Cloth Diaper Washing Instructions
Knowing your water type can be helpful to know how much detergent and which detergent is best for your cloth diapers. For instance, Boston City Water (MWRA) is one of the few areas in the country that has softer water. As such you do not need as much detergent to have the same effects and cleaning power as other areas do with hard water. Ecos brand detergent is great with cotton diapers, Tide, Tide Free and Clear and Tide Hygenic Free and Clear work well. As does Persil Sensitive Free and Clear.
Stay away from any dtergent that has too many additives like bleach and oxyclean, as well as anything that is heavily fragranced. Ironically, Dreft, which is made for babies, has a lot of fragrance in it, and is not great for cloth diapers. Basically, less is more when it comes to detergent.
Below are the instructions we give anyone who attends our cloth diaper classes.
* Add diapers to washer - if you have an HE washer and not a lot of diapers you may need to add old towels to the washer to get to the optimal 2/3 full drum for maximum agitation
* Cold Rinse/Flush with a small (1 oz of detergent) - All you're trying to do is rinse out the urine and poop from the diapers. On your washer this may be a short rinse and spin cycle, or it might be a short 15 min cold wash cycle or it may even be a short cold delicate cycle (delicate often uses the most water in some machines)
* Long Hot Wash with detergent (2oz - 3oz of detergent ) - Hot like you would take a hot shower. NOT the sanitize setting. This may be your towel or bedding setting, or the heavy cycle on your machine. You are looking for optimal agitation in this setting.
* 2nd Rinse - Add 2nd rinse or push the 2nd rinse button to make sure all the detergent has rinsed out from the diapers.
* Smell Your Diapers - As you take your diapers out of the washer, smell them. If they smell or feel soapy, put them back in the washer and rinse again. If they smell like barnyard, put them back in the washer and wash on hot with more detergent.
* Tumble Dry or Hang Dry Your Diapers - Dry your diapers on low or medium. Do NOT dry on hot/high as this will melt your covers, pail liners, wet bags and ruin elastic. Things like covers will last longer when left to air dry when possible.
* Fold and Put Away Diapers - And pat yourself on the back for a job well done and clean diapers!
* TIP: Once you figure out your wash routine and how much detergent to use, write it down on a post it and tape it to the front of your washer so anyone who comes over can help with diaper laundry, or so you can remember what to do in the middle of the night going on 3 hours newborn sleep!
Diaper washing should be not rocket science or an experiment. You shouldn't have the need to use a lot of additives (bleach or lemon juice) or put your diapers in a tub, etc etc of any other weird things the internet may tell you to do. If it's not broken don't fix it!
If you do start to experience problems or smells like ammonia, if you have been following the above instructions then generally the answer is that kiddos pee/poop is getting stronger as they start to eat more table food and you may need to use more detergent to get your diapers clean. Or that they may not be getting clean all the way through. There is a product call
GroVia Mighty Bubbles that will help reset your diapers and works to deep clean and remove old detergent from your diapers. It's a great product and one of the FEW additives I recommend when necessary.
Bleach is only needed every once in awhile if baby has been sick or you have received diapers from an unknown source (like Facebook or Craigslist, etc). 1/4 cup of bleach in the hot wash will kill bacteria and shouldn't be done more than once every couple of months unless necessary because of illness.
Stains happen with newborn poop especially or when babies eat especially potent foods like Blueberries! Stains don't necessarily mean your diapers are still dirty. If your diapers smell clean, they are clean regardless of stains. Most stains will come out by laying your diapers damp in a sunny window or line drying outside. The UV rays actually helps sanitize and bleach out any stains.
