If you're trying to kill yeast (as per your previous post) then what you're really looking to do isn't really a traditional stripping, which is meant more to remove detergent build-up. Still not a bad idea to strip them after treating them for the yeast but a regular stripping (which is essentially just lots of hot water 'rinsing' perhaps with added vinegar to help dissolve detergent build-up) probably won't kill yeast.
It's not always necessary to treat the diapers when a child has a yeast rash (my dd had a persistant yeast rash and we only treated her skin, we didn't know better at the time but it worked fine) but it's not a bad idea, especially if treatment is otherwise not working.
The problem isn't so much that cloth diapers can cause or 'give' a child fungus or yeast, the problem is that yeast can live in fabric and survive regular hot water washes. The same 'issue' can sometimes occur with women and recurring yeast infections and some women find they need to treat their underwear to prevent reinfecting themselves. This isn't the norm but it's theoretically possible because yeast is very though and can survive a lot.
To be absolutly sure that yeast is totally killed and gone you need either very high heat or an anti-fungal agent. Hot tap water is typically not hot enough, you need high temperature water as in boiling water or steam. Which means you can either boil your diapers or steam iron them. Whichever you choose, be very careful with the snaps and elastic, high heat can damage both.
The other alternative is an anti-fungal agent. There's lots of these but the most common ones are bleach, tea tree oil and vinegar. Bleach is pretty much guaranteed to work but it's also a little risky and not exactly environementaly friendly. But then again, one careful bleaching probably isn't the end of the world. Tea tree oil and vinegar are effective germ killers but it's debatable how effective they are with 'tougher' germs (I've even spoken to a micro-biologist about this very issue and she says the studies show that it does work but not as well as bleach). I'm not sure how much tea tree oil you'd need to do the job but probably at least 20-40 drops in the washer, I'd put even more just to be on the safe side. Vinegar is also an effective germ killer but only if it's used undiluted, which means throwing one or multiple cups of it in a washer full of water is esentially useless when it comes to germs/fungus. You'd need to soak the diapers in pure vinegar and again the results aren't totally guaranteed.
So, which would I recomend?? The fact is that most of the time, none of this will be necessary so I think the more natural methods are worth a try even if they aren't as guaranteed to work. Personally I'd probably try a bunch of tea tree oil followed by some heavy duty stripping and see what that does. Also maybe follow up by a really hot cycle in the dryer (or lying in the sun if you happen to be somewhere where the sun is still really strong this time of year - UV rays are also anti-germ). If you're really not comfortable with bleach you could try one or more of the other options. If not maybe just bite the bullet and bleach them just once. Just make sure it's well diluated before in comes in contact with the diapers and make sure to rinse really well.
Karen.
