can you wash the chemicals out of non organic clothing?

[deeannielannie]

i've been searching and searching, and can't really find any definitive answers. i prefer to buy organic clothing for many reasons, but have some new ones here that i thought were organic and turned out not to be. i'd love to know if there is some way to at least make them not harmful to my baby if i decide to keep them. anyone know?
tia!

[JaneSmith1010]

I had the same problem. My MIL kept buying non-organic clothes for ds and to my knowlege you cannot completely wash the chemicals out of them but after 20 or so washes they will be reduced. I'm not sure if this works or not but my ds doesn't really wear clothes much anyway. I see it this way, my goal is to minimize his exposure to toxins, but I cannot keep him completely from him. Do your best, it's all you can do.

[deeannielannie]

thanks. yeah, i hear you. i guess i just feel like right now i do have the option of having her wear organic clothes...i just wish there was a way of knowing what's left in these clothes after 100 washes so i could make an informed choice, instead of just getting rid of them all the time. maybe noone's done the research yet. oh well.

[naturalmaman]

I just don't buy this that you can't wash the chemicals out of clothing and other cotton garments---I mean we are not talking radioactive material here! If anyone has any links to research done on this topic---I would love to read it. This topic really, really irritates me----because organic stuff is SOOOO expensive and a lot of the organic clothing is so not-attractive or cut funny. Also---both of my babies (teenagers now) were raised in regular clothing, regular sheets and regular cotton diapers----in fact, we have about 3 generations here that were raised in conventional cotton---should we be buying our burial plots now???? :

[aiccerb]

There was a thread about this at another board. It suggested that if you can not purchase organic clothing you should shop for second hand, as most of the chemicals will all ready be washed out.

Im off to go see if I can find it...

[deeannielannie]

Originally Posted by strathconamama

There was a thread about this at another board. It suggested that if you can not purchase organic clothing you should shop for second hand, as most of the chemicals will all ready be washed out.

Im off to go see if I can find it...

thank you! i hope you can find it!

[fek&fuzz]

what are the chemicals that you are looking to wash out?

[aiccerb]

nak cant find the thread, but it talked about how the residule chemicals on clothing from the treatments and finishes are usually washed away quite quickly. Which makes sense to me if you've ever tried dying clothes. You wash the garment first to "prep" it before dying.

Imo I think the advantage to organic clothing is more to do with reducing impact and protecting the environment by avoiding pesticides and what not used in growing and processing the materials.

They suggest second hand clothing as it has all ready been washed, but more importantly it reduces consumption and prevents items from going to the land fill etc etc

[deeannielannie]

Originally Posted by strathconamama

nak cant find the thread, but it talked about how the residule chemicals on clothing from the treatments and finishes are usually washed away quite quickly. Which makes sense to me if you've ever tried dying clothes. You wash the garment first to "prep" it before dying.

Imo I think the advantage to organic clothing is more to do with reducing impact and protecting the environment by avoiding pesticides and what not used in growing and processing the materials.

They suggest second hand clothing as it has all ready been washed, but more importantly it reduces consumption and prevents items from going to the land fill etc etc

thank you mama. that makes sense. i've read two things...one that it never washes out, which seems hard to believe, and another place that it is gone as soon as you can't smell it, which i also don't feel great about.

hey, if you happen to find that thread, please let me know, or if it's a board you could let me know about in a pm, that would be great too....i'm on a mission now to really get more info on this. i will continue to buy organics whenever possible just for the environment, but i really want to know what we're absorbing too.

[Meiri]

If the sizing that is put onto new clothes never washed out, I'd never be able to wear any clothing at all. That stuff makes me itch.

Obviously, as I never leave the house unclothed and even now am sitting clothed at my computer, the stuff washes out.

[avendesora]

Re: "it never washes out"

I think that it depends on your definition of being completely washed out. I imagine that after the first wash, 50% would wash away. By the second wash, 75% would have been washed away, third would be 87.3%, and so on. Eventually you will have washed away 99%... the percent will go up with every wash, but in theory, would never get to 100%.

I guess the question should be, when is 'enough' washed away?

I just made up those percents for the sake of example, they're not really based on anything

Aven