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Why Choose 100% Reusable Cloth Diapers?
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Tips for Caring for 100% Reusable Cloth Diapers
| Name | Location | Care Tips |
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| Heather | San Diego | Sun drying (even on cloudy days) bleaches out all my stains (like magic!). Cotton has been easiest to launder in our hard water, so I switched out all microfiber inserts for prefolds in my pockets, making it easier to avoid smelly dipes. | | Robin Sayers | Cincinnati | I use mainly pocket diapers and have slightly hard water. My main tip is that if you find something that works for you, stick with it regardless of what others say. Try to make it as simple of a routine as possible. I rotate between two detergents. One all-natural for most of my use, and about once a month, I use a mainstream detergent w/ enzymes. Putting the diapers on a clothesline in the sun to dry can do wonders for stains! | | Emilee | Florida | My "tips", keep your wash routine SIMPLE! dump solids off into toilet, swish or spray with diaper sprayer if needed, toss in pail...on wash day toss it all in the washer, do a short or small wash cycle as your washer allows or just a regular wash cycle with no detergents or anything, this gets all the pee and poopiness OUT of the diapers and out of the water BEFORE you "wash" them(the "prewash" setting on most washers doesn't quite do the trick as it's really only a quick "rinse" but doesn't really agitate out and rinse out all the yucky)...THEN do a FULL wash cycle on the high water level with the proper amount of detergent, this varies due to water quality and size of machine and load of diapers. if you have an extra rinse cycle, especially with front loaders, USE IT. This has been magic for us. Also DO NOT OVER-STUFF/LOAD YOUR WASHER, you need room for the diapers to MOVE and SWISH while washing...for a front loader you should have a hole at the top about 6" from the top about the size for a small bath towel, and a top loader about 4-6" from the top of the drum all the way around and don't SHOVE the diapers down, they should fit loosely, remember you want them to AGITATE. If necessary make two loads, or wash more frequently, or you will just end up with yucky stinky diapers. I say this because my family ran a laundromat, so I'm experienced with washing machines. :) My favorite detergents for my front loader and with hard water is biokleen or charlie's soap, also lifetree detergent worked fine. I also use a bit of white vinegar in the rinse cycle. Try to hang dry or dry on low your pockets or covers to help the elastic last longer. If you need help with stains, a bit of time in the sunshine will do wonders! | | Christy | Bloomingdale, MI | One of the things I was most concerned about after reading about caring for cloth diapers when I was first starting was that I have a high efficiency front loading washer and this can cause problems. The problems are due to the fact that high efficiency washers use less water. Water is very important to properly cleaning diapers. Many suggest throwing a wet towel in with the diapers, which does work, but I found another solution that is easier for me. Since I throw my wetbag full of all the dirties directly into the machine and don't bother taking things apart on my first cycle, I just simply fill my wetbag directly with some cold water before putting it in the washer. This seems to make the difference I need. I then do a short cold wash with about half a tablespoon of RG. If the diapers are particularly stinky, I will add a couple of drops of tea tree oil to this first cycle. This cycle only lasts about 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes is up I will set it for a longer hot wash with more about 3/4 tablespoon detergent. I have a couple of diapers that don't unstuff themselves in the wash that I unstuff at this point too. Then to the clothesline or dryer. If drying diapers in the dryer, might want to make sure covers are still line dried to ensure they will last but also add wool dryer balls. Dryers balls do not have chemicals and oils that will cause your diapers to accumulate a repelling layer. (Did you know that your dryer vent accumulates a layer like this too if you are using dryer sheets or fabric softener? You actually should wash your vent screen to ensure good air flow periodically as this film causes air to not flow through the screen properly.) Sun does a great job bleaching but you can use Oxy Clean or another oxygen-based cleaner periodically if needed. | | Carol N | Wyoming | You do not necessarily have to buy a special cloth diaper detergent for you diapers. I have very hard water and have tried several of them and found that they do not clean as well and often caused problems that I did not have when we used plain old Tide. | | Jennifer | Massillon OH | My routine is pretty cut and dry for normal stuff: 1. is it a heavy soil, if so run one runse cycle first (no detergent) 2. HOT water our water heater is turned up as high as it will go (we use saftey valves on the kid's tub) I wash the diapers in a hot water wash 3. I use 7th Generation Free and Clear Laundry detergent. I only use 1/4 of what I would use for a normal load 4. If at all possible I LINE dry. This is so important for new born stains and keeping the whites white!! I once thought I had unmanageable stains in a couple of my dipes but a few washes and sunnings and they are back to good. 5. Once a month or so, I run a wash of one tbl. sp of Dawn detergent to strip my diapers of anything that might be clinging to the material like softner from my regular loads. 6. I haven't had any horrible odors since the winter, but every once in a while I will eather run with a small amount of bleach OR Lemon juice to deodorize. If I use bleach I do a double rinse. I also found that Ammonia is highly reccommended for getting pee odors out. While it works great, if you don't do a double rinse, you can end up with ammonia burns :-( | | Tricia Young | Maine | A tip for front loader users. I have a Kenmore Elite front loader. Many people complain about wash routines with high efficiency (which equals to less water) washers. Now that we have solid food poops, I run an initial "rinse, drain, spin" cycle but turn off the spin. This leaves the diapers soaked before washing. Then I have set my programmable wash cycle to Pre Wash, Heavy Duty (hot wash, cold rinse), Skin care rinse. This means that aside from running the initial rinse I only add my scoop of detergent and hit one button. Very easy and working well for us. We always line dry anything with PUL and on nice sunny days I line dry everything. Maine weather is unpredictable, so we dry on a rack inside a lot. You can put crunchy things into the dryer on an air fluff no heat and they soften right back up quickly. | | Lindsay | Tennessee | We use prefolds and PUL, wool, and fleece covers. I used an additive-free laundry detergent for the first 8 months or so, but the smell became out of control. My diapers smelled fresh and clean until my son would wet one - P.U. After hearing a suggestion from a friend, I decided to try Tide Original - it worked (and after 6+ months, it has not damaged any diapers)! The diapers look and smell great. When I switch back to my old laundry detergent, the smell always comes back, so we just stick with Tide. As for cleaning poopy diapers, a diaper sprayer that attaches to the toilet is a MUST HAVE once the baby starts solids. Also, I've found that laying diapers out in the sunshine takes any stains right out! | | Gill | Edmonton, Alberta, Canada | I use Country Save washing powder and have done all the way through the 2 years almost I've used cloth diapers. It's phosphate free and you don't have to use much to get really clean diapers. And it's not really expensive like some of the bummis 'approved' brands or the stylish brands out on the market and it does a great job | | Rose Homme | Anaheim, CA | I think the most important thing in caring for cloth diapers is, A. getting the diapers very wet, and B. very little detergent. So for getting the dipes good and wet:This is easy in a top loader so maybe a heavy wash is sufficient. in a front loader you may want to soak before your main wash. You also want to make sure you are using very little of the correct detergent. I say less is more, If the diapers don't come out quite clean enough you can always slowly increase you detergent without risking buildup, but if you start off with too much detergent, you may run into buildup very quickly and then have to combat that! | | Andria B | Peterborough, ON | Every formula for care is unique, I explain. Pick an approved laundry detergent for your diapers and use it on everything you launder. Using this new detergent will eventually flush the residues of the old ones to help keep the laundry routine reliable. Next, review the Basics of Cloth Diaper Washing and follow the methods prescribed. Consider soft water families can use vinegar in lieu of fabric softener treatments and hard water families may find Calgon to help in the wash. Pre rinse with cold, wash with warm or hot water, and follow with an extra rinse cycle (if your machine allows) and watch for bubbles in the last rinse (or you may have to lower detergent level and rinse again). Top loader machines work well with cloth diapers, but you can trick an HE front loader by adding a wet bath towel to the cloth diaper load, which increases the water in the cycle to flush the mess out better. Finally, stick to your established method as precisely as you can and if you do run into trouble such as ammonia build up, wash without detergents to strip the diapers. As an aside, my diaper service offers a professional cleaning for those using pre folds at home. This can help strip your diapers and return them to bright white status! Last advice? Share your best results! | | Laura K. Cowan | Michigan | I have tried a number of detergents and wash routines, because I experiment with them for my cloth diaper blog 29Diapers.com, and the one routine I keep coming back to is this: Run a pre-rinse cycleRun a Hot wash plus two rinse cycle (this is built in to my washer as the "Heavy Duty" wash setting so I only need to push the button once to get a wash and two rinse cycles) with Rockin' Green or Lulu's Glamour Wash in hard water formula (since I have slightly hard water) If the diapers still smell a little after this wash routine, I will run them through another full Hot Wash and two rinse cycle in my washer with no detergent. Works like a charm to completely rinse out detergent and stinkies. | | Justine | Berkeley Springs, WV | I rinse my diapers in a cool rinse, then add detergent and borax, sometimes baking soda if I need help with stink issues. I let it soak for 10 minutes after it's filled up. Then I run an extra rinse cycle after it's done. | | Beth | Columbia, MO | We have an HE front loader and have struggled with getting our diapers clean and well rinsed due to the low volume of water our machine uses. We tried the wet towel trick but that didn't work for us. What we now do is add extra water to the machine - we wait until the machine is done filling, open the laundry soap drawer and pour in 1 or 2 buckets of water, close the drawer and let the machine do it's thing. Once in a while, when I think I'm getting a lot of soap build-up, I'll hang out in the basement while the machine is running, and each time it goes through a rinse cycle, I'll dump in a couple of buckets of water to make sure everything is thoroughly rinsed. I'm not sure if adding the water is doing any damage to our machine, but it seems to be working for our diapers! | | Karla | Aberdeen, WA | We use the pocket diapers for our baby, and cloth training pants for our toddler with the microfiber inserts and prefolds. I store the soiled diapers either in a dry pail or wet bag. I use a diaper sprayer to spray off the "Poo" before I toss them into the diaper pail. I wash them every other day. I first wash the entire load with cold water no detergent on the heavy duty cycle. I follow that by washing them in hot water with 1/2 the recommended amount of detergent. Then I rinse them on cold followed by an extra rinse. I use either Planet Ultra or Country Save detergent. Here in the Pacific Northwest we don't get many sunny days in the winter so I have to rely alot on my dryer. But every chance I get, I hang them out on the line to dry. It keeps them smelling fresh, and looking nice and white. It's just so easy, even for me, a full time working mom. | | Mina Porell | Atlanta, GA | Diaper laundry should not be difficult or require a PhD in chemistry. Just think about the fact that diapers are very dirty clothes and simply treat them that way. | | The easiest laundry routine is a cold prewash/rinse without detergent (to rinse out any remaining urine or solids and to help with stains) followed by a regular hot wash with the recommended amount of detergent (do not skimp on this--think logically--can you wash away poop with 2 tablespoons of detergent? I don't think so) and end with a cold rinse. Use any detergent that works well for your other baby laundry (you might have to look for gentle solutions if your baby has sensitivity to certain detergents). | | | | If your diapers develop a smell (poopy or ammonia) that means they are not getting clean and they have become a breeding ground for bacteria (ammonia is the byproduct of bacteria). You will have to sanitize them by boiling them for 10 minutes or using bleach. The boiling needs to happen in a large pot in a lot of water for 10 minutes. Make sure no PUL or snaps touch the sides of the pot (both are designed to withstand high temperature, but not direct contact high heat surfaces). If you prefer to use bleach, add 1/2 cup of bleach to your regular hot wash cycle along with the detergent. Then add 1/2 vinegar to the final rinse to neutralize any lingering bleach. If your problem is ammonia, you can add 1/2 cup vinegar to the prerinse--this will neutralize existing ammonia salts, but remember that you will still need to ensure that your diapers get clean afterwards (meaning all bacteria or bacteria-causing build-up is gone). | | | | If you would like to add one more "insurance" step, you can use 1/2 cup of oxygen bleach (such as OxyClean) in your hot wash cycle on a regular basis. | | | | Kassie | Newark,Ohio | My routine is as follows - shake solids into toilet if needed. Store in a small trash can with a lid. Once I have enough for a load I start cold/cold cycle..add detergent. Then add diapers and inserts. I use fuzzi bunz and some WAHM pockets also. After the first cycle I then do hot/cold wash. Then switch to dryer on low heat. Take out diapers then dry just inserts on high heat. Stuff diapers once all is dry and you're done! If I have an odor issue I had a few drops of tea tree oil in the first cycle. I use purex brand free & clear. |
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