Blog

Spotty Otter saw my muck monsters on Instagram and asked if I would write a post about how I care for my kids waterproofs, so that’s what I’m going to do!

Firstly I’m Ella, 29 and have 2 children. Mya who is 3 and Logan who’s 1.

They are both very outdoorsy kids, they love to go exploring, to go on adventures but mostly they love to wallow in the mud... My eldest currently attends Sheffield's only fully outdoors forest school, so as the name suggests she is outdoors for the entirety of her day there, regardless of what the weather is doing!

I spent quite a long time reading up on waterproofs and very quickly learnt about the different ratings that garments can have. That is how I found Spotty Otter!

As I found very few brands offering children’s waterproofs had a waterproof rating high enough for my liking or that weren’t hundreds of pounds, I mean she’s 3 they grow like weeds! After she started kindergarten, it dawned on me very quickly that her kit was going to need washing but I didn’t want to ruin them. So, I took to Google again and found various advice and products offered.

I chose a brand called Nikwax to clean and protect her clothes, it came very highly recommended. They offer a variety of products from cleaning to waterproofing, also for different materials, leather, cotton and down for example.

So it works as a 2 wash system. The tech wash cleans the garments, removing mud, dirty water, sweat and such, then the ‘wash-in' adds the waterproofing and revives the breath ability of the clothing. Please read the instructions on the back, it’s very simple to use but is probably a little different to your normal wash routine!

Make sure you don’t use a regular washing detergent and that your washing machine is free of residue.

The nice thing with the products is you don’t need to dry the clothes in between, so once you’ve cleaned with the tech wash use the wash-in and it’s done. I just hang them on an airer and let them dry naturally.

Another thing I want to mention is don’t wash your waterproofs too often if you can help it. This will help the longevity of the clothing, I try and aim to wash them once or twice a term which is roughly 6 weeks give or take, but it really depends just how bad the weather has been and how many hours she’s been laid in a muddy puddle. Generally between washes we let her clothes dry away from artificial heat and then brush the worst of the mud and dirt off and she’s good to go!

It’s surprisingly hard to take a photo of soggy, mud covered trousers but on the left is the result of Mya being out in storm Gareth for 8 hours. The photo just doesn’t do it justice it really doesn’t. The photo on the right is 2 days later after I’d washed and dried them using the Nikwax ready for her to enjoy another day in the mud.

So, as they say there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.