washing your cloth diapers.

hello, people who are interested in diapers!

today was a diaper washing day at our house, and finn's cloth diapers are toasting happily in the sun right now getting all dry and white! :) so, i decided to post a little update on using cloth and specifically how i wash our diapers. 

first up, if you are interested, here are my previous blogs on getting started with cloth diapers and what we use:
cloth diapers- not just for hippies and mennonites.
and
the poo report- a cloth diaper update.

now that you're all caught up, i will move right along!

i'm happy to report that cloth diapering has actually become easier now that finn is on all solid foods.  (here's where i talk about poop).
his poo is now quite solid and very easy to dump straight into the toilet and flush without even leaving much of a trace on the diaper.  i don't need to use any sprayer or liner or anything like that to make removing the poo easier.  phew!  thank you, solid foods, for making diaper duty a breeze.

i store finn's used diapers in a large wet bag that hangs on the side of his changing table.  when it's time to wash them (usually every 3rd day), i toss everything into the washing machine, including the bag.

now, we don't have a fancy high efficiency washer and dryer.  we have your old standard run of the mill models.  so here is how dipe washing goes down at our place:

step 1: wash diapers on a full regular wash cycle on the temperature cold/cold
during this wash cycle i put nothing in the washing machine.  no detergent, no bleach, no nothing.
this cycle's purpose is to rinse the diapers of any debris that might be on them, and helps with stain fighting.

step 2: wash diapers on another full regular wash cycle on the temperature hot/cold
during this wash cycle i use one tablespoon of nellie's laundry soap.
once a month i also put in a 1/2 cup of bleach to sanitize the diapers.  it's not recommended to use bleach more than once a month.

(for a long time i did not use nellie's laundry soap, i used whatever free and clear detergent was on sale at target.  this included all, tide, and arm and hammer.  i can honestly tell you that i had problems with the diapers leaking when i used these detergents.  i didn't really believe that you had to use the recommended detergents, i thought that this was just a ploy for the cloth diaper companies to get you to buy their products or their friends products, but in fact, it is not.  definitely use the recommended detergent for your cloth diapers.  nellie's is really great, and i like it so much that i use it for all of our laundry now!


another side note, when i was having problems with my diapers leaking because of using the other detergents, i "stripped" my diapers to remove any residue or build up left over from the detergents before i started using the nellie's laundry soap.  stripping your diapers is very easy.  all you do is wash them on a hot cycle with a tablespoon of dawn blue dish soap.  then you keep rinsing them until the water runs clear and has no suds.  this will get your diapers back to where they need to be.)

step 3: run an extra rinse-only cycle on the temperature cold
this just rinses your diapers one extra time to make sure there is no remaining soap in them.

tada! now your diapers are nice and clean!  when your diapers come out of the wash they should smell like nothing.  if they smelly musty or still like pee or like detergent or anything else then retrace your steps because you might have goofed somewhere.

the next step is drying your diapers. 

i use the bumgenius 4.0 diapers which involve an outer cover and a fabric insert.  two pieces.
here are some pictures for you:

cover on the left, insert on the right.

the insert stuffed into the pocket of the cover.

tada! complete diaper.

the lovely folks at bumgenius will wisely instruct you to "tumble" dry the inserts and "line" dry the covers.
well of course i didn't listen to them.  i didn't have a drying rack, and i thought it would be much easier to just throw everything in the dryer.  this worked out fine for quite a while.  then after about ten months of putting my diaper covers in the dryer with the inserts, i noticed a problem.  the reason you aren't supposed to dry the covers is because the high heat does something to the waterproof interior of the diaper pocket.  it like melts it or wears it out or something.  so a couple of my diapers started leaking straight through the fabric.  i quickly realized that this was from the dryer, made changes, and luckily i haven't lost any more diapers.

here's a photo example so you can see the inside part i'm talking about:

you can see the pocket where you "stuff" in the insert.  the top part is nice and soft and fleecy against your baby's butt.  but the inside part under the fleece should feel almost waxy.  it's waterproof.  well, after putting mine through the dryer so much, a few started to feel just like soft fabric.  problemo.

so, i bought a drying rack.  everything online said "oh your diaper covers will dry in no time if you just lay them out on a drying rack!" and i kind of thought, pshht, yeah right.  our house is pretty cold in the winter, and i thought for sure those suckers would have to be laying out on the drying rack for days.  but nope, it's true, they dry really really fast.  no time at all.  i promise.  definitely worth it to buy a ten dollar drying rack and lay your covers out to dry instead of putting them in your dryer.  they will last much longer that way.  also, if your baby has a massive blow out and you notice a bit of a stain on the nice white fleecy part of the inside of your diaper even after you've washed it, putting them outside to dry really works wonders.  the sun will bleach the stain right out. seriously!  even laying them in front of a sunny window does the trick too.

so, in summary,

step 4: air dry/ line dry diaper covers and put the inserts in the dryer.
one full regular heat drying cycle will dry all of your inserts.  i also put finn's cloth wipes and his wetbag in the dryer with the inserts and they all are dry after one run.  if it's nice outside, i will hang everything outside and they dry great outside too.  but the morale of the story is, don't get lazy and throw your diaper covers in the dryer.

that's it! four easy steps to clean and dry cloth diapers.  not to mention super cute, super earth and cost friendly, and super absorbent! 

now that i have worked out all of the kinks and learned a lot of good solutions in my cloth diapering journey, we really rarely use disposables.  i don't put him in a disposable to run errands anymore.  he is in cloth all of the time because i find they are much more absorbent and leakless.  we are still using the same cloth diapers that we've been using since finn was born, too!  i only lost two due to my dryer indiscretion, and the rest are doing great now that i'm using the correct routine.  i am certain these diapers will last finn through until he is potty training, and i really think they could go another round after that, too!

happy cloth diapering, folks! :)