Cloth Diaper Laundry - Cleaning How-To's

You get your brand new cloth diapers and you are raring to go and try them out on your little one's bum. Well, not so fast!

A lot of people forget that an important step in the longterm performance of your cloth diapers is pretreating them to a few washings prior to using them. Brand new diapers made from cotton need to be stripped of the oil that is naturally produced by the cotton, in order for your diapers to absorb well and not leak.

How do I pretreat my babies cloth diapers?

The easiest way is to run them through a wash cycle of hot water about 5 or 6 times. Do not add any detergent to these cycles, but feel free to add a few drops of Tea Tree Oil or even Lavender Oil, which both help strip the natural oils or additives in the fabrics and make the load smell like heaven! You can chose to dry the diapers between cycles if you'd like to nicely "fluff" up the cloth. This is especially useful if you are using prefolds.

Or...

If you have the time and the large pots, you can boil your cloth diapers for about 10 minutes, also with a few drops of the tea tree and/or lavender oils.

Wet Pail is when you have a diaper pail filled with water for your diapers to soak in prior to doing the wash. The Wet Pail Method acts like a pre-soak for your diapers, and some people believe that it prevents any stains from setting in.

Fill the bucket about half full with water, and add a half cup of baking soda and a few drops of tea tree and/or lavender oil to the water. Make sure you get a reasonably sized pail, as you don't want to be lifting a bucket full of heavy water. An example of an appropriate type pail would be one of those square buckets for bulk laundry detergent or pet food (with the lid).

NOTE: If washing diapers at home it is ESSENTIAL that your wet pail has a locking lid on it for the safety of your child!

In general, keep this pail out of reach of your children.

If you have a top-loading machine, and don't do laundry everyday, you have the option of using your washing machine as a "wet pail". Basically, you fill your machine with cold water on the "low" setting and add a half cup of baking soda with tea tree or lavender oils. Each time you remove your baby's diaper, you make sure any large poops are deposited into the toilet, then take it to the washer, drop it in, and close the lid. After about 2 days, you either want to wash your diapers, or you can drain the water and fill it with fresh cold water for another day or so.

One of the most important things about washing your cloth diapers, is choosing a suitable detergent. You want a detergent without dyes, fragrances, or fabric softener. Any of these additives can and will decrease the absorbency of your cloth diapers causing them to leak, because they will leave a film or oil on the fabric.

Also, you want to use about half the amount you would normally use for a regular load. For example, if you are washing a large sized load, only measure out half of the detergent the manufacturer recommends to use for a large load.

A great comprehensive reference for what types of detergents are best to use with cloth can be found at Detergent Chart for Cloth Diapering Laundry Success

If you Dry Pail:
Empty the contents of your dry pail into the washer, and also throw in your laundry bag/liner.

If you Wet Pail:
Empty the wet pail into the washer and spin the contents down during a Cold rinse cycle.

If you Washer Pail:
Spin the contents down during a Cold rinse cycle.

Continuation for all Methods:
After emptying your pails, start out with a fresh Cold pre-wash or Cold rinse cycle. Feel free to add a half cup of baking soda during the pre-wash if you like. The Cold rinse will prevent stains from setting. After your pre-wash cycle, add your detergent and run your laundry through a Hot wash and Cold rinse cycle. I like to rinse twice, so I run my diapers one more time through a rinse cycle and add a cup of vinegar to balance the pH and soften the diapers.

After the final rinse cycle, throw your diapers into the dryer for a Hot cycle (with NO fabric softener), and you are all done!