Some people have said not to bother with special baby detergent unless the baby shows signs of skin sensitivity, and others say they *invest* in Dreft just because it smells so good. I wonder whether these are the same people that think the traditional pink Johnson & Johnson products smell so good, too. (We went with the purple line and others gave us fun scents like cucumber & green tea.) Baby powder scent should really be on the list of things that have set me back on the baby track, and I am equally baffled by women who wear the current shirt style with empire waist and/or extra fabric in the front as I am with women who choose powder-scented deodorant.So rather than pay double for Dreft (which I intentionally have not smelled) or do all the baby laundry with our regular detergent only to discover a skin allergy and have to re-wash everything, we settled on dye/perfume-free detergent and fabric softener. You know, because I am such a greenie. I am now working through the second load of lights and there is a literal mountain of darks (probably 3 loads) waiting to be washed. Did I mention I have a little problem with buying baby clothes? They are so cute! I cannot stop.
I had been purchasing and sorting baby clothes by label according to season and thought I was so clever because the calendar months match the size in months, so 0-3mo will surely be December through March (cold weather) and 6-9mo will surely be the hottest summer weather. Once again my little bit of logic was foiled when my mother pointed out that I (being a gargantuan baby) wore double the size on the tag, so at 3 months old I was wearing 6mo labels. [A couple of my friends have since pointed this out as well.] And, to top it off, Mom proceeded to kindly go through the nursery closet and show me even within one size category just how varied the lengths are, depending on the brand. So now I have taken everything off the hangers and out of the drawers for laundry (and Steve helped me remove the million hang-tags), and I will be putting them back according to size by using a measuring tape. And if little Rowena/Tristan does turn out to be anything but textbook size, I get to go shopping.
Steve assembled the stroller over the weekend (!) and helped me sort through the huge pile of shower gifts and other baby gear. Plus, last week we had overhead light fixtures installed in the nursery, my studio, and Steve's office -- such a difference! I will not think about what other corners the builder may have cut...
3 comments:
We also skipped Dreft and used Biokleen detergent (which is what I use on our diapers). It worked just fine. I tried throwing a few things of Eli's into our wash when he was a couple of months old and he got a rash (as all of my children have when I've used regular detergent in their first few months). I tried again when he was around three months and he was fine with it.
Have fun with all of those clothes!
I will admit, I am one of the "it smells so good" Dreft users. It really does smell yummy! But I think any no perfume/dye brand will do, you are way ahead of me in figuring this stuff out!
My 10 month old babe now wears a 24 month size. And a 2T hat for his big old noggin. But when he was born, my husband had to run out for "newborn" sizes cause the 0-3 months were too big for him! Good times! Hey, any excuse to buy more clothes...wee!
Should I say it again? Wait until the baby is born and then you just buy the next size ahead when you can tell how big they are going to be. He/She might be like my little peanut and still wearing a size smaller than his age. You just never know.
And I think I told you this already, but we didn't have any problems using regular detergent or fabric softener. It all depends on the kid, I guess.
Did it take the whole weekend for the stroller assembly? :-) Tell Steve congrats...he now has a few credits towards his Baby Gear Assembly Degree with more courses to come. :-)
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