PSA: Cloth Diapers

LittleLady77

We line dry half of our cloths already (seriously DH is a freak about it) so I'm sure we will have no problem line drying the diapers too.

pdilly2b

Chiming in with my wash routine too. I have a front loader LG and use Country Save powder detergent. Wash diapers every 3 days generally.

Throw everything in, put detergent in the detergent slot and about 1/4 c white vinegar in the pre-rinse slot (optional, but makes them smell fresh, in my opinion).

Turn dial to regular/cottons. Bump up temp to hot. Select pre-rinse and 3 additional rinses (only 1 prob necessary, but my washer lets me to 3 so I do).

Hit start.

Line dry part outsides of pocket diapers and the wet bags. Hot dryer for diaper innards.

pdilly2b

I'm prob in the minority, but I hate plant wise wet bags, or any wet bags with 2 layers. Drives my nuts that one layer goes inside out and the other right ride in. My favs for the house are rumparoo wet bags and the medium size Bummis to sent to daycare or for the diaper bag. Both are only 1 layer.

Love CJs Butter too. Use the tubs at home and sent a stick to daycare, or else they'd go through it too fast. Works great on cuts and scrapes also.

DS's poop never got solid so we used disposable liners (Bummis large from amazon) once we started solids. They were a life saver for our family.

LittleLady77

@pdilly2b did you ever get a diaper sprayer or just the liners? Did the liners catch most of the poop? What did you do when you had blowouts? Liners seem like such a good option to me. Thanks!

pdilly2b

LittleLady77 said:

@pdilly2b did you ever get a diaper sprayer or just the liners? Did the liners catch most of the poop? What did you do when you had blowouts? Liners seem like such a good option to me. Thanks!

This all really depends on the consistency of your kid's poop. DS is a vegetarian and eats 4-5 servings of fruit and roughly the same of vegetables a day so it's a watery mess with loose chunks of veggies every time. Also had a reaction to cheese for a long time so that wasn't an option to solid it up. He pooped like 4 times/day until he was past 2. (Sorry, TMI) All not necessarily the norm and you won't know what you'll be dealing with in advance.

So scooping or plopping for us would be impossible. We do have a sprayer that I used rarely when the mess just entended beyond the boundaries of the liners or we didn't spread the liner out enough, but we could have gotten away without one. The cloth diapers have always contained the poop pretty well. The times we had to do disposables bc DS was on antibiotics led to blow outs almost every time.

amhah09

LittleLady77 said:

Other CDing moms... Is this wash cycle typical for you?

That wash routine is ridiculous. AND Charlie's soap is not recommended. You only need to do one rinse before the wash cycle (to rinse off the gunk so you're not washing in dirty water) - I do one quick wash in warm water. Then I use Tide powder - normal scoop of detergent per load size - on a heavy duty wash (extra water for my HE) with an extra rinse. That's all you need. Hang dry or throw in the dryer - whatever your preference.

If you have Facebook I STRONGLY recommend checking out the group The Cloth Diaper Compendium. It's fabulous for getting good knowledge on wash/detergents/etc. Most skin issues and stink issues are caused by inadequate wash routines.

Rrrrrachel

Charlie's soap is fine for cloth diapers. Lots of people use it.

amhah09

MamaFantastic said:

LittleLady77 said:

I have a front load washer... Will that work?

of course it will work!  but it won't be as ideal as a top loader.  those who have HE front loaders sometimes report more stink issues, or issues with needing to use extra rinses.  it honestly really depends on how fancy your washer is.  if you can initiate a setting that adds more water, you're much better off than those who have simpler machines (like mine) that don't have an extra water option.  that's why i chose to artificially dump more water into each of my loads... it just ended up being better even though it was annoying to do it every single time.


Ever since I stopped using tiny amounts of CD-safe "detergent" (really that wouldn't clean my clothes, let alone my dirty diapers) and used actual detergent I've not had an issue. I don't have to add water but I do use the heavy setting. There is no such thing as detergent buildup contrary to popular belief so the problem with stink and rashes arises when people don't use ENOUGH detergent.

Rrrrrachel

Lots if detergents leave residues. It's part of how they work. Optical brightened, for example, are a residue that's left behind that reflects light. It stands to reason that over time those residues can build up.

amhah09

Rrrrrachel said:

Charlie's soap is fine for cloth diapers. Lots of people use it.

It's caused a lot of chemical burns and it's not as effective in actually washing diapers. A lot of people that use it complain of rashes/burns and barnyard stink. But if it works for you then more power to you. It is advised against though.

Rrrrrachel

By who? Because lots of websites that sell cloth diapers, like green mountain diapers, recommend it very highly. Charlie's itself does not cause chemical burn. It can't, because it actually doesn't leave any residue. What can cause rashes is residue from old detergents in your machine or on your clothes and diapers that get loosened and then re deposited on diapers. Or, since Charlie's doesn't leave a residue to "seal away" bacteria like other detergents, if you don't disinfect often enough that can cause issues.

But it can't cause chemical burns because it doesn't leave any chemical residue behind to come in Conact with skin. 

amhah09

Rrrrrachel said:

Lots if detergents leave residues. It's part of how they work. Optical brightened, for example, are a residue that's left behind that reflects light. It stands to reason that over time those residues can build up.

Not so much that it's necessary to use too little detergent/too much water. This is all debunked in TCDC FB group. Problems with barnyard stink and rashes arise when the wash routine is inadequate - as in not enough detergent, not too much detergent. Most people with those issues are using too little detergent and/or too much water. The water/detergent ratio should be the same as your clothes. They still need to agitate together and they need enough detergent to clean them.

ETA - water/detergent/load size * holds the same as a load of clothes would. Hope that clarifies what I was saying.

Rrrrrachel

I don't think residue has anything to do it ith using too much detergent, so we agree there, but it's nonsense to say most detergents don't leave residue, that's how they soften and brighten clothes, not to mention fragrance. It's also why if you wash with no additional detergent you generally will get bubbles, anyway, because of residue on that you're washing and your machine.

MamaFantastic

amhah09 said:

Ever since I stopped using tiny amounts of CD-safe "detergent" (really that wouldn't clean my clothes, let alone my dirty diapers) and used actual detergent I've not had an issue. I don't have to add water but I do use the heavy setting. There is no such thing as detergent buildup contrary to popular belief so the problem with stink and rashes arises when people don't use ENOUGH detergent.

we're going to have to agree to disagree here.  sure, barnyard stink does arise from using too little detergent, but i never dealt with that... i dealt with ammonia stink, which is a direct effect of detergent buildup interacting with the urine.  best way to eliminate ammonia stink is to use the appropriate (read: limited and carefully measured) amount of the right detergent, and rinse rinse rinse.

gotta be brutally honest - your facebook CD group sounds very cult-ish and paranoid.

Rrrrrachel

I used this chart for detergent when we first got started.

https://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/detergentchoices.htm

It's a huuuuge variety of detergents, including lots that you can find at your regular old grocery store.  It also specifies what ingredients each detergent has or doesn't have that they consider problematic. 

amhah09

Rrrrrachel said:

By who? Because lots of websites that sell cloth diapers, like green mountain diapers, recommend it very highly. Charlie's itself does not cause chemical burn. It can't, because it actually doesn't leave any residue. What can cause rashes is residue from old detergents in your machine or on your clothes and diapers that get loosened and then re deposited on diapers. Or, since Charlie's doesn't leave a residue to "seal away" bacteria like other detergents, if you don't disinfect often enough that can cause issues.

But it can't cause chemical burns because it doesn't leave any chemical residue behind to come in Conact with skin. 

Lots of those websites also recommend using a ridiculous amount of detergent to clean your diapers.

Charlie's has some caustic ingredient that messes with the pH or something, I don't recall specifically the issue. I do know that there are also several websites out there that advise against it as well as TCDC group and I've seen many moms complain about chemical burns with that detergent.

I've never used it so I can't speak from personal experience and I'm not invested enough to care but from what I've seen it's not recommended and I'll just leave it at that since I don't have specifics to give. I guess, like all things CD related, the best advice is if it works for you (as in the general CD population, not you specifically) then leave it alone - "if it's not broken, don't fix it" kind of approach, I guess.

My personal experience with CD safe detergents is mostly limited to RNG and I did have rashes/burns/barnyard stink with that. I've had zero issues since finding more info in TCDC group and switching my wash routine and using Tide instead.

amhah09

Rrrrrachel said:

I don't think residue has anything to do it ith using too much detergent, so we agree there, but it's nonsense to say most detergents don't leave residue, that's how they soften and brighten clothes, not to mention fragrance. It's also why if you wash with no additional detergent you generally will get bubbles, anyway, because of residue on that you're washing and your machine.

I didn't mean that it doesn't leave any residue just that the detergent buildup that causes people to use too little detergent is actually not a problem.

amhah09

MamaFantastic said:

amhah09 said:

Ever since I stopped using tiny amounts of CD-safe "detergent" (really that wouldn't clean my clothes, let alone my dirty diapers) and used actual detergent I've not had an issue. I don't have to add water but I do use the heavy setting. There is no such thing as detergent buildup contrary to popular belief so the problem with stink and rashes arises when people don't use ENOUGH detergent.

we're going to have to agree to disagree here.  sure, barnyard stink does arise from using too little detergent, but i never dealt with that... i dealt with ammonia stink, which is a direct effect of detergent buildup interacting with the urine.  best way to eliminate ammonia stink is to use the appropriate (read: limited and carefully measured) amount of the right detergent, and rinse rinse rinse.

gotta be brutally honest - your facebook CD group sounds very cult-ish and paranoid.


Well it's not a group that I'm intimately involved in so I don't mind you saying that. All I know is that I've found valuable information there and have had zero issues since following the advice given there as well as many other moms. It's a group that I only joined when I was having issues with my wash routine - thinking I couldn't get enough water or what have you. Like any other resource I find helpful I recommend. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind on washing or detergents, I'm only passing on info I've learned. I really don't care that much to argue about it though so I'm closing TB out again for tonight.

Rrrrrachel

Charlies doesn't have caustic ingredients, that's ridiculous. And even if it did it RINSES COMPLETELY AWAY. This has been verified by independent third party testing. Nothing is left to cause "chemical burns." "Barnyard stink" is a new term on me, so we'll have to agree to disagree on detergent build up, I guess. I just know what I can see, smell, and feel on clothes and diapers that have been washed in regular detergent. I think it's more a function of type of detergent than amount.

JoelleOK

The brand of CD that I use, Rumparooz from Kanga Care, recommends no direct sun light. Please check with your brand of diaper for recommended care instructions, especially if they are under warranty. However I have seen sunlight really take out stains!

I like to add a little bit of white vinegar to the first "rinse" cycle. However I do an extra long wash cycle for that so they're "washed" with vinegar then rinsed. Then I do another extra long wash cycle with regular tide. Sometimes I'll add a plain rinse cycle to the end. I wash about every 2-3 days. Not all types of waterproof fabric are safe to use with vinegar.