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Hi there,
I recently started using cloth diapers. I purchased a dozen bamboo one size diapers to try with the air flow covers.
I was wondering what advice you have for washing and care. I purchased a waterproof bag as well for storage. I was also just wondering the process for washing the diapers and the proper detergent to use. Should I be soaking the diapers in a diaper pail first(hot water or cold) or rinsing the dirty diapers in the toilet and then ringing them out and storing in the bag?
Also if I am rinsing the diapers by hand before so I need to use a pre rinse cycle in the washing machine?
I am also concerned about staining and how to prevent this, but also keeping the diapers in good condition.
Is it also necessary to pre rinse pee diapers or only poo diapers as they would get stained.
As you can see I am very new at this and would appreciate any advice you have.
Many thanks |
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Welcome to cloth! I hope you love it as much as I do. Here's a website that helped me get started with how to care for my diaps: http://www.sunshinediapers.com/cloth-diaper-university/cloth-diaper-care-laundering/.
Also, here're a few short answers to your questions. * If your baby is exclusively breast fed, then you don't need to hand rinse the diapers of any kind--it will all disolve in the wash. If your baby is eating any solids or on formula then you'll want to rinse off the excess poo, but not urine. In todlers, the poo is often solid enough to just "roll" off the diaper into the toilet without rinsing. * I throw the dirty diapers in a waterproof bag (sometimes called a wet bag) without wringing. * I've never really worried about whether my diapers get stained, because they are always covered with clothing. Laying the diapers out in the sun has bleached out most of the stains I've treated. Do NOT use bleach. |
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Just to add to what the last poster said, with toddlers, it can be useful to rinse the overnight diaper even when it's just pee. I found that by the time my son was sleeping through the night, that diaper would have so much concentrated urine in it that it would sometimes keep a faint smell after washing if I didn't rinse it first. Not to mention that it could stink up the whole room the diaper pail was in. But that is certainly not a concern with young babies.
If your baby is exclusively breastfed and you put your poopy diapers straight into the washer, you may want to do a pre-rinse in the washer to get rid of most of the poop before the actual wash cycle. If you are not putting poop in the washer, you probably won't need a pre-rinse - you can start with just a wash and add cycles if needed only. Some people will do an extra rinse after the wash to make sure you get rid of all the soap and avoid buildup. Some people put vinegar with the rinse. But those are not always needed, so my advice would be to try a simple routine and add steps only if you run into issues.
Mother-Ease recommends a wet pail to avoid staining, but I have never bothered. My diapers got blueberry stains in the summer, but it completely went away over the winter after repeated washes. If you are overly concerned about staining you can go with a wet pail, but most people prefer to stick to a dry pail as it is much less complicated.
Good luck with cloth! |
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Welcome to cloth diapering! I hope you come to love it as much as I have.
The good news and bad news is that there's no one perfect washing routine. There are so many variables with water and washing machine type that make it impossible to have the perfect detergent or routine.
The general advice is to start simply and only mess with things if you have a problem.
In general, most people find that using no more than 1/2 of the recommended amount of detergent is a good thing. I use this on the rest of my laundry, too.
A very typical washing routine would be
pre rinse
wash on hot with 1/4-1/2 recommended amount of detergent
Beyond that, people can start playing with things like extra rinses or what not. If you have a front-loader, some people find it helpful to run a sanitary cycle every now and again.
I started with a wet pail, but eventually switched to a dry pail, and wow, I can't recommend that strongly enough. I'll note that the term dry pail is a bit misleading, since it isn't really dry--more like soggy pail. Personally, I didn't see stain differences either way. Stains don't bother me, but I will say that I recently sold off my main stash of OS, in nearly pristine condition. That was due to drying them on the line sometimes, stains just working out over time in the wash, and using fleece liners. If you are concerned about stains, using liners cut from cheap fleece (cheapest fleece, cut to whatever shape you want, no hemming needed) can really help. They can also make solid clean up easier.
Although I did always rinse dirty diapers (not wet ones except for night diapers once my boys go older, as those can be very strong-smelling), I did run a pre-rinse. Now that I am down to only occasional night diapers, I run those through a rinse and then just wash them with the rest of the whites. The only time I was able to skip the pre rinse was when I was using a wet pail and had rinsed the BF poop off before putting them into the pail.
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Thanks you so much for all the helpful information. I will definitely use these tips in the future. I also know the best place to come to get helpful hints.
Thanks again |
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