There’s nothing worse than opening a box of stored-away baby clothes (you want to share something precious with an expectant sister or dear friend) and discovering spit-up stains you thought had been removed.  Why?  Spit-up stains are protein-based so you have to take special care to treat the inevitable.

Here’s how:

Always pre-treat the stain before washing.  If you skip this step, the stain will more than likely become permanent.  To treat the protein portion of the stain, you must first breakthrough the fatty acids with surfactants that are commonly found in stain remover pre-treat sprays.  Let that soak a couple minutes to allow the fatty acids to release the protein portion of the stain.  You can then apply a stain remover that is oxygen based to remove the protein stain.  Allow that to set a couple minutes as well.  Once that is completed, you can then wash the clothes as you would normally.  Be sure to check the stain once the wash cycle is completed.  If the stain is still noticeable, repeat the above steps.  If not, continue to the final step of drying the clothes.

You now have the secret to keeping those nasty spit-up stains under control!