A lot of people have questions about washing cloth diapers. It's everyone's biggest fear and the cloth diaper industry doesn't exactly help simplify the process. Here I'm going to share some of the things we have learned and the methods we have used.
Cloth diapering an exclusively breastfed (EBF) baby is about the easiest thing ever! We started with cloth right out of the gate.
First questions I get asked:
What about meconium?
It's not a problem. I know it looks like tar, but it isn't and it will wash right out without staining.
You cloth diapered in the hospital? How?
It was pretty easy for the most part. I brought along a wet bag and diapers. We told the nurses and then we just did it. I put the dirty diapers in the wet bag and they got washed when we got home.
When Noah was EBF, we just put the dirty diapers straight into the washing machine. EBF poop is totally water soluble.
I wash on hot with the setting on large even though I only wash about 20 diapers at a time. I also use an extra rinse at the end. Some will recommend that you not wash more than 12 diapers at a time, but I think that just makes for extra laundry and I've never had any problems doing more. Just remember set the load to large for the extra water and you should be fine.
Question Disposable Diapering Mamas ask me:
You put the poop in your washer?
Yes, I do. I'm pretty sure you do that too when your little one has a blowout and it's all over their clothes and yours [This doesn't usually happen to cloth mamas.]
Y'all, poop happens. Get used to it.
What about the dryer?
We put our diapers in the dryer. I do recommend using a medium heat setting. High heat settings can have disastrous effects on your PUL. That said, my absolute favorite way to dry diapers is with sunshine. Also called "sunning," this method will take almost any stain out of your diapers. It's fabulous!
Detergents?
This is where the cloth diaper industry has a little fun and they will totally disagree with what I'm about to tell you. You don't need special cloth diaper detergent for your diapers.
You can't just use anything, but you don't need to buy an expensive brand made just for diapers. For one thing, we have tried a few and I was less than thrilled. Stains galore! Not enough suds... had to wash them two or three times before I felt they were clean.... just don't give yourself the headache.
We have used:
Arm & Hammer Free and Sensitive
All Free & Clear
Purex
Tide (the fragrance free version)
Rockin' Green
We like All and Arm & Hammer best. Tide is said to be absolutely fabulous by many moms I know, but we had repelling issues with tide after about a dozen washes and stripping diapers is for the birds! We used Rockin' Green on vacation (specifically designed for CDs) and it was awful! I washed the diapers three times and I could barely get any suds even when using more detergent that the recommended amount. My diapers still had stains when they normally wouldn't have. I ended up going to the store and getting Purex (it was all we could find) and it did a better job, but I don't use it on a regular basis, so I'm not really comfortable recommending it.
Stripping?
Usually, stripping is *gasp* not necessary. We have only done it once. One time, after a particularly awful yeast rash [brought on by a double round of antibiotics] we stripped our diapers.
We didn't strip them as a direct result of the yeast. We did it because in the middle of our delirium [taking care of a sick child can make you pretty delirious], we had thrown caution to the wind and covered our baby with the dreaded Desitin [hate that stuff!] and then put him in his diaper. Desitin, as I'm sure you know, is a major no-no in the cloth world whether you're a natural mama or not.
We stripped our diapers with dawn and a toothbrush in the bathtub. I recommend avoiding this course of action if at all possible.
How do you get by without stripping?
Bleach. I know there are some mamas who will not advocate the use of bleach on their precious cloth diapers. I know them, but I'm not one of them. Think about it. That's human feces. Once they are eating solid food and even occasionally mud pies in the back yard, bleach is your friend. I put 1/4 cup of gentle bleach in a full load of diapers. As always, I do an extra rinse. I smell the diapers as I put them in the dryer (or the basket if I'm sunning) to be sure that I cannot smell bleach.
If you smell bleach, rinse again. Using only 1/4 cup, I've never smelled bleach after that extra rinse.
I hope this answered some of your questions about caring for cloth diapers and maybe it made you brave enough to try cloth. I'll be glad to answer any questions you might have in the comments below.
For more information about caring for your cloth check out the fabulous advice from the experts at Padded Tush Stats.
-Crazy Earth Mama
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