler and a preschooler who are very, very dirty. For stains, I soak the stain with Shout and then let it set for a little while (sometimes a few days until I have enough stained clothes for a fullish load). Then I put all of the stained clothes in the washer together (it's usually all light colors) and add lots of Oxiclean (like 5 scoops for a full load). I put the washer on "Soak" and let clothes soak overnight. In the morning, I add some laundry detergent and run the laundry as normal. This has taken out most stains the first time.

Good Luck!

 

[MsLeFever]

I'm surprised that no one in 2 pages has mentioned "Greased Lightning" - it is super on stains....and just about anything else. I get it at Walmart.