Basic Washing Routine:
- As you would with the rest of your laundry, separate your diapers into like materials. Wash natural fibers separately from synthetics.
- Wash the entire load on cold with detergent. Washing once on cold water is important to remove leftover "yuck" from your diapers.
- Wash the entire load again on warm or hot - also with detergent.
- Do a second rinse.
- We recommend that you line dry your diaper covers, pocket diapers and anything made with hook & loop closures. Virtually everything else can be tumble tried on medium.
If you're having problems with diapers that stink after washing:
- Try an extra rinse. Sometimes detergent residue can cause diapers to smell.
- Wash once with liquid Dawn (the blue formula). Use 1 teaspoon in a front loader and 1 tablespoon in a top loader. Rinse well.
- If the previous solutions don't work, try 1/4 cup of bleach in the warm/hot wash cycle.
What detergent should I use when washing my cloth diapers?
Choosing the right detergent for your diapers is essential! Do not use detergents containing pure soap, enzymes, fabric whiteners, fabric brighteners, fabric softeners or anything scented. You may download a list of detergent recommendations here.
Do I have to sanitize the washing machine after washing my cloth diapers?
Absolutely not. If the diapers are clean, the washing machine is clean.
How do I use baking soda or vinegar when washing my diapers?
Water, detergent, the sun and occasionally a small amount of something santizing like bleach is plenty to get your diapers clean and stainfree. We do not recommend the use of any other additives when washing your cloth diapers. Additives can damage the waterproofness and elasticity of your diapers. In addition, they can change the pH of your diapers resulting in skin irritations.
My diapers are stained. Now what?
The best stain remover is the sun! Wash your diapers and then lay them out wet on the lawn with the stain facing the sun. It usually only takes a few hours before the stains are gone! If some remnants of the stain still linger, rinse the load again and repeat the process.
What do you do with stinky diapers or covers?
Wash your diapers again! Most of the time, stinky diapers just aren't clean yet. Detergent residue or build up may also cause odors to be retained. Check the rinse water to make sure that you don't see suds. If you do, use less detergent. A warm wash with a squirt of liquid Dawn (the dish detergent), rinsed well, does a great job removing stinky residue from diapers. When all else fails, try 1/4 cup of bleach in a large hot wash load.
My diapers smell like ammonia after being worn. What should I do to fix this problem?
The chief culprit for an ammonia smell is detergent scent or detergent residue. Make sure that you are using an extra rinse when washing your diapers and that you are using a detergent that does not contain any perfumes. A warm wash with a squirt of liquid Dawn (the dish detergent), rinsed well, does a great job removing stinky residue from diapers. Using 1/4 cup of bleach may be occasionally necessary to kill odor causing bacteria in the diapers.
I live in an apartment and need to wash my cloth diapers in a laundromat. How do I do this?
When we started cloth diapering, we lived in an apartment and did not have our own washer and dryer. We were cautious about diving into cloth diapering so we started with a diaper service for three months and then decided that we were ready to venture out on our own. We've discovered that cloth diapering is very doable -- even when you're washing in a laundromat!
The system that we found that worked for us was simple:
- Wash everything together.
- Wash the load one entire cycle on cold using just a little detergent.
- Wash the load again one entire cycle on warm or hot using 1/4 - 1/2 the regular amount of detergent.
- Sort the pocket diapers and the covers out of the load and dry everything else.
A few extra things to note
It was important to have enough diapers to wash once or twice a week (at the most). I also used a pail liner to avoid hauling the entire diaper pail to the laundromat. We had 48 prefolds and washed twice a week with a young, breastfed baby.
Costs
It cost us $3 a week to wash diapers once a week. I paid $1 for each wash and $1 to dry the diapers. When evaluating the cost benefit of cloth you'll want to calculate how much extra you'll spend washing twice a week versus just buying enough diapers to last all week. If you spend an extra $3 a week washing diapers, in four months you could have purchased another two dozen prefolds with the money you saved by washing once a week. We found that it cost less in the long run to have a seven day supply of diapers.
An important note! If you are going to buy a one week supply of diapers, we strongly suggest that you purchase 100% cotton prefolds. Prefolds are the easiest product to get clean after sitting for a week in a diaper pail.
Washing Wool Diaper Covers
Washing Wool Covers
To wash a wool cover, simply handwash in cold water using the wool wash of your choice. It is important that the woolwash contains lanolin. We recommend LANA Lanolin Soap. If you need to lanolize your cover between washings, try dissolving one tablespoon of lanolin in a cup of very hot water. Cool the water to the point that it feels warm and then press the cover into the water. Swish it around gently. Drain the water and roll the cover in a towel to remove excess water (do not rinse). Lay the cover flat to dry.
Dealing with Poopy Messes
Sometimes baby poo will get on the wool cover. If this happens, just rinse that part of the cover under cold water until the stain is gone, pat and then hang to dry. If an odor remains, follow the directions above for washing the cover.
When is it time to wash?
If your wool diaper cover smells like urine or like poo, its time to wash. A wool wash with a high lanolin content and high quality felted wool will increase the amount of time between washings.
What Cloth Diapers Do We Use?
When our first son was born, we were given three months of diaper service as a gift. With the diaper service came seven dozen Chinese prefold cloth diapers per week. When the service picked up the diapers once a week, a load of clean diapers was dropped off at our front door. We used a large diaper pail and some deo-disks to store our diapers. We purchased diaper covers in several different styles to go over the Chinese prefolds. At the time, we were living in an apartment and I did my laundry in a laudromat. I had six small-sized diaper covers. This was only enough for one day with a tiny baby, so I rinsed them out before going to bed each night.
When the diaper service expired, a friend gave us a stack of premium-sized prefolds and some medium-sized cloth diaper covers. I was a little nervous about branching out in doing my own diapers at first, but soon discovered that it was actually fun! We washed our prefolds twice per week and just used a disposable diaper at night.
As Andrew started to get a little bit older, I spent some time online researching overnight cloth diapers. That is when I stumbled onto pocket diapers! I'd never seen anything like that before and after doing alot of reading, I eventually ended up purchasing my first pocket diaper on eBay. My husband and I both really like how easy it was to use pocket diapers, so, as Andrew got older, we found ourselves buying more of them. I had a pretty good stash of pocket diapers by the time he potty trained.
When our second son was born, we had a fairly good-sized stash of Kissaluvs and Dappi Nylon Pants on hand. This was my favorite combination when Oscar was tiny! Not too long after he was born though, we started working on the bumGenius design. We were really wanted a diaper that worked like a disposable diaper. It was important to have diapers that grandparents and baby-sitters would be happy using. So, bumGenius was born. Six months later, our entire cloth diaper stash was made up of bumGenius diapers.
Today, Oscar is two and twenty-seven pounds. He wears bumGenius All-In-Ones during the day and bumGenius One Size Cloth Diapers at night. His night-time diaper is stuffed with two bumGenius One-Size Inserts. We size his diaper up to a large at night to accomodate the extra stuffing. If we happen to use a pocket diaper during the day, we use it on the medium setting with one insert. He primarily wears all-in-ones during the day to avoid the hassle of having to find an insert to go with every diaper. Our cloth diapers are stored in a laundry basket (straight out of the dryer) or under the sink in the bathroom. We organize by style. All-in-ones, inserts, doublers and pocket diapers all get separate piles. Because his absorbency needs are different based on the time of day, we do not pre-stuff any of our pocket diapers.
