About Banana Stains
Bananas are an easy food for your little one to mash into their clothes (or on your clothes or into the carpet) and leave a brownish-yellow mess ingrained into fabric. Will it be cute in the moment? Sure. But you know how an unpeeled banana turns black if you leave it out too long? That happens because of oxidation, and that same dark stain will spread on fabric if you don’t treat it quickly and properly. Here’s how to remove a banana stain.
How to Remove Banana Stains from Fabric
Step 1. Remove excess
Take care of those big yellow banana chunks from the get-go. Crank up the faucet and run the clothes under cold water. This will help you successfully remove the banana stains.
Step 2. Pretreat
Don’t be so quick to throw that banana-stained garment in the washer. You need to pretreat it first. Here’s how: Mix a solution of 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of Dreft®Stage 2: Active Baby Liquid Detergent. per gallon of warm water. Make sure the clothes soak through by weighing them down with a towel. This is not a quick fix. Let the solution do its thing for about half an hour before you move to the next step.
Step 3. Wash
You’re now ready for the next step in the banana stain removal process. Here’s the good news: You’ve done this step plenty of times before. Check your detergent bottle for the right amount detergent to use and measure it out using the bottle cap. If you have a high-efficiency (HE) washer, pour your detergent into the dispenser. If you have a non-HE machine, go ahead and pour your detergent directly into the drum. Check the care tag for washing instructions, set the washer’s water temperature and wash cycle accordingly, and toss those banana-stained clothes into the machine.
Step 4. Rewash as Needed
It’s important to keep the stained clothes out of the dryer until the stain is out because the high heat of the dryer will cause the stain to set. Check to make sure the banana stain is removed before drying. If the stain sticks around after the first wash cycle, keep washing the clothes until you’ve successfully removed the stain.
How to Remove Banana Stains from White Clothes
If the gooey mess you’re dealing with is on white clothes, you’re mostly going to follow the same steps listed above but with a couple of critical changes. Here’s quick advice for how to remove banana stains from white clothes.
Step 1. Remove excess
You want to focus on the stain, not the fruit. Wipe or scrape off any big banana chunks before you do anything else, then run the clothes under cold water to get rid of any bits you couldn’t remove.
Step 2. Pretreat
Soak the stained area with a cleaner like Dreft Laundry Stain Remover to give yourself the best chance to remove stains and odors from your clothing. After you’ve spot-treated the stain, let it soak in warm water for about 30 minutes.
Step 3. Wash
Follow the instructions on the clothes’ care label. If the fabric allows, you may want to use chlorine bleach on clothes. If you’re worried that chlorine bleach will irritate your baby’s skin, you can use a hypoallergenic liquid detergent like Dreft Stage 1: Newborn Liquid Detergent. Stage 1 is specially made for babies’ delicate skin and is the #1 pediatrician recommended baby detergent brand, so you can rest assured that it will be tough on your stain and easy on your little one.
Step 4. Rewash as Needed
One wash might not be enough to remove banana stains from white clothes. Rewash the garment until the stain comes out, and do not dry it until the stain is removed completely. Drying too early will cause the banana stain to set.
How to Remove Old Banana Stains from Baby Clothes
If you can’t wash baby’s clothes immediately or if you have and the stain has set in, you still have a chance to get the garment looking as good as new. Soak the clothes in warm water and detergent like Dreft Stage 2: Active Baby Liquid Detergent. Rub the stain gently to help lift the old banana stain out of the clothes, but be careful not to apply too much force, or you’ll damage the fabric. Finally, run the garment through the washer and launder it with warm water and Dreft detergent.
Home Remedies for Banana Stains on Clothes
If a banana stain has left an unsightly yellow stain on white baby clothes, you might be able to remove it with something you probably have in your pantry: white vinegar. Already famous for tackling tough sweat stains, white vinegar can help you remove banana stains from baby clothes.
For a sweet, mobile treat, bananas can sure leave some ugly stains. But that doesn’t mean you should nix them from your baby’s diet—especially now that you know how to get banana stains out of baby clothes.