All the while I had my oldest munchkin breastfeeding, he was a major spitter. Spit-upper. I'm not sure of the grammatically correct term, but you get the idea. One of the great things about breastfeeding, I was told was the lack of staining since breastmilk doesn't stain clothing. I was thrilled to discover that was correct and happily went about with all the spit-up coming out easily in the wash. At least, I thought.
It turns out, that even if you don't see it, the stains can still be present. As my little one out-grew his clothing, it was cleaned, packed in storage containers, and placed in the attic until it was time for our next little one. With the anticipated arrival of baby number two (coming in a few days - theoretically) the clothes were brought down from the attic and I started the process of sorting through them and washing them in preparation for the new baby.
I was shocked to find that about half of the wardrobe for the smallest size I had was covered in yellowed spit-up stain. How was that possible? I am too particular about stains to have packed away clothing with visible stains on them. And breastmilk isn't supposed to stain. My only conclusion was that apparently, the stains were still there, but not visible. The heat in the attic over the past year or so must have brought them out again. I was so upset, thinking I'd have to get rid of a bunch of the clothes. Before I did so, I wanted to give it the "good ol' college try" and see if there was anything I could do about it. I'm glad I did.
An initial wash was not sufficient enough. In true form of how I do my laundry, however, I never dry anything with stains on it (although, all those now stained clothes technically were dried before they were packed away). I took all the items with stains damp out of the washer treated them directly with Clorox 2 and let them sit. They went through the wash again until they came out clean. About half of the stained items came clean on the first wash, but all showed big improvements. I only had a few items that needed up to three or more washes.
I now have even more reason to love Clorox 2. I already sing it's praises when it comes to getting my diapers clean and now, I have one more reason to keep it as my primary choice for stain removal. A whole set of clothing that not only went through the dryer, but also sat in a warm/hot attic for over a year came clean! I'm super excited that I don't have to worry about getting half a wardrobe of new clothes. All it took was a bit of patience!
