How to Protect Your Baby’s Skin With Natural Cleaners
By: Vanessa Leigh
Tags: Nontoxic, Stain Removal, Laundry, Baby Products, Organic

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

Is Your Baby Stain Remover Toxic?

This story begins with poop. Baby poop. Kaka. Don’t all great stories have an element of s%&t in them? Well, this is not some type of metaphor…

We’re talking about real poopy messes.

Once upon a time, I was on my millionth load of laundry. I was PUMPED to get all of the poop stains OUT. I sprayed on generous amounts of a baby stain remover and pressed Start. Then I continued multi-tasking — as I’m sure you do, too.

BUZZZZZ — Done! Well, this load had quite a few poopy explosions, and as I took it out of the machine I fell backward. I couldn’t breathe. I was overwhelmed. Did the poop stay in, you ask? Did the machine fail to do its job? Nope — it was actually something much worse.

Where was the smell coming from? I was confused. We’ve always used the most organic laundry detergent. Normally there’s a light lavender smell on the clothes or no scent at all. I thought I’d done my research.

What was the problem?

I realized I didn’t do my research before buying this new baby stain remover — it was definitely NOT non-toxic.

The stench of the baby stain remover was overpowering. This chemical, perfumed odor now clung to my baby’s clothes and hung in the air.

Honestly, it was the same brand I had used years before. But I don’t remember it smelling THAT strong…

How Bad Are Regular Baby Stain Removers Really?

I made a decision.

I threw the onesies away, hurting my Goodwill-donating heart. But I couldn’t donate them and risk exposing anyone else’s baby’s skin to these chemicals.

Curious, I decided to check out the ingredients on the stain remover. Hmm…No ingredients listed. Strange. And then I started to worry more…

The Hunt Was On…

I jumped on the company’s website. The colorful products were shown right away with nice, pretty pictures.

Where were the ingredients listed? I searched and searched.

Finally down at the very bottom of the website next to the privacy policy and the site terms and conditions in very small print was written “Our Ingredients.” Oh, there they were. NOT easy to find.

I clicked on them and my stomach turned.

The Dirty Truth

Chemicals. Ingredients I couldn’t pronounce. Fragrances. Preservatives. Enzymes. Some were listed as Respiratory Sensitizers. One ingredient showed that it was “On a Designated List.” That can’t be good…That list was labeled as “US NTP Reproductive or Developmental Toxicants.”¹

There were also two fragrances that were “On a Designated List.” One ingredient was listed as CA Non-Cancer Hazards.¹ A table showed me that substance targeted the respiratory system, skin, and eyes.²

I kept sinking deeper into my chair and deeper into a scary list of ingredients. I knew I had to do more than toss out the onesies. I immediately got the stain remover spray OUT of our apartment.

For everyone who just ran to go read the ingredients on all of your products: I understand — I did, too. Recently, a friend of mine also recommended I watch the documentary Stink on Netflix. Definitely worth a watch.

With all of this new info, what to do next? Well, I couldn’t keep throwing away baby clothes. So I decided to make my own DIY non-toxic baby stain remover, which is what I should’ve done in the first place.

And YOU CAN, TOO!