How to Wash Cloth Diapers

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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Cloth diapers are an environmentally friendly, economical alternative to disposable diapers; they are also easier to care for than you might expect.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

Cloth Diapers
Mild Detergent
Vinegar
Baking Soda
Borax
Diaper Pins

Step1

Flush solid waste away. Some people use disposable liners inside cloth diapers to make this easier.

Step2

Put diapers in a pail half-filled with a mixture of water and 1/4 cup of vinegar or Borax, to control odor and to make stain removal easier. If you will be washing them frequently, you can also put them in a dry pail.

Step3

Soak diapers until you are ready to wash them, then drain excess liquid into the toilet. If necessary, use your spin cycle to help remove the soaking solution.

Step4

Wash your diapers in hot water.

Step5

Double-rinse in cold water ' add some vinegar to the second rinse cycle, to help freshen the diapers.

Step6

Check for stubborn stains before putting the diapers in the dryer; if you catch them before they set, you will be able to remove them more easily.

Step7

Dry the diapers on high heat in your dryer, or in direct sunlight if you like.

Tips & Warnings

Keep rubber gloves or a "diaper duck" near your toilet, to keep your hands clean when rinsing dirty diapers.
If your washing machine has a presoak cycle, try it. It helps to loosen stains before the actual wash cycle.
If you like, throw a cup of baking soda into the presoak cycle; it neutralizes the alkalinity of urine, and helps to whiten the diapers.
Sunshine is a great stain remover. Line drying your diapers from time to time will help keep them white and fresh-smelling.
Keep diaper pail out of reach of children - especially when filled with water and vinegar mixture.
Avoid heavily scented detergents that can irritate your baby's sensitive skin.
Avoid fabric softener in the dryer ' it can reduce the absorbency of your cloth diapers.
Avoid washing too many diapers at once ' an average washing machine can handle about two dozen diapers at a time, if you want to get them really clean.
Check the washing instructions for diaper covers and wraps carefully ' many of them need to be washed separately from diapers, and will not stay waterproof if you put them in the dryer.

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Comments

Anonymous said

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on 6/30/2006 So many mothers I talk to are intimidated by cloth diapers. The changing, the folding, the pinning, and of course, the laundering. But the truth of the matter is, laundering cloth diapers is easy!

When my kids were in diapers, there were cloth diapers in our house 24/7. I pinned, used rubber pants, and home laundered from start to finish.

First, now that you have removed that wet or dirty diaper from baby's bottom, what to do: If the diaper is wet, toss it into the diaper pail. If it's soiled, rinse, wring, and toss into diaper pail. Rinse the cloth diaper out in the toilet. I would sit on the edge of the bathtub beside the toilet, and while holding the diaper inside the toilet water with a good firm grip, I would flush the toilet and while the toilet water swirled around, I would dunk the diaper up and down in the swirling toilet water to flush the poop out of the diaper or diapers. I never used rubber gloves. Baby poop is baby poop. All part of being a mom.

With the diaper now rinsed, I gave it a quick twist to wring it out, then tossed it into the plastic diaper pail. Simple. Sometimes with extremely soiled cloth diapers, a little soaking time may be required to loosen the poop from the cotton diaper fabric. On just such occasions, I would plop the dirty diapers into the toilet bowl, and let them sit soaking for a while. Maybe 20 minutes or so. Then follow the steps as outlined above.

Now for diaper laundering. Once the diaper pail has 2-3 days of wet and dirty diapers inside of it, it's time to wash diapers. Note: Try not to exceed the 2-3 day time frame when cloth diaper laundering. Anything in excess of 2-3 days will put baby's diapers at risk of developing mold spots, called (Saprophytic fungi). Since I dry diaper pailed, meaning "no" wet solution inside the diaper pail, I simply dumped the entire contents of the diaper pail into the washing machine, and turned the washer on. A cup of laundry detergent, something mild such as Sunlight or Ivory, and ta-da! Freshly laundered diapers! On warm sunny days, it was out to the clothesline where everything got pinned up to dry.

One thing I should mention is rubber pants. I never, or seldom laundered the rubber pants in the washing machine. I found that the rubber pants lasted way longer if I hand washed and rinsed them, and pinned them up on the clothesline to dry.

Tip. If when you take your baby's diapers down off the clothesline and the diapers are a bit stiff, don't worry. You can soften and fluff them up again by tossing them into the clothes dryer on "air" cycle for a few minutes.

Final last hints and tips. Never use fabric softener on cloth diapers. It will prevent the diapers from absorbing properly, and makes diapers feel greasy. Never over dry cloth diapers. Over drying cloth diapers reduces the life of cloth diapers greatly, and makes the fabric hard and stiff. Use bleach sparingly. Bleach weakens fibers causing cloth diapers to wear out quickly!

Final word. Now quit worrying, and change your baby's cloth diapers with confidence, now that you know the basic "How to do" of cloth diaper laundering 101.

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 I have found that the diaper liners last longer if I just wipe them off with a baby wipe for the wet diapers. If the liners are soiled then I wash them right away. It saves on the wear and tear of the waterproof liners.

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 After a year of cloth diapering, this is what works best for me. For solid matter, shake or swish the diaper in the toilet. A "diaper duck" is a great item to have for this. If the diaper is poopy (i.e., of a breastfed baby), or really wet, I put it directly into the wash and run a rinse cycle so that it is relatively clean enough to wait for wash day.
On wash day, only put up to 24 diapers in the washing machine at once. Rinse them out on cold. Using 1 tbsp. detergent, run a hot cycle with an extra rinse on cold. Then run a full cycle again on cold with no detergent and another extra rinse. All the rinsing removes all the detergent which eliminates the chances of rashes or bad odors. Toss them in the dryer or line dry (the sun naturally removes stains).

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 I use vinegar for so many things. One of the best things I use it for is rinsing my vinyl floor. I get so many people asking me how I keep it so shiny. It works great. I also use it to clean my fridge. It helps with the odor.