Baby Laundry

Everyone warned me that a baby would quadruple my weekly laundry. But it took until now for me to really get the full understanding of that. It seems like Ellie uses more and more clothes, burp cloths, and bibs as she gets older. I really thought it would be the other way around - tons of clothes per day for the really little babies, and less and less per day as they grow.

Nope, not so much.

I don't mind doing the laundry. Let's be honest, it's teeny tiny. When her hamper fills up, I dump it in the washing machine. She has enough clothes, blankets, bibs, and burp cloths to fill up about two hampers, so I just get everything rotating in and out. She's never naked, and I'm not washing clothes every day.


What I really didn't expect, however, was the stains. Formula is no big deal. Spilled formula or spit up on the clothes... it washes right out. I bought a Dreft stain remover but then I never used it. At least, I never used it until I started feeding Ellie sweet potatoes.

And it seems that no matter what I do, everything still turns orange. Half her bibs are orange. A couple of her brand new onesies are orange. What?! I am the stain removal master (ask my friends... ahem, Emily) so this shouldn't be happening. This Dreft stuff is too gentle, it just doesn't get the job done. So either I use the harsh chemical stuff and get the clothes clean or I stick with the gentle baby stuff and have a child that's tinted slightly orange.

Rock and a hard place, folks.

At the end of the day, it's just laundry. I guess more than angry or annoyed by it, I'm just baffled. I mean, sweet potatoes have never stained my clothes, so why the sudden clinging skills? What are they putting in that baby food? It's everywhere...