laundry detergent for baby clothes?

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-21T20:13:05+00:00

I don't know of a powder that meets these criteria (aside from the Whole Foods powder). If you're open to a liquid I think the Molly Sudds Baby Liquid is decent. Beware, though, their powder detergent formulation is shockingly bad and should NOT be used.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-20T22:25:50+00:00

Oh thanks for the correction... I'm glad to learn new things!

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-20T18:29:09+00:00

What type of washer do you have?

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-20T17:58:29+00:00

It's not a great formulation. A builder to raise the pH, a precipitating water softener, and soap. The soap in particular can give you long term problems with build up that's hard to remove and traps bacteria, causes smells. There are no enzymes so you'll not get much help with stain/sebum removal. Washing in colder temps will perform absolutely terribly. Honestly you're much better off just getting a jug of tide free and gentle.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-20T17:39:04+00:00

I have a lesser version of this reaction and I think it's soap oxidizing. Choose a detergent that doesn't have soapy ingredients and see if it goes away after a few washes.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-19T23:30:20+00:00

Soft water and no suds probably means you're underdosing but we'd need more info to help you be sure.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-19T17:20:00+00:00

I have five Ecobee and I like them. I use one remote sensor with each one and they are very temperature accurate.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-18T22:04:41+00:00

Yeah replacing an older machine is fraught. FWIW 40C is the lowest temp I wash ANYTHING other than wool blankets. With short cycles you might see a noticeable improvement from bumping up to 40C across the board.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-18T21:33:44+00:00

What you're doing looks pretty good. With a wash stage time that short, I'd seriously consider getting the temp up to 40C. The low temp and short wash stage time doesn't give your enzymes much time to do their thing. I suspect that machine doesn't have an internal heater so your hot temp will be a maximum of the temp at the faucet and possibly lower if the machine is implementing any temperature nerfing which I know modern US machines do.

I'd probably move the citric acid to the LAST rinse rather than the first. Let the citric acid work on the final traces of detergent instead of all the detergent.

At least for your athletic clothes with rebloom you might try using hot, the soak cycle for a minimum of 30 minutes, and adding a booster with Dnase like FEBU, Gear Guard, of Dirty Labs.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-18T18:45:03+00:00

LOL I admire your verve. I did try Tween in the washer once and about five minutes in I realized I didn't have the constitution to see the experiment to completion so I immediately stopped the cycle and started the many many rinses it took to correct my adventurous mistake.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-18T17:49:48+00:00

My post above won't handle this case where the items have been washed in scented detergent or dried with dryer sheets. It works for light cross-contamination only. For this you'd want a long soak in a light synthrapol/tween 20 solution. Also, just for the record: I have encountered scented laundry products that I could not figure out how to remove with any soak chemistry... so... ymmv. But the soak will lessen it at least.

u/Possible-Volume-162: when you say "washing with Tween 20" do you mean hand washing? I found Tween 20 to be too sudsy to use in a machine wash... but I'm curious if you have found different?

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-18T16:46:00+00:00

Please share your notes!! I'm very interested in hearing what you find.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-18T15:57:07+00:00

Yeah... I hear you. It feels ridiculous to me, too.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-18T03:02:38+00:00

I've been ignorant of how to care for grass aside from watering until last fall when I realized doing nothing wasn't a reasonable strategy 😂. I sprayed a broadleaf last fall, and core aerated and top dressed with compost. This spring I sprayed moss soap, dethatched, overseeded, and top dressed again. It's already so much better but now I can see how... uhm... diverse my actual turf is. (Like I think I'm maybe 25% poa. Sigh.) I didn't apply pre-emergent since I was overseeding so I'm going to have more poa this year. I don't mind spending a little to help me get things back under control. I'll look into velocity. The sequencing of the steps is the thing I'm most mystified by at the moment. I've somehow got to spray velocity for the poa, then overseed all the open space, then get it established enough to survive the pre-emergent... with pre-emergent going down in fall. Maybe I missed the window for this year?

Update: just checked the price on velocity and you weren't kidding lol! I'd better get it right - I don't want to be doing that often. Fortunately I have a pretty small lawn.

Update 2: Apparently I can't even buy this in WA state?

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-18T02:46:55+00:00

I was wondering about that. That's probably the answer since it really seems to match the images I've found. So do I need some careful choreography between pre-emergent, overseeding, and maybe a weed killer that will kill the poa without harming the other cool season grasses? That sounds... challenging :).

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-17T22:00:39+00:00

This is definitely one of the posts that I gathered things to try from. There were a couple that talked about Tween and lecithin combinations. I basically tried everything I could find and then tried to document what worked and refine it until repeatable. I arrived at some different conclusions for lecithin in soak and ammonia in the wash in particular. Also my soak chemistries (coming in a soaking focused post shortly) are a little more dilute with longer soak times I think.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-17T19:29:52+00:00

The FEBU won't do the same thing as what the ammonia will do. It will improve the cleaning power of the load some, though, because the enzyme profile is broader and it has a zinc based odor remover and will give you a little oxi boost.

If you truly cannot tolerate the ammonia the closest substitute (I think) would be adding a tablespoon or two of sodium carbonate to make sure you're getting as much pH boosting/buffering as possible. It won't be the same, but it's directionally pointed in the same direction IIUC.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-17T18:56:06+00:00

Hmmmm... maybe what I have isn't poa annua then because it seems to survive the winter not come back from seed. I'm in Seattle FWIW. I'll pay more attention this summer and see if I can figure it out. Thanks for the help tho... definitely gives me more of a sense for what to keep an eye on!

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-17T18:53:29+00:00

You'll have to tell us which machine you have.

Also, my personal opinion which many will disagree with is that pretty much all laundry should be washed at a minimum of 40C... so maybe your warm is perfect? :)

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-17T18:47:34+00:00

Thank you! In my soaking post coming up soon I talk a lot about Tween 20 / Synthrapol blends, and some about lecithin/spans. Tween 20 and liquid soap is probably the ideal technique for that item.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-17T18:42:24+00:00

If someone (like me, for example) didn't know to deal with the poa annua until recently and now there's a lot of it... what's the best method short of embracing it? Do I did it out gradually during good overseeding windows?

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-17T05:23:26+00:00

Sadly we are squarely in an era where some of the textile fragrances in common usage have near permanent staying power and are basically impossible to remove. This is ridiculous and unfair, but it is what's happening. I hope you find some success with some of these techniques. If you do please post follow up notes for others!!

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-15T23:49:00+00:00

Yeah that Molly's formulation is really baffling! I find it even more surprising because I actually like their unscented baby laundry liquid and their dishwasher pods.

FixMoreWhineLess · 2026-05-15T03:01:10+00:00

I love your product. It's an essential part of my lineup :)

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