Trying to keep those teeny socks in a pair and getting wee little singlets looking whiter than white is hard enough – but did you know that it’s also recommended we iron our baby clothes?
I’ve been told to iron all baby clothing after every wash – just did my first hour of ironing hell. Please tell me this isn’t true.
After Mum’s Grapevine Facebook Baby Group member Niki posed this question in her group, the thread lit up with mums up in arms. Ironing baby clothes? Surely not! Well, there is some method to the madness.
Apparently, ironing baby clothes actually has nothing to do with making them wrinkle-free. It’s about killing germs. Yes really.
Why you should iron baby clothes
According to Danish laundry detergent manufacturer JELP, the high temperatures act the same way a steriliser does on baby bottles. The iron removes any detergent that’s still on the clothes and kills microorganisms that may be on the clothes after they’ve been out drying.
One particular study, which researched the washing of hospital staff uniforms at home found that certain organisms were killed by tumble drying and ironing after washing.
So the answer to this pressing question (pardon the pun) is: you don’t have to iron baby’s clothes, but putting them through a dryer or ironing them may get rid of microorganisms that are on the clothing.
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