This post is sponsored by Ivory Detergent. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make LivingLesh possible. 
Laundry has always been simple for me. I gather up the clothes, sort them by color, put each load in the washer, and go throughout the entire process. Before we had our son, I wasn’t really thinking much into what type of detergent I was using as long as it got out the dirt and didn’t ruin our clothes. And when I had my son, I went and bought laundry detergent from the baby aisle that I saw many people already using. But when my son began breaking out all over his body, I started to doubt everything I did – including how I was doing our laundry. I soon found out that my son has infantile eczema and that his skin is really sensitive, so I know I had to make a change. It was time to start paying attention to what I was using and how I was washing not only his clothes but all of our clothes. In the past year, I have learned a number of things about how to do the laundry for babies with sensitive skin and I want to share those tips with you.
Use The Right Detergent
The detergent you use for washing baby clothes is super important. There are quite a few detergents out there that are stated to be made for babies but have dyes, strong scents and other harsh chemicals that are quite aggressive on their skin. That’s why the best detergent to use on baby clothes is one that is free from all of those harsh chemicals and is hypoallergenic. One that I recently found that has been doing the trick, not only for my son’s clothes but for our clothes as well, is Ivory Gentle Aloe Scent detergent which you can easily find at your local Walmart. It’s free of all of those aggressive chemicals that aren’t good for baby’s skin. Of course, you may thinking, well if it doesn’t have those chemicals, is it getting out all of those messy stains? And I can attest that it does. Not only has it not caused my son to have an eczema flare-up, but it’s also getting out all of the food and other mystery stains that babies and toddlers seem to get on their clothes. What’s even better is that this detergent can be used for everyone, so no need to buy a detergent specifically for your baby’s or toddler’s clothes, instead get a household detergent and do all the loads as one.
Put It On Delicate Cycle for Initial Wash
When you buy baby and toddler clothes, you need to wash the clothes before your baby wears them – especially if they have delicate skin. It’s something that I not only do for my son’s clothes but for my own as well. Whether it has come from a warehouse or straight from the store, it’s come in contact with plastics, cleaning chemicals, or been touched by someone who may not know they need to wash their hands, and you don’t want that on your child’s skin. You may be a little wary of washing clothes before they are worn because you may think they might get destroyed.
Pre-Soak If You Really Need To
Let’s face it, babies and toddlers somehow find ways to get mystery stains on their clothes that have you trying to figure out what it is in the first place. Between the food and the occasional blowouts, you’ll find yourself thinking you need an extra aggressive detergent to get things out – especially if you’re not trying to wash a piece of clothing right away or toss it. Ivory Gentle Aloe Scent detergent does great on getting messes out of any clothes, but presoaking a piece of clothing that you’re not ready to wash for another week doesn’t hurt the process. When my son gets something on his clothes that I think will stain, I soak it in hot water for about five minutes, wring it out, and then put it with the rest of the dirty clothes to be washed when I do the laundry. I’m not one that likes to run the laundry machine for one outfit and there’s really no time in the week to start laundry. So presoaking helps me feel at ease if I really feel as if the stain is going to set in.
