Laundry detergent for the super sensitive?

[Mandylubug]

I'm still on my mission to elimate my skin issues. I have changed my bathsoaps, face soaps, cosmetics. I'm still super itchy and have bumps where my clothes touch. I have tried All small and mighty free and clear. Purex free and clear, Tide free and clear and Arm and Hammer products. I also need to make sure what I get removes body odor. DH works a very physically demanding job and I have running clothes, workout wear. Our laundry stinks! Many seem to struggle in this department. I've found some brands may smell clean due to the fragrance but once we wear them for a bit, the clean clothes smell like fritos! Yuck!

 

Looking for sulfate free as well. I'm sensitive to those.

[BlueTaelon]

We make our own using the years supply recipe one good thing by jillie

[itsheresomewhere]

I use Rockin Green.  It is very good and DS does not break out from it.  It handles boy gym stink very well.  I do add a splash of bac out to DH and DS very stinky I have been working hard load.  

 

In a pinch when I am waiting on a order of Rockin Green- I can use Ecover or Bio Kleen laundry soap.  They work just fine but it is not my favorite.  No one is this house breaks out from them.  We are very sensitive to soaps here and these haven't caused us any issues.  Tide makes me break out so bad. 

[shawthorne44]

I am very sensitive to soaps.  I now make my own, but that is because I am cheap.  Woolite complete worked well before that.  

My husband was playing soccer three days a week.  Some days I wasn't quite sure that his soccer clothes were washed because they went in as wet as the front loader left them after washing.  I have no sense of smell, and close family knows to alert me to anything that smells.  

 

I think rather than worry about the detergent, you need to work on the laundry methods.  People like us need to be particularly sure to completely rinse out all the soap.  Back when I had a top-loader every load was run through a complete extra cycle with cold water and no added soap.  If you have a top-loader, leave the lid open for the second cycle so that it stops before it drains and you can check the amount of suds.  I think you would be shocked.  

 

For my front loader I add most of the soap for the "pre-wash" area, and just a dribble in the main wash area.  This way I get plenty of soap in contact with my clothes, but they have plenty of time to rinse well.  I also add an extra rinse.  

 

Another thing to try is a homemade pretreatment spray for the stinky clothes.  Spray the stinky stuff when you take it off, and the heavy lifting of the cleaning will be done before they are even washed.  

 

[Mrs Mungo]

I use the 7th generation laundry detergent, but it has SLS.

[SadieMarie]

We use Tide free and clear or store brand of the same, but I need to use way, way less than the min line on my washer. I don't know if you have an HE but I use maybe a couple tablespoons of detergent. When I cut back on the amount of detergent and added an extra rinse cycle it eliminated the contact dermatitis dd and I were both having.

[Acadie]

Every once in a while we de-stink the gym clothes by washing on hot with ammonia--maybe 1/8 cup for the whole load.  There are fumes when you pour the ammonia into a hot washer, but no residue that I can detect in the clothes, and we have sensitive skin too.  

 

It's a good question how much detergent you're using--I use less than half what the manufacturer recommends.  Dry immediately.

 

Amy

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

I had to wash my laundry seperate for years. Tough detergent for dh and the boys clothes. I washed mine in dye and fragrance free detergent, using white vinegar as fabric softener and rinse agent. I used a fraction of the suggested detergent, ran extra rinse cycle and used the vinegar to help get out detergent residue. I also took a H2 blocker daily. I made sure my skin was well moisturized too.

 

Now that some of my other allergies are under control I'm not nearly so sensitive to laundry detergent. It can come back if my other allergens flare.

[Acadie]

One other question--have you ever used dryer sheets, or are any of the clothes hand-me-downs from families who use dryer sheets?  Those chemicals are unbelievably persistent, and give my youngest a rash wherever the clothing touches her skin.  

 

I tried washing on hot with detergent, borax, washing soda, ammonia…  Nothing took it out until I learned this (admittedly crazy-sounding) trick: wash on hot with powdered milk, then again on hot with detergent.

 

Amy

[Mandylubug]

I will try the ammonia tip. Embarrassingly enough, my gym clothes seem to hold the smell worse than DHs sweaty shirts. Especially my sports bras. Horrible.

 

I use the full recommended amount of HE because our machine is the largest capacity available and the clothes still stink lol. I will throw in a clothes item and put it on a rinse and spin cycle to see if there is residual suds.

[Mandylubug]

Ok absolutely no suds in clothes when thrown in with hot water and agitated a wee bit.

[Ellie]

I'm still on my mission to elimate my skin issues. I have changed my bathsoaps, face soaps, cosmetics. I'm still super itchy and have bumps where my clothes touch. I have tried All small and mighty free and clear. Purex free and clear, Tide free and clear and Arm and Hammer products. I also need to make sure what I get removes body odor. DH works a very physically demanding job and I have running clothes, workout wear. Our laundry stinks! Many seem to struggle in this department. I've found some brands may smell clean due to the fragrance but once we wear them for a bit, the clean clothes smell like fritos! Yuck!

 

Looking for sulfate free as well. I'm sensitive to those.

 

Amway laundry products are the only ones Mr. Ellie's sensitive skin can tolerate (ditto bath soap, shampoo, and deodorant). We use the powder, which does have sulfates, but I have also successfully used the liquid, which does not. We're going on 40 years of happy Amway use. :-)

[TeenagerMom]

I make my own using Ivory, Borax, and Washing powder. Its the only thing I can tolerate and it does take the stink out of DH's work clothes as long as I wash on hot.

[Mandylubug]

I make my own using Ivory, Borax, and Washing powder. Its the only thing I can tolerate and it does take the stink out of DH's work clothes as long as I wash on hot.

I'm allergic to Ivory soap. I've made many recipes and it left my microfleece blankets smelly after a while. Almost like a chemical reaction with that fabric and my white turn dingy grey. :( laundry shouldn't be this difficult.

[BlueTaelon]

Sorry, was on my phone earlier http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/08/make-a-years-worth-of-laundry-soap.html she has a scaled down version on there as well. It works really well but I need to add 1/2 C Borax to each load since we have really really hard water and it was turning things yellow and icky.

 

ETA because I just looked at the recipe, I used her recipe for the Downey crystals on her site, I think it was just Epsom salt and EO which I skipped.

[sbgrace]

edited to add: never mind! I was going to suggest you might have soap remaining in your clean clothes, but I see that's not your issue.

 

 

[mom2samlibby]

Charlie's Soap

Norwex

Ava Anderson Non-Toxic

[G5052]

Charlie's Soap

 

 

Charlie's works very well for us.  I was a skeptic, but a friend shared some with me.  It works very well on stinky clothes.  And I don't itch any more!

[aaplank]

With whatever laundry detergent works best for you, add 1/2 cup of borax per load. I started doing this with my gentle detergent and it's made a world of difference, especially with my husband's gross, sweaty undershirts.

[zoobie]

When is the last time you stripped your washer? DH has these athletic shirts that absorb smells when our washer gets funky. I do a short hot wash with vinegar, then run the sanitize cycle with a big scoop each of borax and OxyClean/Biz/whatever brand thrown in the washer drum.

[Mandylubug]

When is the last time you stripped your washer? DH has these athletic shirts that absorb smells when our washer gets funky. I do a short hot wash with vinegar, then run the sanitize cycle with a big scoop each of borax and OxyClean/Biz/whatever brand thrown in the washer drum.

Well. I do atleast one load of bleached towels a week which is what is recommended by mine. It is a top load HE. Not a front load. I also use a ton of vinegar weekly as our fabric softener.

[Mandylubug]

My washer just states running a load of hot water with one cup bleach once a month as it's cleaning method. Since we wash towels with bleach I haven't found it necessary.

[Ellie]

I'm allergic to Ivory soap. I've made many recipes and it left my microfleece blankets smelly after a while. Almost like a chemical reaction with that fabric and my white turn dingy grey. :( laundry shouldn't be this difficult.

 

So is Mr. Ellie. It is why I have never tried making my own detergent. o_0

[Desert Strawberry]

I make my own. Powder and liquid.

http://cajunstrawberry.blogspot.com/search?q=laundry+detergent

[Denise in IN]

I've had good success here with Amway detergent. I add vinegar to the rinse and oxyclean when needed.  Works for my teen boys stinky soccer clothes.  :laugh:

[Aiden]

We started using Charlie's Soap when we were cloth diapering our daughter (you have to be extremely careful what you use with cloth diapers, so as not to mess up the absorbency). At some point, I decided to just try it on our regular clothes and see if it would work, because who wants to buy more than one detergent if it isn't necessary? I'd also done the math and seen that when ordering Charlie's off Amazon, it was less expensive than what I could order the more mainstream detergents for, as long as you do the math per load--you only use a tablespoon of Charlie's, and less if you have a HE machine.

 

It worked really well to get the stink out of our clothes. I usually put my towels through an extra cycle to make sure they rinse extra well, but everything else has been fine with one load.

 

I did notice, however, that when I was staying with my mom temporarily and using Charlie's Soap for my laundry in her machine--where she uses regular detergent most of the time--that I started having a bit more trouble. It turns out that Charlie's is formulated to rinse clean, but if you use it in a machine that still has residue from other detergents, that residue from other detergents can cause problems. With each order of Charlie's I've received, there also has been an insert with instructions about how to rid your machine of those residues, or if you simply use Charlie's consistently without using other detergents, the machine eventually will lose the residues through natural use.

[neeko]

This is the only stuff I can use:  http://www.calbenpuresoap.com/seafoam-laundry-soap.php

I get 2 jugs of the liquid soap at a time, and they last me for almost a year.  

[Mandylubug]

Ok. I am trying Charlie's. I had it available at our local vitamin shoppe. I'm a.azed at the suds in the washer. According to their site, this is the removal of detergent build up. Shocking that I didn't see it yesterday with the towel/no detergent trial.

[prairiewindmomma]

If Charlie's doesn't work out, try Ecos. Here's a link to the ingredient list (scroll to the laundry detergent) http://www.ecos.com/product_ingredient_list.pdf. It uses a coconut based surfactant and has very few ingredients overall for a detergent. It was one of the few things that my daughter could tolerate.

 

It takes your washer a while to de-scumify when there's been build-up, and if you use any type of fabric softener, there can be buildup in your dryer as well. 

 

One tip I learned from our allergy/cloth diaper adventures has been to only use 1 scant tablespoon of laundry soap per load. :)

[Katy]

I make my own using Ivory, Borax, and Washing powder. Its the only thing I can tolerate and it does take the stink out of DH's work clothes as long as I wash on hot.

 

I do this too, but I usually use a castile (olive oil) soap from Whole Foods, and some lavender essential oil.  And I melt the powder into water in a big pot on the stove because the powder doesn't dissolve in my HE washer unless I use very hot water, and I dilute that too so overall I don't use much.   We use vinegar in place of fabric softener.  And I have to be careful which dryer sheets to get, the cheap ones especially cause some of us to get random itchy rashes.  As long as I use vinegar to rinse I don't have a stinky work clothes issue.

[Mandylubug]

If Charlie's doesn't work out, try Ecos. Here's a link to the ingredient list (scroll to the laundry detergent) http://www.ecos.com/product_ingredient_list.pdf. It uses a coconut based surfactant and has very few ingredients overall for a detergent. It was one of the few things that my daughter could tolerate.

 

It takes your washer a while to de-scumify when there's been build-up, and if you use any type of fabric softener, there can be buildup in your dryer as well. 

 

One tip I learned from our allergy/cloth diaper adventures has been to only use 1 scant tablespoon of laundry soap per load. :)

 

So, about the dryer, how would I go about removing the build up there? We did use fabric softener for a steady period, very regularly. I am no longer using it but I am sure the dryer would be scummy.

[Slartibartfast]

I like Seventh Generation or Mrs Meyers Cleaning Day.

 

Or I get "free and clear" detergent and add some essential oil to it then shake.

[tammyw]

We use Trader Joe's laundry detergent.

[prairiewindmomma]

It just takes time....as you continue not using softener, as your wet clothes rub against the dryer, it will come off....

 

[smudge]

I LOVE my Charlie's Soap! DH gets hives if you look at him cross-eyed and had trouble with a lot of detergents. Not Charlie's and stuff comes out clean. I always use vinegar as a fabric softener. Also keeps any buildup to a minimum.

[Mandylubug]

We are loving Charlie's so far. Put on a shirt laundered in Purex and I am itching!

 

I've also noticed Charlie's is removing a smell from my old towels that have been there forever and no matter how long soaked in vinegar, it wouldn't go away. It nearly smelled like urine but wasn't caused by that. I had resigned to thinking it was just the smell of my linen closet.

[ItoLina]

Charlie's soap. I discovered it when cloth diapering :-)

[shawthorne44]

Does anyone know the secret behind the wonderfulness that is Charlie's?  

[Guest miami500]

Yardley of London soap (paraben free & sodium lauryl sulfate free), available at Walgreens & grocery stores

 

LUSH Buffy Body Butter.

 

 

Seventh Generation Natural Laundry   only the powder or the Pods

 

 

[jhschool]

I haven't read the other replies, so sorry if I am repeating

answers.

I used to have this crunchy granola friend who used these

little rubber balls that supposedly cleaned her laundry.

She would just pop them into her washing machine. No

detergent at all!!!!

I was skeptical that her clothes were clean! BUT...she was

really messy and dirty AND SHE DIDN'T SMELL EVER! OK, so

my point is maybe her little rubber balls worked!

I have no idea what they were but she got them at some

natural type pangea or gaia type of business. It was some

kind of ionic something or other.

[Pippen]

The All Free & Clear Small & Mighty gives me problems, but the regular All Free & Clear doesn't. Weird--I know. I also add vinegar.

 

jshschool, it sounds like your friend may have been using soap nuts.

[Mommyof4ks]

We used to use Ivory Snow, but I cannot find it anymore, so now we use Seventh Generation.

 

Is it all clothes that cause the bumps? My ds is allergic to polyester, so maybe it is a specific material rather than a detergent.

[Tammyla]

Doctor recommended All Free And Clear for ds years ago and no fabric softener except vinegar if necessary.  We've used it for everyone for years and I hope they never stop making it. 

 

We also use California Baby wash or Dove Sensitive skin bars.

[AHASRADA]

Another vote for Charlie's. I started using it when I was cloth diapering, and have continued to do so now that little dd is potty trained. I love the clean, fresh smell of nothing rather than some fake scent. When I buy used clothes, I have to wash them 2-3 times to remove that awful Tide smell.

 

I also use Nellie's dryer balls instead of dryer sheets, which leave residue. They usually last about a year, and work great!

[Tap]

I could be wrong but I think I have heard of people being allergic to parts of fabric.  I think it was latex in stretchy clothes, Dye in some very dark clothes, cotton, and the chemicals in sports wear.  

 

Any chance certain clothes are the ones causing the problem? 

 

 

[texasmama]

Haven't read other replies.

 

Have you tried using much less detergent than usual and doing a second rinse?  I have found that I can use very little detergent and the clothing comes clean.  I use All Free and Clear (HE) in a front loader.

[pehp]

Sensi-Clean, which is the same as Sport Wash. I order it from the manufacturer.  

 

http://www.atsko.com/13504.html

[Mandylubug]

I will give a slight update. I purchased Charlie's soap and have had great success. No fabric softener required. I use oxyclean with my towels. Other than that I need nothing. I have severe, instantaneous reactions now if I put on clothing that hasn't been laundered in the new stuff. I had previously tried extra rinses, free and clear and half "doses"