Good for you caring for elderly parent!

Would rinse off any large material into toilet or utility sink, and then double wash (2 cycles) soiled items alone, using some bleach in the second wash cycle.

I would try to determine why she has the diarrhea. Maybe it can be controlled by diet or medication. If she has something Infectious you will need to treat the laundry accordingly. If she has C. diff you will have to use bleach because it sporulates and the only thing that kills the spores is bleach. The bleach has to be at a certain concentration and the garments have to soak for a specific time.

I'd do just as suggested above. Rinse, hottest water, adding a little bleach to disinfect...and Mom's clothing will need to be appropriate for those methods. My dryer has a sanitizing cycle, does yours?

Just a side note, but that was an issue my own mother (90, and she'd be furious if she knew I'd shared that) was experiencing, and increasing her fiber helped enormously - her doctors suggestion. Benefiber, beginning with a very small amount dissolved in water and increasing the amount gradually over several days. Her appetite tiny enough that worked better than trying to introduce fiber in foods. The urgency and accidents decreased by maybe 90% in just a few weeks, such a simple resolution. You might ask her doctor.

And don't forget disposable garments like Depends. I think it's the Depends with Tabs that are better for bowel incontinence. And good luck, best to the both of you.

May be caused from some of her meds also. Dementia meds have that side effect. Just hang in there and remember that is something we will all face if we live long enough.(diarrhea )

Good advice, wekick, to look for underlying cause. Unfortunately, many elderly experience either constipation or diarrhea due to medications, diet, inactivity, and underlying disease.

NOTE: Wash with soap & water to remove organic material --- before disinfecting with bleach. Organic material, like feces, will inactivate the disinfecting properties of bleach.

I think it is prudent to point out the use of bleach on anything other than whiteware, bedding, and under garments, could have untold consequnces.

You didn't mention what type of "clothing" and what "fabric" they are made of, colorfast or non? While I agree high level disinfection is recommended, thermal sanitation or chlorine bleach may not be compatable with the garment. You may have to resort to a quat or alternative disinfectent that is effective in cooler water.

As another poster pointed out, may sure this is not cDiff. That in itself requires special handling and processing, and high level disinfection of bathroom quarters. You would be well advised after washing contaminated clothing, run the washer through a HOT wash with Chlorine bleach to prevent cross contamination of regular household laundry. If your machine has a thermal Sanitary cycle, use it.

I like Biz powder for stains and it is safe on colors. You use it with your detergent. I have found that it works better for me than Oxyclean.

Biz has surfactants Oxygen Bleach and enzymes. .dats why Biz is da bomb

I'd think it's the same as cloth diapers- any solids go into the toilet, the rest into the washing machine. I do this with my two potty training as well, when the underwear is treated as the diaper!

Flush solids...have a bucket nearby with room temp water and a bit of Dreft laundry detergent, I choose Dreft as it formulated to deal with babys poop. Let garment soak a few hours than do a cool prewash with detergent than a very hot wash with a good detergent.

C-Diff...im sure your mother has regular testing to check for this? If shes positive you need to follow the doctors instructions on laundering..you would have been given instructions about sanitation.

Sorry to hear about your mom. I have an elderly mom as well who frequently has poopy accidents in bed. Tide Ultra Stain Release works fantastically and has never let me down on these types of stains.

C. diff is not something you would routinely test for. There are many reasons people have diarrhea but you might want to rule that out. Usually it is severe diarrhea but not always.

We put my mom in Depends and what a difference that made. Much easier to clean up and she felt better knowing her clothes were poop free.

I commend you for taking care of your aging parent. I went through this for a number of years with my own mother, who passed at 93. It can be exhausting!

One thing is certain at that age, it's a continual decline in health. Once the Dementia and UTI,s start, the fall risks, the bathroom accidents, you,ll want to pull your hair it! Old age is not pretty for some, so prepare yourself, as it will quickly consume you mentally, emotionally, and financially if you let it.

My MIL uses these. They are more comfortable than Depends. They have elastic around the edges of the legs like regular underware and don't look or feel like a diaper which makes it much more comfortable. They pull up and down.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Assurance-for-Women-Maximum-Absorbency-Protective-Underwear-Small-Medium-40-count/28538877

They sell them at all of the drug stores also.

Wekick. .c dif is not routinely tested for correct..but in a geriatric person with diarrhea it should and would be looked for as this bacteria spreads faster than a wild fire in a drought.

I just assumed a 91 year old with diarrhea was tested.

Georgeb...inform your mothers doctor about this diarrhea. .besides older people will dehydrate very quickly.

A clear set of clinical symptoms would need to present themselves before any diagnostic lab work would even be considered. A young healthy person can become quite ill with an outbreak of c. Diff and it could very well kill you if you become septic!

It is important the cause of routine diarrhea be diagnosed and treated appropriately. Loose stools are one thing, but diarrhea is usually related to an imbalance of some sort in the GI tract.

The original poster said their mother had diarrhea from time to time so it is much more likely this is from meds or diet. I just mentioned something infectious and specifically C. diff as a more remote possibility, but one that would require specific protocols. My mother who had C. diff, fell into that category as she had sort of occasional loose stools and they didn't figure it out for awhile as she did not fall into the usual set of symptoms that would trigger testing.

If the OP's mother were in a hospital or nursing home and had diarrhea, it would be much more likely that she would be tested with those symptoms because they are watching for it constantly. It spreads much more rapidly in this setting because people are debilitated and have often been on antibiotics which kills off the good bacteria that would fight off the C. diff. Healthy people don't usually get a C. diff infection. Even when it spreads in health care facilities it is quite rare for the caregivers to get it unless they have been on antibiotics or have some other health issue themselves.

Talking about diarrhea, it is Norovirus time again. Causes gastroenteritis with vomiting & diarrhea. Many disinfectants are not effective against Norovirus; however, bleach solutions are.

Lol! You won't find many supporters in this group, but I exclusively use bleach as a disinfectant in the laundry where appropriate, and general household kitchen and bath areas. It remains the Gold Standard for disinfection.

I think most of us here understand that chlorine bleach is indeed the gold standard for disinfection. I don't use it in the laundry for whitening, but it does have a laundry use for disinfection which i put into practice when needed.. I do however use it for other things in the household, things that need disinfected on a daily basis, like kitchen and bath. I also use it on my kiddos nebulizer (mouthpiece)..nothing sold on the open market beats it...and while I'm touting its outstanding benefits I'll also say nothing else whitens as well as chlorine bleach.

@pink - I like the percarbonate products for whitening. Although testing both chlorine and percarbonate, I have found the whitening ability was a wash. Lol! One didn't perform better than the other with respect to whitening. The bleach however does perform marginally better at removing tough stains, as it is a true oxidizer. Just depends on your application and preference.

Wow, thank you for all of your comments! I've learned a lot and now know how to effectively clean her clothes.

We don't need to see before and after pictures, lol, but your evaluation of what works would be very nice.

Do you prefer doing two cycle wash.. I am taking care of my dementia mom . I don't know if it's okay to wash clothes with regular soap then use bleach in hot water setting ?

That'd be OK. Chlorine bleach can oxidize, set-in iron-based stains such as blood so best to flush or treat that type of soil with a detergent or enzyme wash before applying bleach for sanitizing.

dadoes, when you say "before applying bleach for sanitizing," do you mean 'before laundering again with the added bleach'?

Yes, if washing the affected items twice ... then first a full cycle (or maybe a prewash or rinse and spin) with an enzyme product, then the 2nd full cycle with chlorine bleach.

That's related to how cloth diapers typically were handled back in the day ... they were soaked in a diaper pail until a load was accumulated, usually with some sort of pre-treatment (borax, bleach, or an enzyme product when such became available). The pail was dumped into the washer and a rinse/spin was run to flush the presoak, then a full HOT cycle with detergent, and bleach if desired. My mother usually rinsed diapers in the toilet to remove majority of the soil before placing them into the diaper pail ... and had a couple incidents of them getting pulled down when flushing said toilet.