Washing Methods

I think washing can be one of the most daunting things when considering using cloth diapers. People think about heavy wet pails, dunking in toilets, doing laundry all the time, etc. That's why I want to say this first thing: it really isn't hard, just keep it simple! I don't dunk, I don't wet pail - in fact, while your baby is exclusively breastfeeding, you can just throw all the diapers in the pail without doing anything! Once they are eating solids, you will want to shake off any poop into the toilet (and perhaps use a minishower - a sprayer that attaches to the toilet) before throwing them in the pail. For covers, I don't usually wash them unless they have poop on them. Otherwise, I just wipe the inside off with the same cloth wipe I used on baby and let it airdry. I wash my cloth wipes right along with my diapers.

First things first: all your diapers will need to be pre-washed when you buy them. Wash covers and pocket diapers once. This is very important: do not pre-wash natural cotton or hemp with waterproof items! The oils relased can effect the waterproofing. Unbleached cotton and hemp products should be washed 5-8 times in hot water before use, bleached items 3-5 times. This helps them reach their maximum absorbancy and fluffiness. After this inital pre-washing, all items can be washed together.

Simple wash routine:

• cold pre-wash
• hot wash with detergent
• cold or warm rinse (a warm rinse removes detergent better)

Detergents

Don't use too much detergent! Detergent build-up can cause diapers to leak and to smell. (This can be fixed - see "stripping your diapers" below.) Make sure you use a detergent that doesn't have a lot of additives or "whiteners" in it. This can cause detergent build-up. I really like Country Save. A very helpful chart on detergents can be found here, at the PinStripes and PolkaDots website. You could also just start out using a basic cheap detergent - it's often the cheaper the better for CDs, since cheaper detergents have less additives. Don't use Dreft, Ivory Snow, or any other detergent that has added fabric softener, as this will decrease the absorbancy of your diapers.

Please note that no detergent sanitizes. This is what hot water is for. Some people do use bleach, but I don't recommend it, because you don't need it and it will wear out your diapers faster. If you do want to use it, you only need a small amount - start at a capful, even.

Drying

After your diapers are clean, you can throw it all in the dryer (for most covers, anyway - do check the instructions that come with them; a few need special care) or sort through and take out all the covers (anything that is waterproof) and let them air dry (I find this makes them last longer, although PUL should be periodically dried on hot to re-seal it). I actually like to line dry my diapers and then throw them in the dryer fore a few minutes to soften them up. If you want even softer than that, you can dry them halfway in the dryer and then finish by line drying. This is mentioned below, but I'll say it here as well - the sun removes many stains, so line drying can be very helpful.

Troubleshooting

Hard Water

Hard water is water that has a high mineral content. About 85% of U.S. households have hard water. Some signs of hard water: water spots on dishes; dingy white clothes; and white, crusty sediment on water fixtures. Hard water does not lather soap well. If you have hard water, try adding 1/4 cup baking soda to your intial cold pre-wash, and then 1/4 - 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar to your rinse cycle to restore the pH level. You can also try using Calgon water softener.

Stains

I have had amazing success simply hanging stained items in the sun (make sure items are damp when you do this for it to work). For some tougher stains, I have used Oxyclean or Bac-Out.

Again, I never use chlorine bleach, as one of my main reasons for cloth diapering is to keep dioxin and other chemicals away from my baby.

Diapers losing their absorbancy/covers not waterproof anymore

This problem is usually caused by detergent build-up or the use of fabric softener. The solution is to strip your diapers, a process that removes all the detergent build-up.

Stripping diapers:

Many websites will tell you to strip diapers by washing them by hand with your normal dishwashing detergent (Dawn or similar). Also, boiling your diapers is another method recommended for cotton and hemp. I don't know about you, but I have no desire to hand wash or boil my diapers, so here are three methods I recommend. For all of these, start with already clean diapers that need to be stripped.

Stripping with hot water:

Wash diapers in hot water until you see no more suds in the water.

Stripping with dishwashing detergent in a top-loader:

• Fill your washer with warm or hot water
• Add diapers
• Start agitation
• Add a little dish washing detergent, enough that it suds well but is not overflowing - keep an eye on it for a few minutes
• rinse until there are no more suds in the water

Stripping with Oxyclean:

This is the method I have used once or twice with success. Simply do a very hot wash with a scoop or two of Oxyclean and then do a double rinse. In my front loader, I simply use the sanitary cycle for this.

Odor/Ammonia Smell

Try adding 1/4 - 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar to the rinse cycle - you can use a Downy ball to do this. (You can also try adding baking soda in the pre-wash along with the vinegar in the final rinse.) This helps restore the pH balance in the diapers, remove any detergent residue, and acts as a natural fabric softener.

A caveat about vinegar

Although I've always had great luck with vinegar, I want to mention one problem with it. If too much vinegar residue is left in diapers, the vinegar can react with urine to cause a strong ammonia smell. So if you notice your child's diapers have a strong smell right when they urinate, either cease using vinegar altogether or try doing a double rinse and adding vinegar to the first rinse only.

pH Balance and Diapers

Since I've mentioned this above, I want to do a quick run down on this. pH stand for "power of hydrogen" and measures whether something is an acid or a base (like ammonia). A pH of 7 is neutral (water is pH 7, for example).

When urine breaks down, it turns in to ammonia, which has a pH of about 10. Baking soda has a pH of about 8, and vinegar has a pH of 4. Since you want your diapers to have as close to a neutral pH as possible (remember, that's 7), whenever you add baking soda, you should add vinegar in the rinse to balance it out. Adding baking soda, and hence raising the pH, can help kill germs in the wash, which is good, but you want to neutralize with the vinegar afterwards.

The infamous wet-pail metod

If you want to know about the wet pail method, here's a link. I don't recommend this method for three reasons:

1. A wet pail is heavy and makes the process more difficult.
2. You need to use a locking lid as a safety precaution, which is not convenient.
3. Goes against my basic rule - keep it simple!

You can use your washer as a "wet pail," as described here. I personally do wash all through the week, so this is out for me.