The easiest way to remove old stains from baby clothing! Treat several items at once, even set in stains! Works for blow outs and spit up stains. Also takes out the yellow spots in baby clothing (breast milk and formula stains) that have been in storage. This post contains affiliate links.
The yellow spots linger in the clothes and are unique to baby stains.
I call them ‘baby stains’ because they are different than food or permanent marker type stains. Simply treating them with a spray on stain remover is not going to work. You’re going to need an enzyme cleaner like OxiClean.
Not only did his outfit take a hit, but also the blanket he was wrapped in, and the blanket that I laid him on while cleaning up the mess!
I wasn’t worried about baby stains at all. I simply wrapped it all up in a blanket and put it in the car and would eventually take care of it when I had time at home.
This is because my sister shared her method for how to remove old stains from baby clothing years ago when my other kids were babies, and it has been my go to method ever since. It has saved many, many articles of clothing. Her mother in law shared the trick with her and now I’m sharing it with you.
I’ve tried skipping this method and rinsing the fabrics with a a variety of pretreatments like Oxi Clean Spray and Wash, but I still sometimes end up with light yellow staining.
Baby Protein Stains From Breastmilk and Formula
The secret is Oxi Clean and BOILING water. Normally you would use cold water and avoid hot water when trying to remove a stain, but not for baby stains using this method. The Oxi Clean has a chemical reaction to the enzymes in the spit up for those yellow stains (protein stains) that appear in baby clothing after sitting in storage.
Treating Baby Blow Outs
It also reacts with diaper blow outs so that they wash right out. If you don’t want to treat items one at a time you can give them a quick rinse then set to the side and wait until you have a few items with baby stains to treat together.
My husband said I should have taken a “before” photo. I just couldn’t bring myself to do that. It was nasty, and I have a personal thing against posting poop stains on social media. I hope you’ll forgive me, but just know that there was a soft ball sized stain that leaked from the back to the front of this beautiful organic cotton one piece. But after treating it with Oxi Clean and boiling water it is perfectly clean!
How to Remove Old Stains From Baby Clothing
Step 2: SLOWLY pour two small scoops of Oxi Clean into the water (Scoop sizes vary, but about 1/4 c. works great).
Step 3: Add clothing. Stir to make sure everything is soaked.
Step 4: Let soak 10-15 minutes.
Step 5: Dump the entire pot into the washing machine, water and all.
Step 6: Run a normal cycle in washing machine with a bit of laundry detergent. Dry as usual.
Notes:
- Treat light colored clothing separately from dark colored clothing to avoid colors bleeding.
- Pour Oxi Clean slowly into water to avoid foaming over.
- May be repeated if the baby stains don’t come out all the way the first time. I’ve never had to do this.
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Wonder if this would work on white baseball uniforms stained with dirt from baseball field!!! Surely can’t hurt?
It’s worth a shot!
My son had a coach once that bought old baseball pants for his team, T-ball and used Lestoil on the stains and they looked brand new:)
In high school our marching band had white uniform pants with a red stripe (probably the worst colors ever for sweaty teenagers) and the parents would wash the uniform pants with oxi clean to save money on dry cleaning and keep them white.
Do you add laundry detergent to the washing machine load? Or will the dissolved oxiclean be enough when you put it in the washing machine? Thanks!
Hi! I add laundry detergent and wash like normal! (with the oxiclean). Hope that helps!
Any idea if Biz powder detergent will work as well?
Hi Kristen, I havne’t tried that so I’m not sure!
Hi, can you tell me how do you do several garments at once? Thank you very much for your help.
Hi Sharon! You can soak several items at the same time. As many as will fit inside of your pot. For baby clothes it means several onesies and pajamas. For larger items, you may have to do it in bathes. Hope tha thelps! 🙂
BE CAREFUL!! My pot of hot water foamed over as I slowly added oxy clean. I would suggesting placing pot in the sink BEFORE adding oxy clean 😬😬😬
Great idea, it does bubble up quickly! I’ve done it dozens of times and have had it bubble over probably twice over the years, even when pouring slowly. And I use the same amount of water and oxy clean every time, so I’m not sure what makes the difference!
Works great! Thank you.. to avoid bubble over I place a wooden spoon across the top of pot.
Great tip!
I moved into a home with a front load washer and I hate it. So, when it came time to pre treat and wash baby clothes (prepping for #2), I knew I would need a better option. This worked miracles!! All of the breastmilk yellow storage stains are completely gone after one round!! Thank you for this tutorial!!
You’re welcome! It works for so many stains. I just did a pot full of clothes today!
Just a note, she isn’t kidding when she says separate darks and lights. I included a white shirt with a red graphic on it, and it completely ruined almost everything else in the pot. All of my oldest son’s cute newborn outfits are ruined with dye transfer 😪
Oh no! 🙁
I’m 73 and had 5 children also. I’ve seen so many baby clothes with those yellow stains and thought I’d tried everything to remove them to no avail. I now have 9 grandchildren and have finally removed the stains without fading or damaging the fabric. Your tip really works!!! Thank you so very much. Lori
Yay! I’m so glad! I remember my mom struggling with this too. Pulling out baby clothes that had been stored, only to have yellowing on them. I’m so glad my sister shared this tip with me!
I separated and this worked on 99% of the clothes that I had stored for 15 years!!! I that being said, while I separated, one of my most favorite outfits of my daughters (first 4th of July when she was 3 days old) was red white and blue. Because of this, the red stripes bled onto the white and is now pink. 🙁 I am trying to figure out how to fix that – any help you can offer would be super appreciated. Again, this worked on all the typical baby colors but NOT dark red or blues…. especially when combined with white fabric.
Oh no! So, I’ve seen something in the laundry section at Walmart called “color run remover”. Next to the Color Catcher sheets. It’s a couple of bucks and worth a shot!
You probably don’t have the clothes any more, but if this happens to anyone else, Rit Color Remover might be able to save the clothes.
I’ve never heard of that before. Great tip!
This works amazingly well!! Getting clothes ready for a consignment sale and it made them look like new!
That’s interesting because I used this method once a week with my newborns to get rid of diaper blow outs and spit up stains. Occasionally, I had to treat certain items twice. But it always cleaned the clothing in the end!
When running a normal cycle, did you use cold/cool water or warm/hot water?
Thanks!
I typically run normal cycles with cold water. Hope that helps!
This is amazing! I had 30 year old stains on a smocked dress. I had tried every remedy given to me to no avail. Oxiclean in boiling water removed every single stain!
Oh, I’m so glad to hear this!
Can i do several pots full and wait to wash them all together after an hour or 2 or do they need to be washed right away? I got a huge bunch of borrowed clothes back all covered in spitup stains 🙁 so hopeful I can revive them!
Hi Heidi! You can totally wait to wash them all at once. Hope they save your clothes!
I have a front loading washing machine. How can I make this work without having to go to the laundromat?
Thanks!
Hi Stacie! I have a front loader, too. I pour the pot of water and clothes into the washer. Just being careful not to splash. It works!
I know everyone is saying the colors bleed, I just soaked a pot full of onesies with spit up. Had white ones, dark green ones and a white one with blur trim. I through one the oxyclean white revive powder that comes in the all white container not the traditional blue container and the colors didn’t bleed. Maybe just a throught for everyone for it to be colorsafe.
Is it safe to put baby clothes in the Oxiclean boiling water?? I have a pink baby dress that has been stored for 25 years with unknown stain at top of dress. I am afraid boiling water would set the stain.
I use this for baby clothes. Works great and the boiling water doesn’t set the stains. That being said, the oldest outfits that I have washed were 10 years old. I haven’t used them for heirlooms or anything older.
How should I handle items that are both white and color? Like I have a color block navy and white dress? Should these go with the whites or colors?
Hi Jessica! Most of what I washed were onesies (solid colors). I would imagine it would be ok, but haven’t tested it.
I had a white blanket with fringe that only had one small stain on it. Booked with oxiclean and now the blanket has large yellow spots all over it. Any thoughts or suggestions. It said it could be machine washed.
That is really strange. I’ve never had oxyclean cause stains. It has only ever removed spit up and blow out stains that nothing else could get out. 🙁
On the scoop size, are you meaning to use a 1/4 cup size scoop and still use 2 scoops (1/2 total) or just use 1/4 cup total? Excited to try this! Thanks!
1/4 c. Total. Hope your results are as good as ours were! 🙂
Hi! Any idea how many newborn items can be put in the pot at the same time?
Hi Katie! You can put quite a few in. Just make sure you can still give them a stir with a wooden spoon. If they are packed too tight the water/oxyclean might not soak them completely.
Will the oxiclean liquid work or just the powder? I work with infants and as such my shirts do get spit up stains on them. Thank You for your time and consideration with this question.
Hi! I’ve only ever used the powdered Oxiclean so I’m not sure if it would make a difference or not.
I don’t usually reply to these but I have to on this one. I can not believe how well this works!! I received a ton of hand-me-down baby clothes and some of the cutest onesies were stained. Gave this a whirl not thinking it would work and I’m now obsessed. They all look brand new!
Today I thought I’d try it on some white pillow cases that turned yellow in storage. IT WORKED! So much better than bleach! Thanks a bunch for this!
I’m so glad!! I hate throwing out clothes so I’m so glad it worked for you too!