How To Remove Baby Food Stains

Baby food stains are bound to happen whenever your sweet baby starts eating solid foods.

Your sweet child will throw it, spit it, or otherwise get baby food into places heretofore unimaginable, including on fabric, upholstery and carpet.

As an example, I once found such a spot on one of my children's socks. How random!

That means you've always got to check inside the cuffs of shirts and pants before washing them, because they too can hide some baby food splatters and stains.

But have no fear, you can get rid of these stains using the instructions below.

Please note, however, that not all baby food is made of exactly the same thing, with different fruits and vegetables, and sometimes meats and starches also included within it.

If the general instructions below don't seem to be doing the trick I suggest looking at the A-Z Stain Removal Guide and following the instructions for the specific ingredients within the baby food that caused the spot or splatter.

Some of the most common types of baby food stains are caused by the following ingredients:

• Apples
• Banana
• Blueberry
• Carrots
• Cottage cheese
• Orange
• Peaches
• Pear
• Peas (see picture below)
• Squash
• Sweet potato
• Tomato
• Yogurt

Removing Baby Food Stains From Fabric

Step 1: Scrape off any excess baby food from the fabric, being careful not to spread it around further.

Step 2: Run the fabric, inside out, under the cold water to flush out as much of the spot as possible.

Step 3: Apply liquid laundry detergent to the stained area and let it soak in cold water for 15-30 minutes.

Step 4: Rinse with cold water.

Step 5: Pretreat the stain with a laundry prewash stain remover.

Hint: You may like this stain removal tip about where to keep your favorite stain remover when dealing with baby stains!

Step 6: Launder in the hottest water the fabric will allow to get out the spot, and either chlorine bleach if the fabric will allow it, or color safe bleach if not.

Hint: Make sure the spot is gone after washing, but before you place in the dryer or you may set it. Repeat if necessary.

Stain Removal Caused By Baby Food From Upholstery

Step 1: Scrape off any excess baby food from the upholstery.

Step 2: Mix a solution of two cups cool water and one tablespoon dishwashing liquid.

Step 3: Using this solution, sponge the stain with a clean white cloth.

Step 4: Next, blot until the liquid is absorbed.

Step 5: Repeat steps 3-4 until the spots are removed from the upholstery.

Step 6: Now that the stain is removed you should get plain cold water and a new white cloth and sponge the area to remove the cleaning solution, and then blot dry.

Hint: Be sure to get the upholstery only as wet as necessary for removing the stain.

In the alternative, instead of using the dishwashing solution, you can use dry cleaning solvent.

You can get more information on how to clean upholstery here.

How To Remove Stains From Baby Food From Carpet

The instructions for removal of stains caused by baby food from carpet is the same as for upholstery.

Recommended Baby Food Stain Removers

Perhaps you don't want to make your own stain remover, but instead want to use something designed to remove baby food stains.

Here are some articles and reviews on this site which discuss various products that are designed to remove these stains, or where readers have said they had luck cleaning up these stains with these products:

Baby Oxiclean Soaker

Totally Toddler Stain Remover

Carbona Stain Devil #8 For Wide Range Of Food Stains

Biz & Oxiclean As Presoaker

Dry Cleaning Solvent

HE Dreft Liquid Detergent

Shout Advanced Ultra Gel With Scrubber

Biz Powder

Zout Pretreater Spray

Fels Naptha Soap

Whink Wash Away + Oxiclean Soaker

Regular Oxiclean Powder

Oxiclean Free

Baby Laundry Products Information & Reviews

You can also share your own stain remover reviews here for other removers that work on baby food, or any other stain.

Do You Have Any Tips To Share For Removing These Stains?

I'm always looking for more tips and ideas for how to remove stains. You can share your stain removal tip here, or read 100's of others already submitted by other readers.

Get Even More Stain And Spot Removal Help Here

Are you a stain magnet like me? If so, check out the A to Z Stain Removal Guide which gives directions for how to remove over 100 types of stains from all kinds of surfaces.

Second photo by mgessford and third photo by jencu

Related Pages You May Enjoy

A-Z Guide: Instructions For Removing Over 100 Types Of Stains

Removing Baby Oil Stains

Go From Removing Baby Food Stains To Home Page

CAUTION: This website is provided for informational purposes only. It is provided as is, without warranties or guarantees. Some stains and messes just won't come out, and are permanent. Further, some cleaning methods can harm your item, so if what you want to clean or launder is sentimental or expensive call a professional. See disclaimer of liability for more information.