Easy, Effective Cloth Diaper Care

Caring for cloth diapers is EASY.  I repeat: EASY.  There's a bit of a learning curve, but once you get into a routine, it's actually fun. And easy. And good for baby. And better for the planet. And did I mention easy?

When we decided to cloth diaper, so many people made comments like: 

"I give you a month!"

"It's too hard!"

 "I remember cloth diapering my kids (who are now grown), it was such a pain."

"Your house is going to stink!"

"Ain't nobody got time for that." - kidding. 

So far, I have proven all of the naysayers wrong. I absolutely love cloth diapering. They are cute, easy and better for the planet.  

You might say that I am addicted. We have spent quite a bit of money on our stash, probably a total of $350-400 on diapers for our two kids over the past four years. However, we can generally recoup 50-75% of the new cost when the selling items we are no longer using or don't like like used on diaper swap boards/at a local diaper consignment sale - in total we've probably made $100 back. Besides, that's nothing compared to the cost of disposable diapers.  

I get asked all of the time for cloth diaper troubleshooting tips. After battling yeast and ammonia stink issues when our daughter was in diapers, I tried pretty much every tip and trick for washing and stripping diapers and preventing these issues from returning.

Disclaimers: 

• I have no affiliation with Thirsties©, Fuzzibunz©, Kawaii, Gro-via©, Country Save detergent or Biokleen™ Bac-out, I just love their products.  However, if they want to send me free products, I would not turn them away.

• We have tried several cloth diaper safe and free & clear detergents over the years. There's a great guide to detergents available at pinstripesandpolkadots.com. No matter what we try, we keep returning to Country Save - it's cheap, clean rinsing, effective and safe for the planet. Every time I try something else, we have problems, even if I follow the new company's instructions for soaking/stripping or use for diapers.


• We have a really old top load washer - that may be the key. Not sure how to troubleshoot using a high efficiency or front load model.  We are waiting to get a fancy model once our son is out of diapers.

• We currently use a combination of prefold diapers with PUL (polyester with urethane) covers (we like Thirsties Duo Wraps), one size pocket diapers with microfiber, bamboo and hemp inserts (we like Fuzzibunz One Size Elite and Kawaii One Size Snazzy Minky, Goodnight Heavy Wetter and Mom Label Bamboo pockets the best) and all-in-two hybrids - reusable covers with organic cotton snap-in liners (We have the Grobaby system, which is now called Gro-via).  Most of our troubleshooting relates to pockets and removing build-up from dreaded microfiber inserts. 

• We have pretty hard water and focus on getting our diapers clean first and preventing/treating issues second.

• I would love to start making my own detergent, but that does not fit in my time budget as a full time working mom.

• Not all of my solutions are 100% granola crunchy.  I try to limit the use of chemicals in our home, as I and my kids have extremely sensitive skin, but sometimes bleach is the only thing that works.

Our Washing Routine:

• We use a large wet bag as our diaper pail at home and take a pail liner bag to daycare (they use a small trash can for our pail) every day.

• We don't use any products on our dipes before laundering except for spraying Biokleen Bac-out on poopy diapers. This is a natural enzyme cleaner that kills bacteria, so if you have issues with poopy smelling diapers coming out of your washer/dryer, it is a good product to try. This is also a great product for potty training carpet cleaning and getting cat urine out of carpet.
  
  Note: some people are sensitive to enzymes, if your baby is one of those people, don't use this or add an extra rinse.

• We wash diapers every 2-3 days. We have a fairly large stash, but I find that if our diapers sit longer than this, I have to work harder to battle ammonia issues, and I don't like to work harder. 

• Poopy diapers get rinsed immediately or as soon as we get the wet bag home from day care. We do not have a diaper sprayer, but use the dunk, swish and flush method of rinsing goopy newborn poop and use the plop and swish method of rinsing solid food poop. If you are faint of heart or grossed out by poop, you may want to buy or make a diaper sprayer.

• Overnight pee diapers get rinsed in the morning (when we have time/remember), to reduce ammonia build up. This is extremely important once your little one starts sleeping through the night, as your diapers will sit with urine in them for several hours.

• We wash on hot with a cold rinse and then move the dial back to rinse again on cold. I try to do the extra rinse before the washer's spin cycle starts, but sometimes I: 1. am lazy, 2. forget, 3. don't make it. It's really not a big deal, just a bit of extra energy. If I have used bleach or oxy clean in my main cycle, I run another full wash cycle on cold to ensure that it is all rinsed out of my diapers.
• I use about a half scoop of Country Save detergent on a full load of diapers, less if I have a smaller load. If I start having ammonia issues I start with a quarter scoop and add more if my dipes aren't getting clean.

• I typically wash my diapers on the highest water setting and longest wash setting available.  Fortunately for me, that is one cycle on my machine.

• I typically dry inserts and prefolds in the dryer on medium high heat and line dry my shells and covers on a drying rack. I find that my shells and covers last longer and look nicer when line dried.

• Once per month, I use about 1/4 cup of bleach or 1/2 a scoop of oxygen bleach in my hot wash cycle. I then do an entire cold wash cycle to ensure that all of it is rinsed from the diapers. This has almost eliminated the need for me to strip my diapers and helps remove stains and funky smells.

Easy Diaper Stripping:

Since moving to an area of the country with hard water, we have had to adjust our routine to include occasional (about 3-4 times per year) stripping to remove ammonia build up and keep our clean diapers smelling fresh and our babies' bottoms rash free. Ammonia build up is exacerbated by two things hard water (which we can't get away from) and detergent residue. After having tried about 30 different methods of stripping diapers, including soaking, special stripping detergents, dawn dish soap, and even boiling, we have developed the following routine that works for us.

• Hot water stripping - this is the easiest method available. We turn the water heater up to about 140 degrees about 30 minutes before we strip and wash on hot as normal. Then, we wash on hot with no detergent until there are no suds visible in the water when you open the lid. Sometimes we do this more than once if there are still suds.
  
  Note: Remember to turn your water heater back down again, both to save the planet and any little fingers in your home from getting burned by accident.

• Blue Dawn stripping - If we still have ammonia after a hot water strip, we'll then do a Dawn stripping. We use the original blue Dawn liquid dish soap (not dishwasher soap). It's important to not use any of the versions with a lot of additive or special properties. I have tried to use natural dish soaps like Green and Method, but they don't work as well.  To do a Dawn strip wash your diapers as normal.  After the rinse cycle is complete (but before the spin if you want), set your washer back to wash and wash on hot with a squirt of Dawn. Then rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse until you see no suds. 

Prevention:

• After we get rid of ammonia, we use 1/4 cup of bleach about once a month in our wash cycle to help preventing it from coming back. I hate using it, but it really works and it is cheap.

• If ammonia comes back, I reduce the amount of detergent I am using and start rinsing the diapers on warm instead of hot, as I think warm does a better job of getting detergent out.  

Happy diapering!