Caring For Your Diapers

Take Care.....!

Taking care of your diapers is not rocket science(as some would have you believe!). There are certain dos and don'ts that you need to know and follow in order to keep your diapers looking great, smelling great, and lasting for a long time. To help, I've listed the most important instructions. If there are any questions that you have, please do not hesitate to contact me!

Laundering

• When you have a dirty diaper, you'll first need to get rid of any solids in toilet(for newborns, especially exclusively breastfed babies, this is not necessary as the stool is more liquid). For pockets pull the inserts out of the diaper, then put both in a diaper pail/wetbag until laundry day. This is considered the "dry" method. You can choose to soak them, but that's not absolutely necessary. The advantage to soaking could be less frequent laundering. If you do choose to soak you would basically just fill your diaper pail halfway with cold water and either baking soda, vinegar or hydrogen peroxide. Let them sit until you have a full load, or for 3-4 days. Make sure to keep the pail out of the reach of kiddies.
• When it comes to laundry day, you'll do a cold rinse first. I usually let the diapers sit in the washer for a few minutes to soak before they are actually rinsed. This is to keep any stains the diapers may have from setting in during the wash cycle. 
• After the pre-rinse a hot wash is needed at the highest level of water(even if it's not a full load of diapers, you should still use a full load of water). If you are only washing a few diapers, add some towels to the wash. The diapers need a certain amount of rubbing against other diapers or clothing to get them clean. Make sure not to overload your washer though. As with any load of clothes, if there's too many they can't get clean! The hot water will sanitize the diapers and a small amount of detergent should be used. About 1/4-1/2 the normal amount you would use. The detergent should have no dyes or perfumes. You can use mainstream detergents, or there are environmentally friendly brands of detergent available that leave virtually no residue(see below for which of each to avoid). No bleach or fabric softener should be used. Fabric softener reduces the ability of the diaper to absorb, and bleach can be damaging to the cotton fibers of diapers.
• Extra rinses should always be used to get rid of as much of the detergent as possible. I typically do at least 4 rinses total, not including the rinse that's part of the wash cycle.
• Most diapers can be dried in the dryer(check the diaper care instructions to be certain and for temperature settings) or hung out to dry. Hanging them usually helps them last longer!
• Stains in your diapers can be taken care of by something everyone has access to-the sun! Just hang them outside or lay them in the sun somewhere in your house and it will bleach them out. If needed, you can squirt some lemon juice on the stains and then sun them.

Stripping Diapers

Over time detergent and/or minerals(from hard water) may build up in your diapers causing some absorption problems(and stink issues). This can be remedied by "stripping" your diapers, of which there are several different methods. I've listed just a few:

1. Running an extra hot wash with no detergent is a good way. This will help to rid your diapers of excess detergent.
2. You can also use a small amount of baking soda in your wash cycle and then a small amount of vinegar in your final rinse cycle. Don't worry, they won't smell like vinegar when they come out!
3. Doing a hot wash with a small amount of regular blue Dawn dish detergent is also a method. This shouldn't be used too often, though. Dish detergent is not meant to be used as your sole laundry soap. And always do plenty of rinses! A good rule of thumb is rinse until you can't see any bubbles when you open the lid while your machine is agitating. If you have a front loading machine with no window to see into the machine while it's running you can try to feel your diapers after the cycle to see if they're still soapy. 
4. There are two different products out there to use for mineral build up from hard water, etc, if you should need them. RLR and Calgon. Look online or in your local grocery stores to find them and then just follow the laundry instructions. If any questions, please feel free to email me.

Detergents, detergents, which detergents.......? 

Like with anything else, there are different detergents that you should stay away from(both mainstream and environmentally friendly ones) and those that have been shown to clean beautifully. I usually recommend using one that has been made specifically for cloth diapers to avoid some of the detergent problems down the road. There are several to choose from. Thirsties and bumGenius! are the two that I offer.
Those to steer clear of, especially if using Happy Heinys(these are on their website as brands they don't recommend, and the use of them will void their warranties), are: All free clear, Charlie's, Bio-Kleen, Sportwash, Sensi-Clean, Dreft, Dr. Bronner's Soap, 7th Generation, and IvorySnow. Sportwash and Sensi-Clean can potentially cause burn like reactions on baby's skin, so they are very strongly advised against. The top two environmentally friendly brands recommended by Happy Heinys are Country Save, and Allens Naturally. The mainstream detergent found to be the best by Happy Heinys is Tide.

 

I've tried to hit on the most important and basic things. There is a lot of information out there about caring for your cloth diapers because everyone has their own preferred detergent, and methods for dealing with problems. You will also run into varying opinions when it comes to using products such as bleach, Oxyclean, and Bac Out. My suggestion is to follow the care instructions from the company that made the diaper you've purchased, and to only worry about additional cleaning methods only if you have issues. The companies all typically have their own instructions about washing their diapers and you don't want to void your warranty by doing something they would advise against.One thing that is a constant though, is that diaper rash cream(such as desitin or A/D) should never be used. If it gets onto the diaper it won't ever wash out. There are diaper rash remedies that are safe to use with cloth diapers and are wonderful for baby's bottom.