Is my free-and-clear laundry detergent OK for baby?

October 22, 2018 10:51 AM

I'm 20 weeks pregnant and the baby anxiety has already begun! I've started getting some clothing and I'm worried about our laundry detergent. I keep seeing recommendations for special baby detergent. We exclusively use "free and clear" detergents. Current detergent is All's Free & Clear, but sometimes we get the Costco or BJ's house brand. Is this OK for baby clothes?

Of course I will get special detergent if it's necessary, but I'm not sure if it is or not. Thank you!

posted by ancient star to Home & Garden (24 answers total)

Best answer: We use store brand free and clear and it's fine. Unless your kid has some unusual sensitivities (which you can't know until they're here), yours will be fine too.
posted by Knicke at 10:55 AM on October 22, 2018 [7 favorites]

That's what we used. If your kiddo has sensitive skin can always add an extra rinse cycle.
posted by leslies at 10:56 AM on October 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I used regular Tide for all my kids clothes and it was fine. YMMV.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:58 AM on October 22, 2018 [8 favorites]

Best answer: Here's the page on the subject from healthychildren.org, the website of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is a good starting place for most child-related questions.

They have the same advice I was going to give, but you should actually trust them, because they are pediatricians: "..we’ve found that many if not most parents simply toss their baby’s clothes in with the rest of the family’s laundry without causing any problems. ...buy one that smells good and gets the dirt out, and only feel compelled to invest in a milder 'baby' detergent (or hypoallergenic/fragrance-free 'adult' detergent) if your baby develops any signs of skin irritation." (I found that the baby-specific brands were notably more expensive than the adult "free and clear" type, so I'd suggest sticking with what you're already using.)
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:12 AM on October 22, 2018 [22 favorites]

I use free and clear detergent with my 3 eczema prone kids and it works fine. I did not need special baby detergent - as long as it was free of dyes and scents, my babies didn't react.
posted by annathea at 11:20 AM on October 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: We also used free-and-clear with the babies, and we're a notably sensitive-skinned family!

Baby detergents usually have no dyes -- the most common skin irritant in detergents -- but they do frequently have fragrance (that nice baby smell). Free-and-clear detergents have no dyes AND no fragrance, so they're actually more hypoallergenic than most baby detergents.

We received some Dreft as a gift, and it worked fine as detergent, but the smell drove me batty and definitely irritated my kids' skin more than just regular Tide Free-and-Clear which is my usual. (I did like the Dreft stain pre-treat spray, though, for poopsplosion stains. I don't know if it's specially formulated for poop or what, but it worked great.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 11:22 AM on October 22, 2018 [6 favorites]

For our child with eczema, we use All Free Clear, based on pediatrician and National Eczema Association recommendations.
posted by mbrubeck at 11:32 AM on October 22, 2018

I followed American Academy of pediatrics advice, used our general detergent (we use the arm and hammer brand). One hundred, percent fine for us. But about four months in, my wife used a sample of dreft and fell in love so everything now gets washed in baby detergent . We are far to lazy and have way to many things to do to have two seperate detergents.

No skin issues either way.
posted by AlexiaSky at 11:55 AM on October 22, 2018

My son had eczema too. Another vote for All Free Clear.
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:57 AM on October 22, 2018

Maybe check to make sure it doesn't have propylene glycol. Yes, I'm particularly sensitive to it, but it's a widely-known irritant for a lot of people. I use Seventh Generation's unscented variety and it works for me; other free-and-clear detergents haven't (I think Arm and Hammer specifically was bad).
posted by amtho at 11:57 AM on October 22, 2018

For my first child, I used baby laundry detergent and only used baby bath towels with an adorable hood. For the second, I used off-brand Tide and once dried him off with the ratty towel I keep in the trunk of my car in case someone gets carsick. So, basically, there’s no wrong answer and also being the second-born sucks.
posted by whitewall at 12:04 PM on October 22, 2018 [23 favorites]

We use it, and it's perfect. Definitely better than the more expensive ones marketed towards babies specifically.
posted by Sara_NOT_Sarah at 12:19 PM on October 22, 2018

All free and clear was actually better for our rash prone second born than baby stuff, so by all means save yourself the extra loads of baby only stuff
posted by domino at 12:19 PM on October 22, 2018

Have never regularly used Dreft or any special baby stuff for either of my kids (though my mom uses it whenever we're at their house or when she sends us clothes for them). My second has some skin sensitivities and eczema related to food allergies. Neither kid has ever reacted differently to any different detergents, from standard tide to free-and-clear to Dreft. We usually do free-and-clear/eco-friendly/septic-friendly anyway. tl;dr: don't buy the expensive baby stuff.
posted by olinerd at 12:22 PM on October 22, 2018

We used Charley' Soap when we were using pocket diapers because that was the official Diaper Nazi Approved(tm) detergent. We still use it 8 years later because it works well and is cost effective.
posted by Dr. Twist at 12:42 PM on October 22, 2018

I’m allergic to everything and use All Free and Clear for me and the kids, one of whom is prone to eczema like me. My MIL insisted for the longest time on using smelly baby specific detergent (Dreft, I think?) and it gave everyone a rash when we used her stuff.

Go with the tried and true!
posted by lydhre at 12:57 PM on October 22, 2018

We use the Wirecutter's recommendation for detergent, which just happens to be free of added odors or dye, and it works great for everybody in our family, including our ten-month-old.
posted by kdar at 1:14 PM on October 22, 2018

We used regular Tide with all our baby clothes, including cloth diapers. Baby detergent is (unless your kid has some weird allergies which you won't know until you know) a cash grab to get more money out of anxious parents' pocketbooks.
posted by arcticwoman at 1:50 PM on October 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

We are sensitive to even the free and clear stuff and switched to Charlie’s Soap 17 years ago
posted by tilde at 2:09 PM on October 22, 2018

We used Dreft, which came with a free stuffed animal that became Lambie, a favorite companion for our first born.

Seriously, Dreft is great.
posted by 4ster at 3:35 PM on October 22, 2018

We use the Tide version of free and clear - name, I'm forgetting - for the whole family. Works great. No baby rashes.
posted by Toddles at 8:09 PM on October 22, 2018

Best answer: Forgot to add: please don't try to add things to your list of to-dos like washing baby's clothing separately in special detergent. Your life will be hard enough.
posted by Toddles at 8:10 PM on October 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

Just as an annoying warning, we had intended to switch to the Kirkland/Costco Free and Clear detergent when our baby came along, but it caused Guyagonalize to break out in horrific hives. He had never had a reaction to detergent before and doesn’t have particularly sensitive skin, so we were baffled at first. The baby didn’t seem to mind either way, so we just went back to our normal Tide, and everyone has been fine since.
posted by Diagonalize at 2:52 PM on October 23, 2018

Our friends have very sensitive skin, and they claimed that Tide is basically designed to get clothes as clean as possible while being tolerated by 90% of the population. For the 10%, this is obviously a problem. They use All, which does not do nearly as good a job at getting clothes sparkling clean, but is much better tolerated. For what it's worth.
posted by wnissen at 4:33 PM on October 23, 2018