Fortunately, my wash cloth was unscathed, because I buy white ones, so that they can be bleached and disinfected. I also encouraged my son to take a fresh wash cloth each day, because of course, the goal is to keep bacteria off their skin. I found that you can get a dozen all cotton terry, white cloths at Wal-Mart or K-Mart for .50 cents apiece or less, so I just bought a load of them...You could always do take the cloths that were damaged and dump them in the machine with rubber bands and bleach and make them appear tie dyed-then put them in a box to send off to college with the child.. With the way kids do laundry, they will never notice.