How to remove brown stains from colored underwear?

Question

Our long period of potty training is still ongoing, and at the moment, a lot of underwear it falling victim to that.

After washing by hand with clear water and washing in the washing machine at 60 °C, there still remain brown stains in many of the (colored) pants.
What is a good way to get rid of those stains?

There was a similar question about cloth diapers How do you remove stains from cloth diapers?, but sunning is not an option during fall and winter and bleaching in general does not work well with colored clothes, I suppose.

(Should somebody propose to just trash the stained underwear, this is not acceptable for us, as is is not only a question of cost but also a waste of ressources, especially as we need really many of them at the moment - sometimes 1..5 per day)

Answer 1

I'd suggest using one of those spray on spot removers and using it right after the clothes have been worn and slightly cleaned, don't let the spots sit on there longer than they have to. Took me a few washes but once I kept on top of it the stains are not that noticable anymore, although washing the clothes with color safe bleach also helped me out. Basically I do the following:

1. Clean the underwear right away, when I notice it by rinsing off what I can by hand
2. Spray on the stain remover, took me a bit to find one that I like and works well (since I am US based I won't mention products); I really soak it in sometimes
3. Wash the laundry loads when I can, using child safe detergent and a small amount of color safe bleach
4. Check the laundry right after the wash, if it's still stained I try to put it back in with more stain remover - my view is if it goes in the dryer it's going to stain more

So far I have been able to keep the stains from being too noticable, and I joke to my wife, if it get's too bad again then I'm dying all the underwear brown so it won't be noticable at all.

Answer 2

If bleaching works and this is a temporary issue, why not just buy lighter coloured or white undies and bleach them clean? We hand-wash, soak in bleach overnight and then wash in a machine and have no problems.

The other thing we do with our lad (currently undergoing toilet training) is bulk buy cheap undies. His childcare centre will often just toss soiled underwear whereas we wash and reuse.

BTW: if he is defecating up to 5 times a day, perhaps you should look at his diet. That does not sound too healthy. Certain foods (kiwi, apricots, etc) will cause our lad to poo more often. We will use these if he had gone more than a day without a movement.

Answer 3

You can still sun even in the fall and winter. Even if you need to put them in a sunny winner. Also you can try bac out. It helps remove biological stains and is all natural. Oxyclean also helps.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Just wash the underwear as you would any piece of clothing. The biological stains, after normal washing, are harmless and of no ill effect. If you are self-conscious about the stain, or you thing that someone else might be, then put your panties or your briefs in the garbage. Some of the washing remedies outlined above are both dangerous and a waste of money and time. We are talking about a piece of clothing that is too close to areas that should not be subjected to residual bleaches, stain removing toxins and ritualistic cleaning methods.