Washing Cloth diapers
Written by Diaper Diva
I have avoided this section of advice till now. To be honest…I’m still going to avoid it.
What I have found through talking with people & reading endless websites & blogs and forum posts & stickies on the topic is that it just depends. It depends on whether you have hard or soft water, what type of washer you have, whether or not your baby has sensitive skin, what level your at in “eco-consciousness”, what type of diapers…well, you get the picture.
Everyone has a system & I doubt many are alike. Unfortunately, looks like it’s trial & error folks.
MOST agree (though not all on any of these points!):
- you only need a 1/4 of the amt. of detergent than what the box/bottle says
- use bleach either sparingly or never (please use it if baby had yeast or a bacterial rash)
- pocket diapers are notorious for being picky about detergent types (many apparently cause repelling).
Beyond that, my only word of advice: Start bare-bones. Pre-rinse (if you desire, apparently plenty don’t & they’re fine), wash with only detergent (no second rinse) & then dry. If that works, ignore everything else you read & stick with it. You will be much happier, I promise. If not, change one thing at a time until you find wash nirvana.
I’m not even going to tell you my “system” (yes, it’s changed since that first post) so as not to mislead you into thinking there is a “right” way. I am however, more than happy to help you trouble-shoot if lurking on forums isn’t working for you.
Related Articles You Might Enjoy:- Wool Cloth Diaper Covers
- Sisterhood of the Traveling Diapers
- Fleece & Cloth Diapers
- The Cloth Diaper Rant
Sisterhood of the Traveling Diapers
Written by Diaper Diva
I apologize for the excessive downtime dear Diaper readers. During the last few weeks we have sold our house, packed up said house, visited family over the holiday, moved to a new state and unpacked the new house. It has been a wild ride. We’ve only been in the new house for a week and a half, but it’s feeling more and more like home.
During the trip with all the traveling, I decided to (yet again) use diaper girl & myself as guinea pigs. Since all the visiting travel was to family members’ houses, I decided to travel with cloth (for a week & 1/2). I had a tally going but lost it in transit, however the rough estimate is that we used about 5 disposable diapers on diaper girl & 3 on diaper boy. Diaper boy (who just turned 3 last week) actually complained a couple times when putting a disposable on him (remember he only wears diapers to bed now), “I don’t want the paper diaper mama, I just like cloth diapers”. That’s my boy.
I wanted to do 100% cloth but I chickened out when it came time to head to the airport. I was flying solo with the two kids (diaper dad drove to the new place ahead of us) and needed the carry-on bag as small as humanly possible. So starting the night before (and whenever someone was babysitting for me) the kids wore “paper diapers”.
Anyhow, traveling with the diapers was really not that big a deal. I had one small suitcase dedicated to diapers (including my wipes warmer & hanging pails) & since I had a “home-base” at each location, it was a breeze. An etiquette tip for you though: some people may not like the idea of soiled diapers in their washing machine. Be sure to check with your host to make sure they don’t mind diaper laundry. If they do you can either gently explain the process & how you’re not dropping loads of poo into the washer or you can just let it go and use disposables to help keep relationships intact. No sense causing tension over something as silly as diapers.
Related Articles You Might Enjoy: