yellow spots on stored baby clothes???

[babydoll]

Well tonight I got out my daughter's baby clothes. I took great care to keep them stain free and it great shape. I am having another dd in about 6 weeks and I wanted to get them washed up. I pulled them out and nearly every one has yellow spots on them. I have no idea what it is. THey were stored in rubbermaid containers at my mom's house until we bought our house and then in my basement (which is dry). They have been stored for about 3-3.5years or less. I sprayed them with oxi-clean and I have the white ones soaking in the oxi-clean baby. I am very unsure that this will come out. The spots are even on the inside where the fabric was folded. I really think they are age spots or something. She rarely spit up and never had formula or any food or anything that would have stained them like this.

Any ideas?

I really hope they aren't ruined. I was looking forward to seeing them again

[Marsupialmom]

Did you use fabric softener? Or some sort of spray to make them fresher? Or did someone else?

[ramlita]

I had the same experience when DS was due!
It seemed to happen primarily on clothes that had been stored in plastic bins, where there was little to no air circulation.
The couple of cardboard boxes of clothes got chewed on by mice.

When the yellowing didn't come out in the wash, I gave up and dyed the clothes worth saving. I didn't try anything else, I must admit- there was just too much going on at the time for me to have the interest or energy.

[mahogny]

Sometimes spit-up stains take a while to show up. Even breastmilk spit-up can stain.

When I got my baby clothes out for kid#2, I soaked them in oxiclean overnight, and they mostly came out.

[chel]

I do oxi-clean soaks for 48 hours. Lots of dd clothes were hand-me-downs and had the same issue.

[sunnysideup]

Most of the yellow stains came out with oxi-clean for me. It did take the color off of some outfits though.

[babydoll]

hmm..

maybe it was because I used the plastic bins. I usually use trash bags or cardboard boxes. I was trying to be all efficient and used the nice plastic bins. I am getting ready to go check them now to see if the oxi-clean helped. It did get some off last night when I checked the white clothes. I was afraid to let the colored ones sit overnight so I will do them today.

[Wabi Sabi]

When I was pregnant my mom gave me a box of my brother's baby clothes that she had saved.

My mother, who is the Queen of Clean, was mortified that pretty much everything had yellow stains. She knows they were clean when she stored them away. Anyhow. my brother was 7 yrs. old when DS was born, so they were some pretty old and well-aged stains.

Mom soaked them in Oxyclean and it helped minimally. I then scrubbed them with Fels-Naptha soap and an old toothbrush- every single spot came right out.

I no longer hesitate to buy baby clothes with staining at garage sales because I know that I'll be able to get just about any spot out with my Fels-Naptha.

Fels Naptha soap

[Wolfmeis]

yellow spots on stored baby clothes = milk of one form or another

oxiclean will kill it for you

[babydoll]

that is really weird

I know there was no stains on them when I put them away. I never had a problem with my milk staining her clothes and she rarely spit-up. If I had not known better I would have thought on someone elses clothes they were formula stains.

[JamesMama]

I was just wondering about this! We had the same problem with James' clothes. Stain free a year ago, now stained *pout*

Question, would it be okay to soak a whole bunch of DS's clothes in the washing machine over night? With the lid open and some Oxi Clean? There are quite a few outfits that need soaking.

[babydoll]

oxi clean

Well so far it looks like the stains have come out of the white clothes. I sprayed the colored ones with oxiclean spray and then I am going to wash them with the oxiclean baby. Hopefully that will get the stains out. It appears to be coming out so far...

[nikirj]

Originally Posted by babydoll

I know there was no stains on them when I put them away. I never had a problem with my milk staining her clothes and she rarely spit-up. If I had not known better I would have thought on someone elses clothes they were formula stains.

It can take months for the stains to show up. If you have carpetting - do you have some unexplained greyish stains? That is milk or milk-based staining. Even if you've cleaned it decently, if you've got some of it remaining it can slowly but surely create that stain. My guess is that the same happened to the clothing. We've had it happen to ours as well and some of it came out, some didn't, seemingly completely at random.

[Cedarmom]

Grab a stock pot. Boil water. Add oxiclean *slllloooowly* (otherwise it will boil over). Add clothes. Boil for 10 minutes. Turn off stove and let them sit for a while. Drain, then wash the clothes on hot with whatever detergent you use. All the clothes, even the colors, came out perfectly.

[Breathless Wonder]

I have soaked red clothes in Oxyclean before- I figured I was going to lose them anyway, so it was worth the risk.

Stains came out, color stayed.

However, I've sometimes had issues with stains bleaching out on other clothing- mainly dark pink, or light blue clothes, for some reason.

I'd say, if you think you might toss them, or not use them anyway, what have you got to lose?

[babydoll]

not sure about boiling?

Once my MIL fed my daughter baby carrots with no bib and they stained her sleeper real bad. Someone suggested the boiled water with oxiclean method. I tried it and it bleached the clothes. I would do it with something all white, but that sleeper was yellow striped and it got ruined. Well the carrots came out and so did the color in some areas. To be fair I think I boiled it waaaaaaaaaaay longer than 10 minutes. I guess if it is last resort and you are going to get rid of it if you can't get the stain out go for it. So far it has come out of all the white clothes by soaking them in oxiclean. It appears to come out of some of the pastel clothes that I have washed so far, but I am waiting for them to be done washing. One sweet little fancy romper has stains so dark on it it looks like rust. I swear she only wore that once for a picture. I am not sure that is going to come out and it is a delicate fabric that can't handle a lot of chemicals. I had my nursing gowns packed away with those and they also have the mysterious stains. I have had my maternity clothes packed away longer in the same rubbermaid totes and none of them were stains. Whoever said it was milk or organic stains that have come out after sitting awile - I am thinking they might be right.

[tsfairy]

I recently unpacked a bunch of DS's clothes and found orange-yellow staining on several items. Many were baby shower gifts that were never worn, but had been washed and possibly had fabric softener used on them. I just re-washed the stuff with stains and most of it came out without any treating.

[babydoll]

fabric softner

I bought some downy free (liquid) to use this time. I just think it makes the clothes so much softer. they did not make it yet when I had dd and I always thought the clothes washed in dreft or all free seemed crunchy or rough. I want my little babe to have really soft clothes. It is possible that in their last washing before being packed away that dh might have just washed them in whatever and added fabric softner. does that cause yellow spots? I too have clothes she hardly wore and yet they have the spots. Weird

I just checked and a couple outfits (a blue carter's gown and a pink carter's sleeper have bleach marks on them from the oxiclean spray

[DesireeH]

the same thing happened to my DS's clothes that I saved. I unpacked them when I was pregnant trying to pick out the gender neutral stuff that my daughter could wear and everything had yellow spots on them. They were cleaned and dried (no fabric softener) before I packed them away (into plastic and cardboard).....I dont know what happened but I washed them again and it didnt come out. I didnt try Oxy Clean though.

[Breathless Wonder]

Just so you know- regular oxyclean says NOT to allow Oxyclean to dry on fabric.

I did it once or twice accidentally, and the result was the spots where the Oxyclean dried either bleached out, and/or eventually, those bleached out spots completely disintegrated in the wash. The Oxyclean completely ate the fabric.

Be aware as well, the it can NOT be used on certain types of fibers.

For set grease stains, and even milk stains, I have had good luck using Simple Green, or regular dish detergent. I wet the clothes, put some of the cleaner on a plastic body poof, and scrub away. Wash as usual.