Do I Really Need To Use Special “baby” Laundry Soap?
Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at
4:57 pm
Neither my husband or I have sensitive skin. I’m SURE my mother didn’t use this stuff. I get that you need to be careful with cloth diapers and wipes, but for regular clothes and sheets can’t I just use a dye/fragrance free normal laundry detergent? Anyone have an opinion?
Tagged with: Baby • Laundry • Need • Really • Soap • Special
Filed under: Free Baby Stuff
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I use Gain for both my clothes and baby clothes. She seems to be fine and not developing any rashed or anything so I am not worried about buying the more expensive stuff unless she does.
I would try your regular stuff with a couple outfits and see how baby reacts to it. If they do breack out there are some regular detergents that are safe for baby to use without buying that speacial baby brand.
I posted a ? about this when I was pregnant and the answer I rec’d from someone showed they did the research and here are the brands you can use that is supposed to be safe for baby skin:
Purex Free & clear, which is like $9 for 90 loads.
All Free & Clear, $12 for 90 loads,
Cheer Free & Clear, $10 for 60 loads,
Tide Free & Clear, $17 for 60 loads,
Dreft, $30 for 90 loads,
Target Brand Baby, $25 for 90 loads,
Everyday Living Baby (Kroger Brand) $5 for 40 loads
All for Baby $20 for 90 loads.
We use the free/clear version of detergent. No dyes/perfumes and it works just fine. Mainly for my husband because he is allergic to the other stuff. I read an article about if the baby detergent is better and it said the dye/perfume free version is the same as the baby detergent. It just doesn’t have that baby smell. So it’s really up to you on what you want to use.
Yes, you can use All free and clear or anything that is dye/fragrance free. That’s what we did and it’s nice because you can wash your clothes in it too so you don’t have to separate the laundry out. You only have to use it until you know he/she won’t have a reaction to it. My son is 7 weeks and we are about 3/4 of the way through our All bottle so when we go to the Dr. next time I’ll check with them to make sure it’s ok to switch. The dreft detergent or “baby” detergents are just a waste of money in my opinion when they are the same as the dye/fragrance free ones.
You don’t need actual baby laundry soap, but all of the brands now have a dye and scent free laundry, so just buy that and use it for the whole family, that’s why I have been doing, it doesn’t cost anymore that the regular and then you don’t have to worry about washing the baby’s stuff separately, because everything is being washed by the same soap
I would use it for the first month or two to make sure (basically just go through one container). If other things don’t seem to bother the baby then use regular detergent…I use Dreft (target off-brand works great too and is cheaper!), and if anything it makes my daughter’s clothes smell really good!
We don’t wash our clothes, sheets in the Dreft, and she’s never had a reaction or problem, so we are already fairly confident she’d be okay with out it, which is a good way to check.
I do and I think it’s well worth it. My baby had one of her onesies mixed in with my husbands wash and she got a rash when she wore it. Baby’s have sensitive skin. It lasts a lot longer than you’d think, Dreft is $11 but I’ve had the same one since January and there is still just under 1/4 of it left and thats doing 2 loads a week, sometimes 3.
I just bought a dye/fragrance free laundry soap too, and used it from day one. We didn’t have any issues. Most of those baby detergents are mainly about marketing and not anything special. Although I was given irovy samples from somewhere and it smells soooooo good!! haha, but i’m not buying it for the smell! so expensive!!
Definitely not! In fact, most of the products marketed toward baby clothes have even more perfumes than regular detergent. Your best bet is to go with “free and clear” products with no dyes or perfumes that could irritate the baby’s skin or trigger allergies.
You are certainly right. As long as it is dye/fragrance-free, it will have the same benefits of expensive detergents like Dreft.
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Although, there is nothing quite like the smell of newborn baby onesies that have been freshly washed in Dreft. Mmmm…can smell it now, almost makes me want another baby. Almost but not quite
i asked all my girlfriends with kids and they ALL just used free laundry soap… so do i… i did buy some drift one time…. and i really do like it b.c it makes the clothes soft b.c they say not to use fabric softener… but i usually just use smething free and clear
we used it for brody for about a month, then some of his clothes started getting mixed in with ours and they got washed with Gain, he was fine. now we just wash his cloth diapers in dreft but we wash all his clothes in gain.
No, it really isn’t. Perfume and dye free detergent is actually much better than baby detergents. Dreft and the like all contain very harsh fragrances. I’d stick with regular fragrance and dye free stuff, like All free and clear.
You really won’t know until the baby is born. Worst case their skin gets a little irritated and you have to wash everything again in baby detergent. We use Tide and have no problems with our 10 day old.
I have always used just regular detergent for my kids clothes from day 1. None of them have ever had any issues from it.
My kids all get a rash when I use non child friendly washing powder, each child is different though, but I certainly cant use anything else.
I never had to, but I do use Tide powder for laundry rather than liquid detergent.
My Son & DIL just had a baby. The Dr said just wash her clothes like you wash your own. She is 3mo. old now and no problem.
any brand that says free and clear on it should be fine. we started buying the purex free and clear and wallyworld had it on sale 4 bucks for bottle that does 60 plus loads
baby All is much cheaper than dreft and works just as well
Its better to be safe than sorry.Use baby detergent.It’s only 5 bucks .Your baby is worth that and much more