tags, insturctions, warnings, and other lovely information on baby products......

[aweynsayl]

Ok, I gripe a lot about the tags that are all over things like strollers, car seats, co-sleepers, cribs that say "If you do x or y or z, your child will DIE" and "If you do NOT do x or y or z, your child will DIE."

Here's a new one:

My teeny tiney baby wash cloths have instructed me to IRON THEM.

That's just about as bad as the Baby Blanket I got that instructed me to HAND WASH ONLY. Um..... sure. THAT's likely.

Oooh, and-- and!! the "Sleeper Gown" that is labeled "Not indended as sleep wear."

Ok, one more. The instructions for the car seat tell you that you can remove the cover and wash it, but NOWHERE DOES IT TELL YOU HOW TO PUT IT BACK ON. :

[FarmerCathy]

I hear ya on the carseat covers. Both of my carseats did not have instructions on how to put them back on, I looked everywhere. I hope I did it right.

[AdinaL]

The sleep wear stuff has to have that on it. If it hasn't been flame-retarded then it is not supposed to be labeled as sleepwear.

FWIW- I have worked with the flameproofing they use - seriously yucky yucky stuff. I think I will take the risk that my baby isn't going to spontaneously combust while in bed with me, and just get stuff to sleep in that isn't treated.

[nighten]

Crap! I didn't wash the car seat cover! CRAP CRAP CRAP.

Do I have to? Is it treated with something horrid? I've washed *everything* else that will come in contact with her....

Crap.

And for what it's worth, the flame retardent stuff scares the poo out of me. I don't buy it if it's flame retardent.

Here's one for you: my diaper pail liners (which cost $1 each) are polypropylene, which melts at high temps, so is to never be put in a dryer. No biggie, they dry as quickly hanging over th edoor as the dipes do in the dryer. Nice!

Plus they're not natural material so they can be washed with my FBs and not cause pilling.

Oh, except it says wash on COLD. And I have to wash my CDs in hot.

So can polypropylene be washed on hot to get rid of poop germs? Or do you preserve the $1 bags and wash on cold, but let them have poo germies on them and if so does it really matter if they exist only to line the diaper pails anyway?

(Unless there's a rotovirus or something.)

Dang I can't believe I haven't washed the car seat cover. Do I really have to?

[aweynsayl]

Hmmm.... I dunno! Maybe try one? but if it melted, eew. Where'd you get them?

I washed the car seat and stroller covers TWICE, but I am super smell sensitive and they STINK.

BTW-- I'm sure that they are treated with flame retardants... most things are. I hemmed and haweed over the co-sleeper because of my hatred of fire retardants... They are so hard to avoid. Thank goodness for CA's new law... soon we wont have to worry quite so much.

[eilonwy]

Carseats are required by law to be flame resistant; if you're terrified of that stuff, you'll definately want to wash the covers. Although for what it's worth, I've never had any trouble removing and washing our infant seat cover (it's a Graco Snugride, the same one that BeanBean came home in ). The Alpha Omega Elite is another story; it's a great carseat, but getting the cover on and off took me a solid 40 minutes each time, and I'm really, really good at crap like that.

As to the polypropylene-- the most natural way to disinfect those would be to wash with vinegar and TTO and dry inside out in the sun. Sunlight is an amazing, damn-near-magical disinfectant. You'll *definately* want to dry them outdoors in the sun, though, rather than indoors on a drying rack. In fact, you may find that sun drying is the only way to get rid of the smell of poop. I wouldn't worry too much about the water temperature; most people don't keep their hot water heater set high enough for the hot water to actually kill anything anyway. Our hot water is that hot, but not on purpose (we can't find the freaking thermostat ). We are total freaks.

Oh, and even if you don't use it on your clothing, it's not a bad idea to run a washer full of bleach every now and again if you're using cloth diapers, just to make sure that everything is dead as can be in the washer. I like to run a bleach load with some white and white-ish towels every now and then, to make sure that everything's getting clean.

[pfamilygal]

I wouldn't worry about prewashing the car seat cover. Ten to one the little apple of your eye will either puke or poop all over it in the first week and you will get to enjoy wrestling the cover off while you try not to puke yourself from the lovely aroma of vomit. I got to do this with my 3 yr old's "big kid" puke a couple months ago.

[duckat]

:
I personally don't wash a carseat cover until I have to. And you will have to.

[Black Orchid]

Originally Posted by duckat

:
I personally don't wash a carseat cover until I have to. And you will have to.

I got away with not washing until just last month. My DD had a chocolate ice cream explosion I didn't know about the flame retardant thing at all. any links?

[2+twins]

I've never washed a carseat in advance - didn't occur to me. But yes, I've definitely dealt with being forced to wash it after my toddler vomited 3x in a row in it (and into my hand, which was a lame attempt at catching the puke - blech).

[nighten]

Originally Posted by Black Orchid

I got away with not washing until just last month. My DD had a chocolate ice cream explosion I didn't know about the flame retardant thing at all. any links?

I've been looking and the only thing I've found is this:

Baby's sleepwear especially should be washed in a mild detergent made without animal fats or other water conditioners. Flame retardant sleepwear is specially treated to keep children's pajamas from flaring into flame if ignited by a spark. The flame retardant chemicals can be affected by fabric softeners and conditioners. Don't use them on baby's sleeping gowns and stretchies.

----------

So I'm assuming the best way to wash the flame retardent stuff of is to use softeners, etc.? I know that Allens and Charlie's will NOT wash the flame ret stuff off, so assume the plant oils that coat dipes are the same ones that will peel away the retardent?

[Very Snoofly]

The dumbest instructions I've ever seen are on the tags to my Boppy. It states that the Boppy should not be used as a pillow, should not be placed in cribs or beds, should not be used near a sleeping infant. Then, in big letters, is says:

READ WARNINGS BEFORE EACH USE

Huh? Why? Because if you have a good enough memory to remember that you're supposed to read the tag before each use, shouldn't you ALSO remember to never put your baby to sleep on a boppy?

[aweynsayl]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

Sunlight is an amazing, damn-near-magical disinfectant. You'll *definately* want to dry them outdoors in the sun, though, rather than indoors on a drying rack. In fact, you may find that sun drying is the only way to get rid of the smell of poop.

Dang, more reasons to get the heck outta Seattle. Um.... so, I guess I can only wash mine in July and August?

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by moosemommy

Dang, more reasons to get the heck outta Seattle. Um.... so, I guess I can only wash mine in July and August?

: Well, I suppose you could invest in one of those ridiculously expensive lights.... but the fresh air really helps.

[aweynsayl]

LMAO!

Fresh air really helps ME too. That's ok, before I know it, we'll be in SUNNY TUCSON. I can hang on.

[AtThePark]

We used to joke after reading all the warnings that they should just put in big red letters "BABIES CAN'T FIGHT FIRES" on everything.

I don't thinkI'v eever washed my carseat cover and ds is ummm almost 3. Can't still be off-gassing can it LOL!!

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by AtThePark

I don't thinkI'v eever washed my carseat cover and ds is ummm almost 3. Can't still be off-gassing can it LOL!!

Wow, how have you made it? Do you actually manage not to give your son food in the car? I've always said that I wouldn't, but I do as soon as I think that they can handle it because we take such long trips so often. The carseat covers get icky in a hurry, especially when they're in a car too small to install the drink holders...

[AdinaL]

Very Snoofly - my Boppy Pregnancy wedge tells me to read the directions before each use too!!! I thought that was odd...

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by AdinaL

Very Snoofly - my Boppy Pregnancy wedge tells me to read the directions before each use too!!! I thought that was odd...

It's hard-core cya. You can't sue them, because you didn't follow the instructions...

[nighten]

Update on the laundry:

I soaked the cover with a fat capful of Downey Free & Clear (or whatever the white bottle is called) in cold, then washed it with a half cap of 7th Generation (it has lots of good plant oils that coat dipes and apparently loosen flame retardant chems hooray!) and another cap of Downey, then re-washed in just the 7th Generation, normal amount, twice, then an extra cold rinse just to be safe.

Dried it on the rack in front of a sunny window.

Whew! It smells nice, is soft, still looks brand new and hopefully has a lot less toxins to it now.

Thanks for reminding me that I needed to do this!