How to wash clothes for newborns

wash newborns' clothes Everyone knows that a newborn’s clothes cannot be washed in the same way as adults’ clothes. Baby diapers, onesies, etc. need to be washed correctly. But how is this correct? It’s not that difficult to answer this question right away, but it takes quite a long time, so we decided to offer this publication as an answer. In it you will find information about washing newborn clothes by hand and in the machine, as well as some useful tips for caring for newborn clothes.

Before washing

Diapers and other things for newborns need to be prepared before washing. Some careless mothers throw diapers, undershirts, and onesies in a lump in the laundry basket, and then, after a couple of days, throw them in huge quantities into the washing machine, sometimes along with some adult laundry, and wash it all with regular washing machine powder. In our opinion, only a notorious barbarian who does not care about the health of his own baby can wash children’s clothes in this way. The correct thing to do is this:

Clothes and diapers must be rinsed in cold water before feces, urine and other contaminants have adhered to them. If you rinse in warm water, traces of feces will remain on things.

If you don’t have time to rinse your newborn’s clothes in cold water, you can put them in a bowl of cold water and rinse them when you have time.

After rinsing your baby's clothes, take a bar of baby soap and rub all the stains you see on them. It is advisable to rub with soap on both sides, so the dirt will effectively liquefy and then come off during washing.
Wet, soapy items can be placed in a basin.There is no need to pour water. In this state, they can lie until the washing, which will have to be done in the evening. It is strictly forbidden to keep diapers wet for days on end.

Newborns' clothes usually contain biological contamination, which can be easily removed without the use of expensive super-effective powders. It is best to start washing such linen by hand using a bar of baby soap, but you can wash a large number of clothes for newborns or small children in an automatic washing machine. In this case, regular bar soap will not work; you will have to use hypoallergenic baby washing powder, which the manufacturer allows for use in a washing machine.

laundry detergent for newborns

There are quite a few such powders on the market: Garden Kids, Frau Schmidt Ocean Baby, Vish Baby and others. It's not hard to find, but you have to be careful. Before purchasing a powder, be sure to read its composition. If the powder contains surfactants, phosphates, or zeolites in large quantities, they are not suitable for a newborn’s things. If you're tight on money or don't trust powder manufacturers, you can make laundry detergent at home - This is also a good option, although more labor-intensive.

By hand or in the washing machine?

handwash After rinsing and rubbing your baby's clothes with soap and choosing a good powder for washing them, you can proceed directly to washing. If you have the time and desire, you can wash your baby’s clothes by hand in a basin of water, just like our mothers and grandmothers did. Hand washing, of course, is a troublesome task, but it is also economical. You don’t waste electricity, a lot of water, or expensive powder for newborns, because you can wash it by hand with baby laundry soap.

“Piss and poop” washes better in cold water, but you also want to protect your joints, so you need to wash it at a water temperature of 15-18 ⁰C – don’t put ice water in the basin, your health is more valuable. Place baby clothes in a basin of water and begin to rinse and “cheat” vigorously. Things previously rubbed with soap must first be crushed and rubbed, then rinsed, and then rubbed again with a bar of soap and “cheated” again. After the next rinse, most likely, all stains will be removed; if not, then the procedure will have to be repeated again.

When washing baby clothes by hand, do not bend over a basin of water, putting stress on your lower back, as you will quickly get tired. Place the basin on the floor, kneel next to it and calmly start washing.

In an automatic washing machine, washing a newborn’s clothes must also be done in a special way. machine washable

Place enough of your child's clothes in the washing machine drum. If there are too few things, there may be an imbalance, too much - overload.
Open the powder drawer and pour a sufficient amount of detergent into the main wash compartment. You can’t pour in fabric softener, or sprinkle in Calgon or similar products.
Close the cuvette and the hatch. Select a washing program. It is enough to select the quick wash mode for 30-40 minutes. At what temperature should I wash? Everything is simple here, we choose to wash things in cold water.
If the machine has a double rinse mode, then select it and start the wash; if there is no such mode, then the second rinse must be started manually.It is very important that all powder residues are rinsed out of things.

After washing

As soon as you wash baby clothes using the above methods, you need to wring them out and put them in a pile so that you can then hang all the laundry to dry. You don’t have to worry about spinning, but rather put all the laundry in the washing machine drum and set the spin program. Some people still have old Soviet centrifuges for spinning clothes. In this case, such a centrifuge can be used perfectly. After such a centrifuge, the laundry will be slightly damp at the exit, which means it will dry much faster.

It is better to dry poorly wrung newborn clothes outside. In winter, you need to thoroughly wring out your laundry and dry it close to a heater or radiator, otherwise mold will quickly grow on your walls due to dampness.

drying baby's clothes

We hang the thoroughly wrung out laundry to dry. If you live in a polluted area of the city, then it is better not to dry your baby’s clothes outside at all. In this case, an ideal option would be a drying cabinet or a washing machine with a drying function. Of course, these household appliances are very expensive, and if you do not have the means to buy them, you will have to install a regular sliding dryer in the room, and somewhere nearby a heat source.

Be careful! Do not hang baby diapers and undershirts directly on the heaters, especially if they are spiral heaters, as a fire is not far away.

Useful tips

Finally, instead of a conclusion, I would like to give some advice to young mothers who do not yet have sufficient experience in caring for newborn children regarding the care of their things.

At what temperature should you wash your baby's clothes?Stains of biological origin, of which in this case are the majority, are best washed in cold water (temperature no higher than 20⁰WITH).
When washing a newborn's clothes, give preference to baby soap; diapers can also be washed with baby powder.
Before washing, be sure to rinse your baby's clothes and rub them with soap.
When washing your child’s clothes in the washing machine, choose the appropriate wash cycle and be sure to set it to double rinse.
Never mix children's things with adults. A newborn's clothes are washed strictly separately.
When washing a newborn's clothes in a machine, do not use any conditioners, water softeners or other chemicals - only special baby powder.
When putting things in the washing machine, rinse them first and rub them with soap.
Do not dry things outside if you live in a polluted area.
If you have to dry your baby's things at home, do it near a heat source, but do not cover the heat source - this is dangerous!

As a bonus to the information presented in this article, we’ll also talk about ironing newborns’ clothes. Some young mothers neglect ironing certain items, thinking that it is not so important. In fact, this is very important, even if you dry things at home. You need to iron all the baby’s things, both sides and, preferably, with an iron with a steamer, this way you will definitely get rid of most of the harmful microbes that will have time to settle on the drying clothes. Do not neglect the rules specified in the article, and everything will be fine!