Posted by KarenC on December 02, 19103 at 09:09:59:
In Reply to: stiff diapers posted by emmas mommy on December 02, 19103 at 08:30:32:
It could be a detergent or hard water mineral build-up. Try washing a couple times with just a little detergent (just a tiny bit) and hot or warm water and add some vinegar (1/2 cup or so) and/or baking soda in the rinse cycle.
If the hard water is at your home then that's a little harder to take care of. Drying in the dryer completly (or almost, try drying to about 3/4 dry in the dryer then hang to dry for the rest) should help. There is also a fabric softener available in the US (only, unfortunetly) that is supposed to not affect absorbancy like regular softeners do. It's from Downy and I think it's the Downy Advanced (someone please correct me if I've got the name wrong!). Vinegar is also supposed to help soften fabrics. Water softener might also help.
It could also be that the diapers are just rather old and the fabric has lost a lot of it's soft surface fibers and so had a tendancy to get stiff much easier than newer fabrics.
Karen.