Kid comes home from daycare covered in food stains

[pizzapizza]

Does anyone else have this problem?   I am considering only sending her in navy, black, brown and other dark colors that don't get stained.  The issue is I have all this other cute clothing in light colors but pasta sauce and other items are her nemesis.

Any tips or tricks?  Magic washing detergent (preferably natural)?

[Ashley&Scott]

Is it just on her shirt? How old is she? M wore a t-shirt bib until he was about 2yo.

[lurknomore]

Everyday. I basically have two sets of clothes. Daycare clothes and weekend clothes. It's insane, but I also get they're trying to teach her to eat independently and they don't have time to feed every child by hand. I love Shout Advanced for stains, but it's totally not natural.

[mandapanda18]

Another, daycare clothes and weekend clothes person here.

He had the full sleeved bib there and still would come home with food on his shirt, who knows how. That and everything is grass stained or dirt stained. Whatever, he's a kid and he LOVES it there, so I buy 10 crap outfits for daycare and call it good (2 per day, will be excited when this is just one).

[eponinepontmercy]

I asked once if the daycare was a front for a coal mine - that's how dirty she was when she came home some days.

This is why god created consignment sales.

[ECB]

Yup. I was warned my numerous friends - for daycare, don't put them in nice stuff. The clothes will get dirty adn possibly ruined.

[smock]

I can pretty much predict which days will be messy disasters based on the menu. They served a room of toddlers spaghetti and marinara sauce today, so I'm probably breaking out the OxiClean baby tonight. Other days, she's unstained (like if they do something more like a veggie burger or nuggets.

Of course, I don't have my act together enough to pre-plan outfits based on the menu; I sent her to daycare today in a cute blue and white dress since it looks like our last warm day of the year.

[Pilsy]

It's a bummer, but we do our best with OxiClean Baby and don't sweat it. I let her wear whatever there, too, so it ranges from the dumpy hand-me-down stuff to the best she owns. We don't do enough fancy stuff on weekends to justify saving clothes for days outside daycare. (I mean, she'll wear her best dresses to whichever event they're purchased for first, but after that, they're fair game like everything else.)

[formerlyak]

$2 clearance t-shirts at Old Navy. That is all my kid wears. Even the dark ones get nasty. Mac and Cheese can stain dark colors.

[IndiaInk]

I feel ya. DD comes home filthy from playing outside most days, and covered in lunch. I'm thrilled because it means she's getting lots of active time and her daycare provider makes awesome homemade lunches. But I've realized the only realistic clothes to send her in are darker colors. When I do send her in light colored clothes, I soak them ASAP, use Shout liberally, and wash and repeat until the stains are out. I'll hang them in the sun to dry too, if it's an organic stain and that helps a lot. I have pretty good success but it's seriously a pain in the ass.

[jeaniebueller]

It only gets worse once they are in school. In DS's preK, the teacher specifically told us not to dress them in nice dresses or sweaters (which is why I DGAF about dressing my kids in Garanimals or character clothes). When I pick up D from after school care, the kids are often playing in a huge sandbox and are totally dirty.

[Deleted]

Let's just say DD dresses herself and I don't care for daycare.

She's well fed, loved and played with to the max, I'll take some stained outfits for that.

Oxiclean and hot water rinse gets most of it out though.

It's also the reason I can't care about pricey kids clothes. Gap outlet, Oshkosh outlet, Kohl's and ON here.

Also, my DCP provider gets my kids to eat some pretty amazing stuff, I'll take permanently stained clothes for that.

And just to warn you, they don't come home much cleaner from PreK either.

[spk926]

Oct 12, 2015 14:06:35 GMT -5 @abbycobb said:

Actually, I can't figure out how she feeds him meals at daycare and keeps him so clean.

This is where I'm at. When DD went to a center she was constantly dirty. Most days I wondered if they even put a bib on her or wiped her off after meals. I found it pretty gross. We moved to an in-home and somehow DD is always so clean. I routinely send her in brand new brand name clothes and they are fine. Heck if she has a diaper that explodes my daycare lady will give DD a bath!!* I think some places are just like that and if you're not okay with it you need to say something. It's possible to play hard and have a good day without coming home and looking like Linus from Charlie Brown. A bib that covers and a good wipe down after meals or messy play does wonders!

*Before people get all worried daycare lady and her husband built a custom home and the basement was built for daycare. The bathroom opens up and looks directly into the main play area. So potty training kids can be on the toilet and DC lady can have her eyes on them and the same goes for if she needs to give a bath. She can be right next to the bathtub and still look out and see kids playing in the playroom.

[snshne322]

Yup, DS comes home filthy. Food/dirt etc.

[chickadee77]

Yup. If it's not food, it's paint or something else. Shout does the trick (mostly), especially if you get the stains right away.

[thebreakfastclub]

Some days are messier than others.

DS wears inexpensive clothes. I don't do anything special and very seldom have stains of any sort.

[CloudBee]

Oct 12, 2015 14:06:35 GMT -5 @abbycobb said:

Actually, I can't figure out how she feeds him meals at daycare and keeps him so clean. He's a mess when we feed him at home, we usually take his shirt off for him to eat. I've generally stopped buying white clothing, but boy clothes seem to be more bright, saturated colors so that probably helps too.

I can't speak for daycare because DS is with a friend and always comes home clean.

But to your point - he is in the gym daycare a few days a week. Usually he does an art project while he's in there. Paint, chalk, markers, glue, sparkles, feathers. The works. He's never had more than a marker smudge on his hands. I don't understand. They don't take off shirts and they don't throw them into smocks. MIND BLOWN. And on Fridays he usually eats lunch in the gym daycare while I'm playing tennis. There's never food on his face, shirt, or hands.

[pizzapizza]

Trust I save her nicer clothes for the weekend. I also was sending her in consignment/hand me down goods on a regular basis. I am just running out of those things in her size. The amount of stains she has is pretty impressive. The other kids in her class don't seem to have as much of an issue.

I don't think they use bibs in school - we use the trough one and layer a long sleeve plastic one underneath at home.

The first week of school she tried Jello for the first time and once everyone was cleaned off she went back to the Jello "station" and dumped red Jello all over herself.

I think she must be doing this:

[heygrey]

He wears rags to daycare. I love it because we don't even fold them. They come out of the dryer and into a basket. Nothing matches, fit is questionable, it all gets dropped off at textile recycling at the end of the season because it isn't worth a dime to another person.

He is well dressed on the weekends, but I cannot be bothered to try for daycare.

[Deleted]

I will say we have a normal amount of food stains. Nothing super gross and their faces are always clean.

My clothes stains are a lot of dirt/paint/marker/glue that sort of thing.

[laurenh]

Every.single.day. I now have a rule that everything she wears to daycare is $4 or less, and dark whenever possible.

I started a thread about laundry tips a few weeks ago and the vast majority of people recommended switching to tide detergent. I did and I have noticed an improvement but there are still some stains I miss.

[MamaMaui24]

My in home daycare kid comes back cleaner than I sent her and I don't understand it but I've heard that soaking in powdered (with water) oxyclean is the best for food stains.

[jenn248]

I know I shouldn't care (especially since the majority of DD's wardrobe is Carters hand-me-downs), but it drives me nuts when her clothes are covered in stains. And daycare seems to serve spaghetti or something equally messy every time I turn around (or someone - I'm looking at you, DH - gives her a blue lollipop when she's wearing a mostly white shirt...). I am fighting the good fight by spot treating clothes with Lestoil and then soaking them in hot water and OxyClean over night.

[meltoine]

Blue dawn dish soap is magic on food stains.

[vmars]

Buy inexpensive clothes and accept reality. Kohls jumping bean and Targets circo are your new friends. Cheap and durable. Clorox laundry detergent gets out stains best for us.

[pinkdutchtulips]

DD was the world's messiest eater - didn't matter if she had a bib or not.

[booboo173]

Oct 12, 2015 14:41:19 GMT -5 @vicmo said:

My kid doesn't have nice clothes ever lol, because even at home he's a messy disaster.

This, I don't see the point in nice clothes at this age outside of special occasions, on the weekend he is running around outside getting messy the same as daycare

[niq]

Yes. and paint and whatever else they get into.
msniq sprays everything that needs it with Shout before running it through the laundry.

[Deleted]

Oct 12, 2015 14:10:19 GMT -5 swizz said:

Oct 12, 2015 14:06:35 GMT -5 @abbycobb said:

Actually, I can't figure out how she feeds him meals at daycare and keeps him so clean. He's a mess when we feed him at home, we usually take his shirt off for him to eat. I've generally stopped buying white clothing, but boy clothes seem to be more bright, saturated colors so that probably helps too.

This! Cora comes home from preschool almost cleaner than I send her. I NEED TO KNOW THEIR SECRETS!

Except the day they did sidewalk chalk, which she apparently enjoyed eating.

Ditto. I have no clue how Piper stays so clean.

[fortnightlily]

Oct 12, 2015 14:24:30 GMT -5 laurenh said:

Every.single.day. I now have a rule that everything she wears to daycare is $4 or less, and dark whenever possible.

I started a thread about laundry tips a few weeks ago and the vast majority of people recommended switching to tide detergent. I did and I have noticed an improvement but there are still some stains I miss.

I need to find that thread.  I am terrible at laundry.  My stains never come out and everything looks dingy.  I suspect this is both because I try to be environmental by mostly running cold water and buying eco-friendly detergent, and because I'm too lazy to do things like separate lights and darks and pre-soak.