Hellobee Boards

I actually make our laundry detergent from a recipe I found on pinterest and LOVE it - it lasts forever and works really well - but bought All Free and Clear for all our baby stuff!

@coacheswife123: Can you share the recipe?

@photojane: We don't use a special detergent, we use Seventh Generation.

We use Dreft because its worked since Day 1, and it doesnt cost any more than regular Free & Clear detergent here (especially when BrU does buy one get one half off or whatever.)

We use All Free and Clear. It's the cheapest detergent at our Walmart and well, it's free and clear.

Baby detergents and free-and-clear detergents are essentially the same thing, and neither is necessarily safe for baby. After doing some research, I actually switched out all of our laundry products!

Now I'm using Charlie's Soap for detergent, vinegar for fabric softener/rinse aid, and wool dryer balls in place of dryer sheets. It works MUCH better than the usual stuff, it's cheaper, it's safe (no residues/buildup), and it's still easy (I'm not quite inspired enough to make my own detergent, haha).

I bought all free and clear too!

I started off using baby detergent. Now I use Tide for all of our laundry.

ACK! I just looked up detergents on the EWG website and found that Tide, Dreft and Charlie's soap were given D/F ratings! I'm getting some Seventh Generation detergent today (A rating!)

@banana: Love it! There's an obvious difference in our clothes. They look and smell cleaner, and feel softer. I didn't think switching from "normal" products would make that much of a difference (we were using free-and-clear, dryer sheets, etc.), but I was pleasantly surprised!

Personally I'm OK with the surfactant so long as it's washing out, which is what should happen with this detergent if it's working with your machine and water correctly.

Free and clear for the whole family!!!

Dreft doesn't even work, IMHO.

I use ALL free & clear or Tide Free & Clear for everything (I've got super-sensitive skin). I've read it's fine for baby stuff too, so that's what I've been washing things in. And the Bounce Free & Sensitive for dryer sheets when I use them.

We wash DS's clothes in Dreft because that is what my mom bought for us. I prefer ALL free and clear to Dreft but I will use what we have first.

@coacheswife123: I use basically the same recipe, but I use Kirk's Castille Soap and no OxyCLean. I just use 1 scoop per load (I think it's 2 tbsps) and I made it last Feb and am still going strong! Detergent is so expensive so it is an awesome thing to spend less that $12/year!

I like to use fragrance/dye free for us so I'll continue to do that for baby. I'll probably just use a regular liquid brand because I don't think you can use baking soda on cloth diapers.

I use Rockin Green for all of our stuff. Got it for the cloth diapers and I just like the simplicity of one thing.

Do you need baby-safe detergent: maybe. My guy got dressed up in a friend's kid's baby play clothes that had been washed in regular stuff and he only had it on for 5 minutes and got a rash.

We use free and clear detergents for ourselves and have never used anything different for him.

@photojane: You were asking how long you need to use the special stuff... I don't think there's a magic time period, and I think some babies are just more sensitive than others-- but some aren't at all, so you have to wait and see. You can experiment by throwing LO's clothes in with yours every once in a while to see what happens.

FWIW, we never used any special detergent, but then we've always used the dye-free, fragrance-free stuff from Costco since it's the cheapest they carry. And we've never used dryer sheets or fabric softeners either, so using or not using those wasn't an issue.