Is it normal to wash a 0 to 1 year old’s clothes everyday?

[seastar]

This is also a vent.

So I am not a parent but my sister is, I currently live with my parents, my older sister, my eldest sister, and her husband.

My niece has a lot of clothes and clothes diapers, but is it normal to wash a baby’s clothes everyday? If it is, then I will understand now and be fine with it.

I can’t even find one day where I open the dryer and washer and don’t see my niece’s clothes, clothe diapers, and bibs. I would understand if it was a lot but a lot of times it’s just a handful or sometimes even just 5 items.

Sometimes during the rare days when they’re not doing laundry, I do a silent cheer dance.

I even try to catch a time frame where they might not be doing laundry but no luck. They always forget that they’re doing laundry as well. I don’t even try to ask them if they’re done with laundry because they think I’m getting pissed off or I’m trying to rush them.

One time I had a little argument with my brother in law because I needed my clothes that day. And I saw that my niece’s clothes were just a little bit damp on the dryer (because they never check it even after using the dryer for hours) I thought to myself, “Okay, this is not a lot of clothes and my niece has a lot of clothes. I really need my clothes today so after I’m done drying with my clothes, I’ll put my niece’s clothes back.”

A hour later and my brother in law accuses me of drying my clothes first in a selfish matter. My BiL is also a narcissist but that’s in another subreddit lol. Ever since then, I didn’t bother anymore and just wished my luck to score a laundry day.

TLDR; My niece’s clothes are being washed everyday sometimes even if it’s a small quantity. Is this normal?

 

[josephjurg]

@seastar 0 to 1 is a huge range. How old is the baby? I washed my sons clothes every other day until he was 4 months old because he would spit up on everything. Throw in cloth diapers and you could definitely be doing it every day.

 

[seastar]

@josephjurg My niece is now 1 years old. My apologies about my title. What I meant by that is that they would wash her clothes everyday when she was just an infant as well.

Thank you!
I understand now that it is important to wash a baby’s clothes everyday. I heard that it’s because their skin is very sensitive. I just wish they would be more on mindful of others as well. Even my mom had complained to them about timing laundry but they still do it.

 

[edenworkshops]

@seastar It’s possible. I recently had my second baby and it feels like I’m doing laundry (for a family of 4) constantly these days. Regular laundry needs to happen at least twice a week and if there’s been a poo explosion that has to be washed immediately. Then there’s towels and sheets which is another couple of loads. It is ENDLESS.

 

[mjh0607]

@seastar If she has very few change of clothes sure. Or if they get something gross on them constantly sure. But just spit nah.

We got lucky soo many people gave us too much stuff from thier kids if anything exploded we would just toss.

 

[agadfly]

@mjh0607 I don't have any children, but I grew up with washing full machines with everyone clothes mixed, don't remember the diapers cause I was so tiny then.

Couldn't you offer to wash some baby items with your own stuff. I guess the sock sizes are very different so sorting will not be the same kind of problem as with a teenager. You don't need to wash things that have been wirn only one day if they havn't spilled something on them. Lot of people wash way to much today.

 

[dedindi]

@seastar Since they are cloth diapering when there is a poo that is going to stink up their whole room if they don't wash it right away.

 

[missveronica]

@seastar They may just have a happy of tossing dirty items into the washer and then running it when it gets full. Why don’t you just wash/dry your things with theirs and separate after?

 

[seastar]

@missveronica Hello!

Thank you, I understand now that it’s important to wash a baby’s clothes to make sure it won’t ruin the day quality of the clothes. Unfortunately I can’t wash my clothes with my niece. They seem to be strict with that. They don’t even wash their own clothes with my niece’s.

 

[inis]

@seastar Definitely normal. When a baby throws up, wets, has a dirty diaper or just spills food (e.g.milk) everywhere, that's not something you want to let sit for 3 or 4 days until you have "enough" to warrant a full load. Imagine this with your own clothes: you spill milk all over a shirt. Do you really want to leave that for 4 days until it smells super sour? Now imagine if you pooped your pants. And like it covered a good 30% of your pants (because that's what babies are capable of, if not more like 60-70%) 2 or 3 pairs in a day. Again, you definitely wouldn't want to leave those for a few days. Unfortunately it's just part of having a kid.

On another note, and it's possible I'm reading too much into this, but there seems to be far more anger in your tone versus what might be expected from laundry. Are there other issues and this is just the issue that pushed things over the top? If yes, make sure you talk to them before things get worse. Living with family can be hard. Good luck.

 

[alexwoodsfamily]

@seastar Yes, it's totally normal to give your kid clean clothes every day. At that age kids are crawling over the floor and spill their food on themselves and stuff like that. So most of the time they're pretty dirty after a full day.

It would be better when she buy more clothes, so that she don't have to wash every day, but a couple times a week together with other clothes that need to be washed?

But maybe she don't have enough money to buy more? Kids from that age grow so fast that you have to buy new stuff almost constantly.

 

[alexander92]

@seastar I find if I do them every day then I can easily keep up with the load. If I go more than every other day with washing then I (or someone in the house) has to commit hours on the weekend to washing, drying, sorting, folding, and putting away. Since one person needs to be with kid it's really isolating to do this in longer stretches.

 

[aryianna]

@seastar I do laundry for two kids every day or almost every day. It's a lot. There's a lot of stuff with urine, feces, food, dirt, or just bad smell on it. Most days I wash 3-4 sets of clothes. I feel like I'm wearing them out by washing them, but it's better than being dirty all the time.

 

[katrina2017]

@seastar Yeah it's normal. We have a two year old and a newborn and two adults here and do at least one wash a day if not multiple loads especially bed sheets and blankets sometimes every second day.

 

[angel0019]

@seastar I'll tell you right now that babies dirty clothes at an incredible pace! They get vomit, urine, poop, food, milk all over them and it needs to be cleaned. I see no problems with them washing babies clothes everyday. Maybe you should ask for a set time during the week to be able to wash your own clothes. Also its better to line dry your clothes anyway so you really shouldn't be using a dryer unless it's urgent or the weather is bad.

 

[danial1234567]

@seastar If there’s a lot of spit up or poop on it, yeah. Sometimes if you let that sit, the stain gets pretty impossible to get out. I do laundry for for my three month old at least three or four times a week...and I’ve still lost a few things to stains that won’t come out.

 

[katrina2017]

@seastar Wow, we had to change outfits 4 or 5 times a day. We initially tried reusable nappies, but found we were just using the washing machine 3 times a day, plus tumble dryer, so felt that it defeated the environmental benefits.

Now she's 14mo and we might get away with maybe 1 outfit change a day? So, I can go 2-3 days without a load of washing now.

 

[djazz]

@seastar I tried to wash them every day. Bibs, diapers, soiled clothes, and spit rags all stink. The sooner they get clean, the better.