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Washing diapers with mouthwash??!!! What do you think? (KarenC)
Posted: 8:26:01 pm on 6/4/2010 Modified: Never

Ok, I'm totally borrowing this from another forum (DS) but I had to share!! Apparently someone heard on the Dr. OZ show that it's a good idea to wash underwear with 1/4 cup of Listerine mouthwash to kill e-coli and other germs. They decided to try it with their diapers since it made sense that if it worked for underwear it would work for diapers. And it totally worked for them (and now it seems quite a few people have tried it with great success).

Apparently the diapers sometimes come out smelling a little minty if the mouthwash was mint-flavored, but it loses the smell out of the dryer... Their diapers came out smelling cleaner than ever, many even tried it on problematic diapers that they couldn't get bad odors out of and it worked!!

I had to laugh cause a couple said the minty smell permeated the house and if nothing else it was a good air freshener! LOL!

So, what do you all think? I'm not 100% sure it's safe for diapers but I think it's an interesting idea. Basically I'm sure it's the alcohol doing the freshening and I would think that alcohol would be at least a little safer than bleach for someone who's really having problems....

Either way I thought it was cool enough to share...

Karen.

Re: Washing diapers with mouthwash??!!! What do you think? (aavt)
Posted: 10:49:10 pm on 6/4/2010 Modified: Never

Is the alcohol in place of detergent, or in addition to?

Re: Washing diapers with mouthwash??!!! What do you think? (aavt)
Posted: 11:00:30 pm on 6/4/2010 Modified: Never

I just asked DH (organic chemist) about this, and he said that the main component of mouthwash is ethanol, which he didn't think would hurt fibers like cotton. He said he thought it would be a good choice for anitseptic purposes, only for truly killing nasties you'd want to use it in high concentration. He didn't think that the diluted small amount being used would do a whole lot, but that it couldn't hurt to try. That's obviously only his speculation based on the chemistry involved, but for what it's worth.

Re: Washing diapers with mouthwash??!!! What do you think? (KarenC)
Posted: 10:04:26 am on 6/5/2010 Modified: Never

I think the idea is to use it with detergent for a regular washing or maybe as an additive when stripping. I don't think you'd want to use it regularly (there's speculation that the ethanol might harm elastic or PUL) but it's an interesting idea. So far people have been using it to refresh really stinky diapers and the like, not as a replacement for detergent or anything like that.

Karen.

Re: Washing diapers with mouthwash??!!! What do you think? (Fire Dancer)
Posted: 9:32:59 am on 6/6/2010 Modified: Never

woah! my mouth literally dropped open when i read the title of this post. mouthwash to wash diapers? wow...

Re: Washing diapers with mouthwash??!!! What do you think? (PureBliss)
Posted: 5:55:15 pm on 6/25/2010 Modified: Never

Yes, I read about it on ds too, and I was surprised! I personally have always used bac out for stinkies with great success, and plan to keep using it, especially since we don't buy mouthwash normally. Bac out has become a staple in this house for cleaning everything from rugs to bathroom toilets!

I think it is funny about then mouthwash though, and If in ever run into a problem where bac out just is not working, then I will get a sample size of listerine and give it a go!

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