Cloth Diaper Laundering
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Since I am stripping diapers today, I thought I would share a little bit about how I deal with dirty diapers and cloth diaper laundering in general. The idea of washing your diapers can seem overwhelming or like a ton of work, but really it is not, and you get better and more efficient at it as time goes on.
My overall goal was to find to method that only requires me to wash diapers once every three days, and to only have to strip them once a month. Even when using detergent that is recommended for cloth diapers, which is a must, stripping diapers is a necessary part of the whole process.
Cloth diaper laundering isn’t hard, it just takes a little trial and error. This is what I discovered through my trial and error.
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On regular diaper washing days, I have found this method to work for me:
First of all, this is the detergent that I love:
Country Save HE Laundry Detergent, Powder, 160-Load, 10-lb Boxes (Pack of 4)
When it comes to the actual washing, these are the steps I follow:
- throw everything in together with the amount of detergent recommended for my washer and wash on a fast cycle, which is 30 minutes
- keep everything in there, add the same amount of detergent, and do a regular cycle on hot with an extra rinse
- do three additional rinses on cold
So, what is stripping, you ask?
Over time, the diapers get bacteria, soap, and other residue built up in them and it has to be taken care of. You will know this because they will stink, like ammonia, they may not absorb as well, and they may cause a diaper rash. Stripping diapers is a more time consuming process, so I don’t want to have to do this more than once a month.
As I mentioned in Cloth Diapering 101 – Supplies, I use a liner like this on to keep my dirty diapers in a trash can with a lid until it is time to wash them.
Ubbi Cloth Diaper Pail Liner, White
While having a trash can with a lid is nice, I discovered that the lid has to be kept open, otherwise bacteria just festers quicker and I needed to strip them more often because they get build-up in an enclosed environment.
I read that some people just throw any kind of dirty diaper in their method of storage until wash day. I quickly figured out that this did not work for me, again, because they got build-up too quickly and I needed to strip them more often.
I then tried only rinsing out the dirty ones, this didn’t work well for me either. I finally determined that I needed to rinse out every diaper liner and every diaper cover every time. Time consuming, maybe, but not nearly as time consuming as having to strip diapers more often.
When it came to stripping diapers, I settled on a time that was easy for me to remember, which is at the beginning of the month. So at the beginning of each month, I just strip diapers, regardless of if it seems that I need to. Otherwise, I end up waiting too long and end up with rash issues. In all reality, stripping diapers once a month is necessary for me.
This is the method I have found to work best for stripping my cloth diapers:
- wash all the inserts together using 1/3 cup bleach on hot, leaving all the other things completely out. Since I am using bleach this needs to be done on my “whites” cycle in order to utilize the bleach
- add all the covers, wipes, bags, and other things in, and use 1 tsp. BLUE dawn with vinegar in the rinse cup on hot for a regular wash cycle
- follow that up with seven rinses on cold. My rinse cycle is only 20 minutes so it doesn’t take as long as it sounds, but I do need to restart it every 20 minutes and keep track of how many I have done. Any less than seven will cause me to have to strip them earlier the following month
This method for diaper care can be a great place to start, but just pay attention to how your diapers are working, both for you and for your child, and that will tell you if modifications have to be made. In reality, it took me about six months to settle on this method in order to accomplish my goals of washing every three days and stripping once a month.
When it comes to cloth diaper laundering, your first step would be to establish what your goals are for laundering them, apply my method, and then see if you are able to reach your targeted goal. If not, adjust until you are able to achieve your desired result.
You will get there, I promise.
