Caring for Cloth

Choosing Your Detergent

This is one of the most important decisions you will make regarding cloth diapers!  Most people give up on cloth diapering because they get fed up with stains, stink, and complicated wash/stripping routines.  Choosing the right detergent and using a solid wash routine such as the one described below can help you avoid all of these issues.

So-called “cloth-diaper-safe” detergents and homemade detergents simply do not have the cleaning power needed to get cloth diapers truly clean in most situations.  These detergents mainly consist of a combination of water conditioners/laundry boosters – but they lack strong enough (or sufficient amounts of) surfactants to effectively clean diapers.  While sparing you the biology lesson, I will just point out that surfactants are the most crucial part of a detergent as one end of their molecule is attracted to water while the other end is attracted to grease and grime.  Therefore, surfactants draw the soil out of dirty laundry and into the water to be rinsed away without it re-depositing on the clothing.  Another important ingredient “cloth-diaper-safe” and homemade detergents lack are enzymes.  Enzymes help break down fats and proteins – both of which are found in human waste.

So skip the homemade and so-called “cloth-diaper-safe” detergents and choose a mainstream detergent.  You can use any mainstream detergent that works well for your clothing as long as it does not contain fabric softeners (i.e. Tide with a Touch of Downy).  If you have soft or only very slightly hard water, there are many mainstream detergents that will work well for you since the softer your water is, the better it cleans.  As you go up the water hardness scale, you will need a stronger detergent (and more of it).  Our #1 recommendation here at Dipes ‘n’ Duds is Tide.  Tide is one of the strongest detergents available and is consistently a top-rated detergent by various consumer groups.  From personal experience, I can tell you I have used Tide for nearly two years and have never had a single stain and my diapers smell great.  My diapers also look brand new – no premature breakdown of fabrics or elastics – and I have never had any repelling issues.  Other top detergent choices among cloth diapering parents include Gain and Arm & Hammer.  One other thing to note when choosing a detergent is that powdered detergent rinses out more easily than liquid, so many people prefer powdered detergent; however, some find that, based on their water type and washing machine, liquid ultimately works better for them.  Finding the perfect detergent for you might take a bit of trial and error, but just remember you are cleaning heavily soiled laundry – so stick to a strong mainstream detergent without fabric softener and you should be on your way to cleaner diapers!

 

Washing Instructions

*If you exclusively breastfeed your baby, his diapers can go directly into the wash – no dunking/swishing or spraying necessary.  If your baby is formula-fed or is eating solids, soiled diapers will need to be emptied into the toilet and, depending on any remaining residue, may need to be sprayed or dunked/swished before going into the wash.

 

1) Select your water-level

The old belief was that you should always use the highest water-level setting as possible – but this just isn’t true.  Washing machines rely heavily on the use of agitation and friction (clothes rubbing together) to get clothes clean.  If you use too much water, your diapers will simply be swishing through soapy water and will not get thoroughly cleaned.  Too little water, on the other hand, and there will not be enough water to carry away all of the soil lifted out of your diapers and it will be re-deposited on them when the water drains.  So choose the same water-level setting you would choose for a similarly-sized load of clothing.

 

2) Pre-rinse

A pre-rinse is necessary to remove the majority of the pee/poo from the diapers prior to the “real” wash so they will be washed in cleaner water.  I personally use a warm pre-rinse as I have found, especially during the newborn stage, that it seems to dissolve any soil better than cold – but many people use a cold pre-rinse with no problems.

 

3) Long heavy-duty wash with detergent

Cloth diapers are heavily-soiled laundry, so choose the wash cycle with the strongest agitation (i.e. Cotton/Sturdy, Heavy Duty, etc) and use the same amount of a strong mainstream detergent (see Choosing Your Detergent above) you would use for a similarly-sized load of heavily soiled clothing.

 

4) Extra rinse(s) if necessary

You want to make sure you have thoroughly rinsed the detergent out of your diapers; however, if you have very hard water, an extra rinse might be unnecessary and can actually deposit minerals from the water onto your diapers.  Check your rinse cycle from Step 3 and only do an extra rinse if you see a lot of soapy suds (not to be confused with agitation bubbles, which will pop soon after agitation stops).  Another indication you might need to be doing an extra rinse is if you start to notice a lot of soapy suds during your pre-rinse – indicating the diapers still had detergent in them from their previous washing.