27 Apr 2008

The Bane of the Orange splodge



It all started when the girls came home on an iron supplement that we needed to give them twice a day, normally babies lay down an iron reserve in the last month in utero that sees them through until they start solids, ours didn't get the chance. The iron supplement sounds innocuous, but it causes ugly orange splodges that don't wash out of clothes (as well as constipation), and babies being babies, it does quite often get spilled onto the clothing. Again it wouldn't be too bad except that a lot of our clothing has been loaned to us by friends who would like it back for their next child. The only thing we have found that works is Flecken Teufel (Stain devil) for rust removal. It which works like a dream, even on the iron stains that have been through the wash maschine more than once.

But now fast forward 4 months and starting solids. After rice what do most people give to start....carrots and what do carrots cause....you got it, orange splodges, almost identical in colour to iron! Now we are 6-7 weeks into solids so our range of foods has expanded to include amongst others: sweet potato (orange splodge), butternut squash (orange splodge) and blueberries (purple splodge).

Needless to say that I'm running out of splodge free clothes and am at my wits end what I can try next to get carrot stains out of the clothes we've borrowed. I try wash them as soon as I see it but it's not always feasible. Any tips appreciated!!!

And the iron supplementing continues, in the Uniklinik Essen when we were there in December for Enya's eye op, they would only give the iron down the nasogastric tube saying it tasted disgusting and the babies won't take it from the spoon....I beg to differ, the photos are Ciara and Enya sucking on their "iron" spoons to get the last traces off.

2 comments:

Sue said...

Eating in the nude did OK for my kiddos. Followed by a quick plunge in the tub. And it makes for adorable pictures -- don't forget to take some.

Cathy said...

I'm super-excited that most of our solid food adventures will be in the summer. For the naked-eating ease.

Do you guys have OxyClean or something similar there? Um .. vinegar has a myriad of laundry uses, but I don't know of it's up for the orange splodge. Borax? A nice long pre-soak?

I don't know, just guessing at some ideas!