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
You posted on my blog back in Dec. and I have been getting a wealth of info from your blog. We started with cloth diapers last week by using pre-folds and Bummis covers, but then I decided to purchase some Bum Genius 3.0. I love them! I plan to use these exclusively.
Regarding this post: I was wondering what detergent you use.
Thanks!
Hey Natalie! Glad to hear i’ve been able to help! As for detergent, For over a year I used All Free & Clear w/no problems EXCEPT, i use fleece liners & after awhile i had a suspicion that they were repelling (the diaper would be mostly wet on the edges, & not in the middle where I had my doublers placed!). This never led to any leaking, mostly I’m sure due to my OCD w/checking to see if her diaper is wet, but still…..So after reading & reading, apparently it’s fleece that’s “picky” about detergent. Free & Clear can build up on it pretty easy, causing repelling. I switched to Country Save (the natural foods store here carries it, I likely never would’ve dropped the $$ to ship it if it weren’t avail. locally). You do have to dissolve it first (i learned this the hard way), I just keep a small cup & spoon by the washer & while the hot water is filling the washer, i gather some in the cup, then stir in the scoop of detergent, mix well & then pour into the wash. Kinda annoying as compared to my no-fuss system before, but it works well & lo & behold, the pee is now landing where it belongs, in the middle of the diaper where my doublers are.
So all that to say, if you don’t use any fleece or pockets, then use whatever detergent you want that doesn’t cause a rash on baby (I tried Tide once & it left rashes, due to enzymes).
I was wondering what your thought on washing cloth diapers for babies with sens skin. I just read your article on diaper rash and our situation is we use pf /flats with a various assortment of covers. We had been fighting a diaper rash off and on for 2-3 weeks and had to use disp bc we moved. Today was the first time back in cloth diapers and my dd has a rash that almost looks like a burn. Before we moved my friend who cloth diapers suggested using arm hammers washing soda with simple green to wash (it worked for her dd).
any thoughts?
REALLY wants to use cd!!
not sure what you’ve tried already…I would try (probably in this order):
a free & clear detergent (these are fine for pf’s & flats)
seventh generation ’sensitive care’ (this one does not have enzymes)
Country Save
& of course remembering to change frequently.
let us know if that helps!!