How do you get Desitin diaper rash cream out of carpets, sheets, clothes, blankets, or any other cloth item? If my experience so far is accurate, you can’t.
Somebody please, prove me wrong. Add a comment here with the solution.
I’ve tried using diaper wipes. That’s successful to a point, but not totally. On the carpet we tried shampooing after first using diaper wipes, and then blotting with soap and water. We still have spots on the carpet. That frustrated me for a good week, until I finally accepted that I couldn’t do anything about it.
See, a while back my wife and I were relaxing in the morning while our kids played elsewhere. Eventually I (or maybe it was my wife) went in to see what the 2-year old was doing and found her covered from the waist down with diaper rash cream, which was also all over the carpet, the closet doors, and the side of the changing table.
Hours of cleaning later, we are left with the aforementioned spots, and the knowledge that we can’t leave our 2-year old alone with the Desitin tube.
Fast forward to tonight, a month or two after the previous incident. We’re downstairs getting ready to watch a movie – something we’ve been looking forward to for a while. My wife says it sound like one of the kids is trying to come downstairs. I think she’s nuts. I didn’t hear anything, and it’s been almost an hour since the kids were put to bed, plus they were tired from trick-or-treating. But I’ve learned that she hears more things than I do, usually, so I went upstairs to check. I was right. No one was coming downstairs. But as I stood and listened, the 2-year old’s door opened and she started to come out. Okay, so my wife did hear something (good thing I didn’t tell her I thought she was nuts). So I picked my daughter up and put her back in bed.
In the dark, as I gave her a kiss and pulled the covers up, I felt the thick slime on my hands. “What the heck?” I thought. It took me a couple seconds before the realization and feeling of dread hit. When I threw the lights on my fear was confirmed. There on the bottom of the bed was the now almost empty tube of Desitin, wrapped in the bedsheet, the cream spread over the sheet and the two hand-knitted blankets we had received as gifts. Globs of the stuff, some sitting on, and some ground in to the blankets’ weaves. Obviously, we had forgotten to put the cream away tonight. Amazingly, I didn’t detect any of the goop on my daughter. She must have protected herself with the sheet as she squeezed the life out of the tube.
It may be relevant for you to know that I hate creams. Diaper creams, hand creams, face creams, first aid creams… about the only creams I like are ice cream and whipped cream. I just hate how they feel and smell. Slimy, slippery, and sticky, all at the same time – the filmy residue, impossible to completely remove. I honestly can’t understand why people choose to use them when they have other options. They are an “only when necessary” evil for me.
So I’m sure you can imagine the fun I’ve had over the last hour trying in vain to remove as much of the cream as possible from these blankets.
I hate creams.
I’m almost willing to toss the sheet. I’d really like to save these blankets, though. So what do you say? Any ideas?
Seriously. I’m begging. I know this will eventually come up again. I’ll take any idea. Leave a comment. Please.
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My oldest used to alternate between eating the zinc cream we used for her and styling her hair with the stuff. My lord was it painful to clean up, especially out of her hair because it is water repelling.
For the carpet we ended up hiring a steam cleaner and that got the zinc cream out.
The reason we hired the steam cleaner??? Our youngest liked to play with poo :gag: fortunately she was more about the art and smearing over the walls, floors etc rather than putting it in her hair (or mouth).
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Jeff says:
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:44 am
Uh….. ewww.
Steam cleaning is a good idea for the carpet. Thanks!
I’m sure eating the zinc cream made for some interesting diapers…
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Crystal says:
February 3rd, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Thank you everyone! My 2 year old does the exact same thing plus likes to take her poopy diapers off and sit on the floor. I’ll try this tonight hopefully it works. I’ll invest in my own cleaner after I borrow my sisters tonight.
Thanks again
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Jeff says:
February 3rd, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Hi Crystal. I’m glad this helped. Please come back and let us know what worked for you!
I caught our 2 year old with the Desitin again a few days ago. Luckily, it was just before she did anything with it. Dodged that bullet.
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Heidi says:
September 10th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Hello. I was wondering if you ever found a good way to get Desitin out of your child’s hair? My two-year old covered herself from head to toe this evening. I washed her about five time and her hair and her hair is still a mess. Any ideas to share? Thank you. Heidi
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Jeff says:
September 10th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Hi Heidi. The best idea I’ve heard so far is to use Dawn dish soap. I haven’t had to use it on hair, thankfully, but it seems worth a shot if you’re careful and your daughter will sit still for it. Gotta watch getting it in the eyes, though, I’d imagine.
Maybe Marita will stop by and let us know how long it took her.
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Machelle says:
December 29th, 2009 at 1:10 am
Peanut butter…it’s the only thing I found to work. PB’s a bit of a pain to get out but a couple times shampooing worked fine.
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Kasey says:
August 24th, 2010 at 6:09 am
THIS IS WHAT WORKS!! After using google to fingure out what to do with the mound of desitin on my 2 yr old son’s head I tried using dish soap, which worked ok. However, once I used peanut butter his hair came clean! I could literally see the oil from desitin coming out when I was lathering in the peanut butter
Thank you!!
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M Star says:
July 23rd, 2010 at 10:57 am
I used Dawn diluted in warm water to get the diaper cream off my sofa, as recommended in some of the comments. I had to apply it a bunch of times and rub to really get rid of it all. After, I rinsed it as best I could by applying warm water until there were no more suds from the couch. It took nearly 2 days to dry, but, looking at it now, you would never know what a mess it was. Thanks for having this info available. It was a great help!
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Jeff says:
July 23rd, 2010 at 12:45 pm
My thanks also to all the great commenters who shared their stories and solutions!
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Use Dawn dish soap and hot water-it really works on the desitin removal.
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Jeff says:
November 28th, 2008 at 10:57 am
That’s so weird… my sister-in-law just said the same thing last night. I’ll have to try that! Thanks!
And thanks for visiting, Tonia. Hope to see you again.
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sprayNwash! It worked for me. Used it on the carpet it worked wonderful!
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Jeff says:
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Interesting, dori… thanks for the idea. We didn’t have any of that, and hadn’t thought of it.
Thankfully this hasn’t happened again in a while, but this tip’ll come in handy if it does!
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Tarly says:
October 25th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
This just happened to us tonight and I did the usual first. Got a wipe to get the majority, towel and dish soap scrub scrub. THEN I decided to try a trick I learned when candle wax gets on carpet.
You take a color safe towel that’s damp and your iron on low setting with high steam and steam away over the towel on the spot. IT works like a charm and doesn’t require you to use a steam cleaner! Good luck!
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Jeff says:
October 26th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
That’s an excellent idea, Tarly. Thanks for sharing!
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My 2 yr old grand daughter just used the Desitin as suntan lotion and my daughter is still cleaning. The Dawn dishwashing liquid has worked for most things. The no-tears baby shampoo has work fairly well, but not completely, for her face. She’s still working on the carpeting. Thanks for the insight.
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My daughter decided to paint her arms and front of her dress with Desitin a few days ago. I tried Spray & Wash (after it went through the laundry once) to no avail. I’ll try the Dawn method and get back to you all. I’m very relieved to know my punkin isn’t the only artist. Thankfully, it only went on her and a table in her room not on the carpet!
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well my dumb little teamp decided to use it as hair dressing and i think the dumd b***h ate it to
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Jeff says:
September 2nd, 2009 at 9:08 am
Sorry to hear that. Hope it’s okay.
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Jen says:
October 30th, 2009 at 12:12 am
Thank you everyone for the all the ideas on here! I am a little disturbed by gizmo06′s comment and the way the baby is talked about. It’s abusive, mean and wrong! I couldn’t not comment on that.
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Jeff says:
October 30th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Hi Jen. I think gizmo06 was referring to a dog. I could be wrong about that.
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My two-year old son curiously decided to spread the Desitin on my living room couch (it’s a brown couch). I have been sitting here for about an hour now trying to wash it out. It is not budging! I even put a call in to the number on the back. To my surprise, no solution! Thankfully, Monk is on, and I will continue to scrub. I do have Dawn Dish Detergent. I will try it with hot water and see what happens. ???
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Jeff says:
September 18th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Two-year olds are strange animals sometimes…
You know what’s funny… it never even occurred to me to call the number on the back. Now that you’ve said it, though, I’m surprised they have no suggestions. Maybe they’re worried about some kind of liability…
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Ok, so my 2 1/2 year old is not only a poo painter, sadly, on Oh so many occasions….she will paint with nearly ANY medium. Sigh. So we’ve had to be on our “A” game with her. Last night she couldn’t sleep due to a bout of croup and so she got out of bed and decided to “decorate”. She climbed up onto her changing table and blindly swept ontop of the shelf above it. Grabbed the big pot of desitin, approx 10oz of that god forsaken goo, and proceeded to cover the unfinished hardwood floors, her bed, the changing table, 2 handmade quilts, her stuffed octopus chair, and an upholstered rocking chair I borrowed from my sister. Then 2 hours later she creeps in sheepishly to the lounge room wearing nothing but a diaper and Desitin….everywhere! Her entire body covered in it, hair, limbs, nose ears, a little on the tongue for good measure, but, ironically, none where it is supposed to go since she was wearing a diaper. Go figure. I managed to get it off all the wood with Clorox clean-up wipes, even off the stuffed octopus chair since there wasn’t too much of it. The chair, however, is another story. It is so ground into the fabric that I cannot even sit on it. I managed to get it off of her in a warm bath with a bottle of Joy dish liquid, however it took a couple of washes to come all the way out. I imagine Dawn would’ve worked better. It got it off her skin as well so that was encouraging. I am going to try the Spray ‘n Wash tomorrow on the quilts, thanks for that tip. I am also going to try it on the rocking chair as well. I’ll keep you posted….
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Jeff says:
September 20th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Oh, I feel for you. That just sounds disheartening. Good job with the Joy, though! Definitely let us know if the Spray n Wash does the trick on the quilts.
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I actually had this happen the other day only it was my son who got into it and rubbed the zinc cream all over himself and his clothes and well as my chair. I used Sunlight dish soap to get the zinc out of his clothes with great success and a little scrubbing. As for my chair Sunlight soap and water works well with that but I also used a nail brush to scrub it out and blotted with towel. Hope this helps.
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Jeff says:
September 21st, 2009 at 10:39 am
Thanks for the info, Sheila. It sounds like dish soap is overall one of the best tools for this.
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Goo B Gone helps cut down the desitin, then use a steam cleaner. We used a Little Green Clean Machine.
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Jeff says:
September 23rd, 2009 at 9:39 am
Goo B Gone… hadn’t heard of that one yet. Thanks for the tip!
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Hello, I tried using the dish soap and am having no luck. My 3 year old found some store brand diaper rash cream in her closet. (No clue why it was even there) It is now caked in her hair and washed her hair with the dish soap about 6 times. It isn’t Dawn, so should I try Dawn before I take extremem measures?
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Jeff says:
October 20th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I would try Dawn. I’ve heard from multiple people that it’s better on grease than others, and that’s pretty much what you’re working with.
Good luck!
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Kari says:
January 9th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
my 2 1/2 yr old did the self-decorating trick today as well with a Desitin tub. needless to say, she was a mess. We used Palmolive dish soap in the hair, where it was caked so thick that hse looked like she was wearing a wig, and it took three really good scrubs but it came out and then i washed with shampoo and conditioner. the clothes have gone throught the wask twice so far, but I haven’t peeked at them yet. the walls and dresser cleaned up with baby wipes. Why can’t these be baby-proofed??? Someone needs to enlighten the people at Desitn to this little mess that 2 yr olds can create. I’m just saying…
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How about Concrete? My son just smeared a whole tube on the front steps!
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Jeff says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:16 am
Concrete?! Is that a brand name or really concrete? lol
I got nothing.
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Jeff says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:18 am
lol… oh, he smeared it on concrete… I get it. That’s what I get for reading too fast.
I’d imagine Dawn and a hose would work.
I wish that’s where my kid had done it!
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Thanks for the advice! My 21 month old just put desitin all over himself, legs, hands, shirt, and a bit in his hair and on his face. Soaked him in the tub and could feel the desitin forming a film on the bottom of the tub. After we got him mostly cleaned up and put to bed, I soaked the toys and tub in hot water and dawn dish soap. It seems to have worked. The clothes are hopefully getting clean with oxiclean and laundry soap! Thanks!
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ahhhhhh! I am going through a Desitin nightmare right now. My family just got back from a trip and my son had stayed with my sister -in-law. She and her husband smoke in the garage, but their house still has that smoke smell. All of my son’s clothes went into the wash as soon as we got home, including the diaper bag. I thought I had cleaned all his stuff out of the diaper bag. I didn’t… In the dryer the desitin came open and got all over his clothes, baked in I beleive. I have tried all week to get te desitin out. Oxyclean, vinegar (my mother suggested it) kinda took out the smell, but not the spots!, hot soapy water. I am starting to beleive his clothes are ruined. And I am talking most of his clothes. He is in potty training mode, so I packed a lot of clothes for accidents. I am so sad because we get A LOT of hand-me-downs from my brother and then I pass them on. Not this time! I am dreading throwing them away and having to go buy him all new clothes! Does anyone have ANY ideas?? I should try the dawn idea, but I fear it is too late. Also, I want to try coke. My aunt said she always soaked her mechanic husbands clothes in coke and and always got the grease and oil stains out. Please, sombody, help me save the clothes!
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My two-year-old (see a theme?) did this yesterday. During her afternoon “nap,” she Desitined her room – comforter, clothes, diapers, sheets, shoes, carpet, wicker baskets, etc. I was at work, and my mother-in-law (my Godsend) treated and washed everything before I got home. The comforter and a brown long-sleeve tee are still casualties. We were at a loss, so thank you for the tips.
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Jeff says:
January 5th, 2010 at 9:16 am
Hi Christina. Yeah, there’s definitely a theme… good luck with the remainder!
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I am so glad I found this page, my nine month old plastered herself and twin brother last night with Xtra-strength Zincofax (guess the lid was NOT on tight like I thought) . Fortunately I had them on a blanket (in my wonderful corral!! ha ha!) I soaked everything in oxyclean all night, and then ran it through the wash – no effect at all. Then I scrubbed and scrubbed with vinegar and hot water, it is working somewhat but not enough to save anything. I will have to try the dish soap tomorrow.
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Jeff says:
January 8th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Hi Linda… glad we could help. Please let us know if you are successful.
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Linda says:
January 13th, 2010 at 2:42 am
Hi again,
Well I did scrub in some Ivory dish soap, let it soak overnight, then I left it soaking again overnight in a vinegar solution (didn’t rinse out the dish soap) and ran it through the wash. It worked, the zincofax came out, hooray! Good luck, everyone.
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does anyone know if dishsoap is ok to use in a washing machine? or am I supposed to hand wash the clothes in it to get out the Desitin?
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Jeff says:
January 10th, 2010 at 12:40 am
If I were you I’d go the hand washing route. I’m not sure dish soap would be a problem in the washer, but I’m not sure it wouldn’t, either.
Good luck!
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For Desitin (and nearly every other thing) on carpet we use BlueMagic Carpet Stain and Spot Lifter. It gets out nearly everything we’ve tried it on and is sold at Schuck’s Auto Parts stores. It states “for home and auto” on the front. It has been a carpet and upholstery life saver in our household many times.
For laundry items pretreating the stain with laundry soap and rinsing with white vinegar added to the water really helps to get the Desitin stains out.
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Jeff says:
January 11th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
Excellent! Thanks for the information, Heather. I hope people find it useful.
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I am so glad I am not the only one dealing with this! I am cleaning up a diaper rash cream (not desitin) mess for the second time in a week! My girls are 3 1/2 and 2 and LOVE to paint with the cream! Wipes did great on the walls, window and sill and the bed frame … still trying to fight with the spots on the sheets though. Will have to try the spray and wash and/or oxiclean
) Going to get Dawn tonight to wash down the hair with … birthday pictures are tomorrow and I need the hair to lay flat instead of sticking straight up! Thanks for all the ideas!
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Okay, so thanks to all the awesome comments on here I was able to get a 2′ x 2′ smeared Desitin mess off of my 2″ dark BROWN shag carpet!!!
What I did was this:
1) Get all the big chunks off the best I could with wet wipes
2) Got a bucket of hot water and mixed laundry detergent and dish soap with a degreasing agent (I used AJAX brand)
3) Wiped and saturated the area with the hot soap and water and scrubbed for a good 10 min or so
3) Thoroughly sprayed the area with SHOUT
4) Covered entire area with wet towels – let soak for about a half hour
5) Ironed over the wet towels with the lowest iron setting that would allow me to steam
6) Just ironed and ironed over the wet towels (occasionally rewetting them, and also replacing with clean towels after the first ones were pretty covered in the Desitin).
7) After ironing the spot thoroughly, I used the hot towels that I was just ironing on and finished scrubbing the area, and….. WA-LAH!! It was gone!
It sounds like a lot of work, but if you don’t have the money or resources to replace things like this, then this is the way to go.
Happy Cleaning… (ha ha)
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Jeff says:
January 24th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Emily! Thanks for the detailed post. I’m glad the comments here helped. I’m sure yours will be of great help to others.
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Ok, so my sons emptied a whole tube of desitin on my carpet.
I used pinesol and hot water (at the time, its all i had)..Resolve carpet cleaner & shampooer…now Im gonna try the dawn thing. Thanks Im glad Im not the ONLY parent that has to deal with stuff like this.
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Wow, this is amazing that this happens so much! My 2 year old plastered herself with Desitin Cream today, as well as the carpet, walls, and dresser, while she was to be napping. I can’t seem to get it out of the carpet, so I will try the Dawn on the carpet. I was able to get the stuff off the dresser and the walls with clorox wipes, those work well! Went through almost a whole container, but it worked! Now to tackle the carpet! Thanks for all the suggestions!
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My 2 year old (definately a pattern here!), obviously had gotten up in the middle of the night, because when I got up this morning, there were little white footprints on the laminate floor (easy to clean), coffee table (not too bad), and couch (impossible!), AHHH! Going to try some of the tips, but everything I’ve tried so far, except scraping it off with a butter knife is NOT successful. I didn’t even KNOW I had desitin, a whole 55g tin of it….someone must have given it to me. EVIL!
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Count me in with a two year old and diaper rash cream (Burts Bees but same deal as Desitin). On the sheets, clothes, dresser, rug, step stool, and a cotton/wool doll. Dish soap and lots of scrubbing seem to be the trick…although I haven’t gotten to the clothing yet. I know dish soap isn’t mild, but I’m hoping I can get it out of the doll with that and some scrubbing.
PamperedMom´s last blog ..How do I reconcile?
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So has anyone had any luck with getting rash cream out of car fabric? I have tried many different things and to no avail nothing works. Since it happened it has now been about two and half years, so I think I might as well give up, and accept it never coming out…
Michelle
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Add my toddlers to the mix. My three year old son and 1 1/2 year old daughter got in to a large tub of Desitin and had covered themselves head to toe and also the beige carpet, a new comforter and sheets, and an antique cherry dresser that my husband’s grandfather had made (and that I had painstakingly refinished while in one of my pregnancy nesting modes).
I knew something was wrong when my seven year old came downstairs after I had asked him to check on “the babies” and he said, “Mommy, I hate to tell you this but…” All I could do was do was laugh and cover my mouth when my three year old stated, “Look we’re penguins!” Yeah thanks from our visit to the zoo last week!
Of course this was happening when a friend of mine (ER doc) was over stitching up my five year old son’s head from an overzealous roughhousing episode with my seven year old son. I guess this is what happens during spring break and mother nature decides to rain most every day and four kids get a little stir crazy when their mom tries to get some housework done.
I should know by now that when it’s too quiet, the kids must be up to something. My three year old is known for getting into messy stuff, like Pam spray, hair detangler, and toothpaste.
My anti-Desitin solution: Baby wipes and a plastic scraper to get off initially. Then in the tub w/ baby wash for the toddlers.
For carpet-scrape off, then baby wipes, then resolve carpet cleaner.
For furniture-baby wipes & a lot of elbow grease. For clothes, sheets, etc. soak in hot water and a general anti grease solution for 20 minutes. then scrub with nail brush. Then into the wash with hot water and a little more anti grease solution.
Oh and hide the Desitin next time!!!
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Update-spray and wash rub on stick worked the best of all the solutions. Good luck everyone!
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Jeff says:
March 14th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Melanie, thanks for the update. It’s great when we get follow-up so we know how it worked best.
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I was incredibly stupid and i managed to put Eucirin cream in my hair. I have washed and scrubbed and pulled and ironed my hair over and over. anyone have any possible idea how to get it out!?!?!? HELP!?! email me! duckyd16@yahoo.com
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Jeff says:
March 15th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Your best bet is any of the de-greasing agents mentioned above, I would think. There are some great suggestions there.
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I used Shout spray, then followed up with hot water in a steam cleaner. Got all the Desitin out. Thank goodness — we have a navy blue carpet, and it was OUR bedroom, not my son’s.
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Paint Remover works very well!
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My 3 year old just smeered up my mothers couch, but dandy.
I didn’t know they put that much salve in one little tube.
I’m hoping your dish detergent methods work on this beautiful fabric.
I’ve got about 4 hours to clean it up.
May God Bless this Mess!!!!
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My 2-year-old son delights in smearing Desitin all over himself and his surroundings! AAAH!! I try to hide it, but he can climb like a monkey!
Anyhow, my biggest dilemma right now is getting a huge spot of it out of my comforter.
I removed the excess Desitin, sprayed Shout on it ,and then tried putting some cornstarch baby powder to absorb the grease. I brushed off the powder with a scrub brush. Now, I will try the hot water and scrub the spots again.
It doesn’t seem like it will ever look the same, but I’m trying to be hopeful. Can I machine-wash the comforter?
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Monica says:
May 27th, 2010 at 9:57 am
REJOICE! My son just did the same thing to his chocolate brown comforter…I scrubbed what I could out with dish soap, then soaked it in a jug of WHITE WINEGAR FOR 30 MINUTES in the tub. IT WORKED A MIRACLE!!!! Then just threw it in the washing machine to rinse out the excess dish soap and vinegar. Stinky, but sooooo simple!!!
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I would also recommend that every one switch to Resinol. Sometimes hard to find, but your pharmacist should be able to order it for you. It is thick and sticks to the child. It is soothing and heals and prevents diaper rash and heals windburn, chafing, etc. But the smell is mild, it doesn’t burn your eyes, and washes off the skin much more easily with soap and warm water.
It can stain clothes if you don’t use a pre-treater. I like Spray and Wash Stain Stick (not the spray–the STICK).
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Thanks, Monica!! I wish I had had some white vinegar on hand. I think the Desitin came out, but where I had to wash and rinse with hot water, I think it faded the comforter. That’s better than having greasy remains, but I wish it didn’t look faded in spots. I might just try the vinegar in bath thing and then throw it in the washer again. Thanks so much!! (P.S. My same adorable, cutie pie son also tore off the kitchen cabinet door a couple days ago to get to his snacks!! I had a child lock on it, so he just decided to tear the whole door off! He’s only 2, and I don’t think I could have even torn the heavy wooden door off myself! How do they do it?! :/)
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SO GLAD TO HEAR I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH A WILD 2 YEAR OLD!!!! Our very adorable 2 year old daughter was being awfully quiet today I told my hubsand to check on her and he said she’s on the couch watching Barney!! YAYA!!! About 10 minutes later I hear him scream….she had desitin in her hair, all over her face (including her eyelashes and eyelids), her arms and legs and even better ALL OVER our suede couch!! She is still a greasy mess after her bath and I’m sure out couch is ruined….I’ll be couch cover shopping tomorrow!! I will try the dawn dish soap thing tonight! But I think our couch is a lost cause!! Thanks for all the tips!!
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Kayla says:
July 26th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
did u ever get it out of your couch….im not positive is mine is micro suede of microfiber but either way im think it is hopeless….i wiped off excess with bby wipe first then dawn dishsoap and water…it ddnt do a thing…looks like it has bleached the color of couch almost (its a red!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! couch))))))
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Just chiming in on the two year olds… my twins did the full body cover yesterday. I had to call poison control due to the Desitin in the eyes. You need to run “clean” water (best from corner to corner; child on their side and held down with a sheet wrap and second person, ha-ha) for 10-15 minutes. After this wait an hour, if the eye is still red you are supposed to take them in for an eye exam. We were lucky and didn’t need to do the eye exam.
As for getting the stuff off their bodies, good scrubbing with a wash cloth and baby soap (we did a bubble bath too so they would have soap all around). Hair came clean with one wash with Burt’s Bees shampoo/body wash combo and then conditioner.
Clothes came clean with dawn dish soap scrub and then soaking in vinegar solution (1/3 vinegar 2/3 warm water) and then washing twice in warm water. They still have the lovely smell to them so I haven’t dried them in a drier to ensure that we don’t set in the smell. Going to try a full strength vinegar to see if I can kill the smell.
Still working on the comforters. Dark blue and not having much luck.
Glad to have found the site to see what others have tried and been successful with.
PS I am allergic to fish so this really sucks!
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Jeff says:
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:51 am
Aaa… that sounds like a pretty bad one. Sorry to hear about the eyes, especially. Sounds like you had a rough day. Thanks for chiming in. Good luck with the smell.
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Well a guess it was our turn. My huband and I were working in the garden while my 3.5 year old daughther and next week to be 2 year old son played in her room “nicely” Next thing I know my son comes out to the yard so I would help him put a babyshirt on a baby. Both were white frtom head to tow: the dolly and my 2 year old. First I though it is a babypowder they used on the baby, but once i got a closer look, I knew it was Desitin. I went to my daugters room and she heard me coming and closed herself in the bathroom. Needless to say, she was covered in it. The walls, the mirrow and the carpet in her room. Walls were easy with the wipes. Haven’t washed their hair yet, but most of the stuff from body came off. But not from the carpet. I used wipes, soap, Shout greaze spray for clothes helped some but steam iron didn’t seam to do anything. Finally I just went to Walmart and bought some pink rugs to cover op the white spots. haven’t washed the clothes yet. What a day.
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I know this sounds really bad. But have any of you even thought about where Desitin is applied regularly? The baby bum never seems to have Desitin on it when we open up that wet diaper. So basically, urine is the solution. It just rinses it away! I’m not suggesting cleaning in urine, I don’t think. But really, you can clean out urine in the washing machine. if you have an important gifted blanket, or something that was handed down to you from family, you may want to think about it…
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I have a soon to be 2 year old and 4 year old…both are about to make me pull my hair out!!! The oldest painted with her poop when she was little-on several occasions, played with desetin, shredded wipes and diapers, dumped out shampoo, strung easter grass throught the house, colored on everything, and anything you can imagine…now shes teaching my youngest the same things!!! Tonight was my 6th bout with desetin and guess what… Goo Gone X-treme does the trick! Its rather pricy but safe on fabrics, carpet, and just about anything else and gets it out in nothing flat!!!! Trust me I have tried it all becuse locks dont keep my kids out of anything, give em 2 minutes while im taking a pee and they have demolished something else!!!
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Jeff says:
July 1st, 2010 at 7:03 am
Always good to hear the voice of experience! Thanks, Breanna.
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I’ve been hysterically laughing reading these posts… not that they’re funny, just happy that I’m not the only one. My 18 month old got into a tube of Desitin and spread it all over the rug. We had a professional steam cleaner come today and they claimed that the color was lifted from the rug from the Desitin, so they couldn’t remove the stains. I feel the color is still there, just hidden behind the Desitin which has been stuck there for 2 weeks. I’ll try the dish soap but I fear that we found this thread 2 weeks too late? Anyone know if there’s any way the color is bleached, or is it just the Destin itself keeping the white spots white?
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It is so nice to know that I am not alone!!!! One whole tube of Desitin smeared all over my brand new chocolate colored suede couch; compliments of my 2 and 1/2 YO little artist. Needless to say a damp towel alone did not work. But I will try combing this with the iron steam method. Then on to the Dawn. Thanks to everyone that posted!
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My two year old just smeared Desitin on my mothers car upolstery. Yikes: so I read your ideas and went to the kitchen praying the dishsoap idea would work. Instead I found Lift Off 2. It really worked! Initially I had sprayed the Desitin with Amway’s LOC so it did soak a few minutes with this but the LIFT OFF 2 really seemed to work. Thank goodness. Of course, my 8 year old can’t wait to tell grandma what happened to her car.
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