Brand question and used protocol

dobbysmom

Hi everyone! I'm currently about 6 months pregnant and am building up my supply of cloth diapers. I'm personally leaning towards prefolds, my husband finds them a little daunting though. I found a really good sale of used diapers on my birth center group, a good mix of different brands and styles that looks perfect for a sampling starter set. So what do you do when you get new used diapers? Obviously clean them but anything extra? Should I strip them, sanitize them beyond just a hot wash? Give me all your knowledge lol.

Also these diapers aren't for newborns. I was looking at the Alva diapers because they do group sets and they have a newborn pack. I figure since my girl won't be in them a super long time it'd be worth it. Do you like the brand? Hate it? They don't look very bulky which is appealing to me.

Thanks for your responses. We're going to take a class at a local cloth diapering store pretty soon so we can get some hands on experience before our girl arrives but I love hearing from actual people too.

Have a great day!

mrshudson618

Alvas are generally considered good, especially for the price, but I don't know if that is the same for nb.

With used diapers it is always a good idea to wash with 1/4 cup bleach, and then rinse a lot.

dobbysmom

Awesome! Thanks.

Do you use bleach evn on the colored diapers? Or should I get a color safe bleach?

mrshudson618

Also, I wouldn't buy all one type/brand for nb, as you may not like the fit of one kind, or the type. With runny and frequent nb poop, lots of people prefer a prefold or fitted for nb.

A GMD workhorse fitted could be a good compromise for your husband instead of prefolds.

sarenu1

Yes, even on colors.

The key is to make sure it's diluted with the water. I've also done a bath tub soak for bleach. I fill it, add the bleach as I fill, and then add the diapers. I think the last time I only soaked for 15 minutes.

Then I rinse them off and throw them in with my other diapers.

runningyogimama

Many people don't like NB alvas, but u loved the ones I bought so much that I bought more. The NB crossover snaps are narrower than the aplix, which I had to twist the tabs to make work at all. And the MF inserts they come with are crap, so I would recommend buying either bamboo or blend inserts. And, like pp said, I wouldn't build an entire stash around one brand of diaper...if you hate it and it doesn't fit your baby right, it could make you hate CDing altogether.

TugboatSheila

Not to hijack but I have some used diapers too that I need to bleach to get any potential grossies out.

Would I go about my routine as normal and just add a 1/4 cup of bleach? So for example, cold rinse, hot wash with detergent and quarter cup of bleach, cold rinse (repeated cold rinse several times).

Or do you add the bleach to the prerinse?

jcwinsto

Bleach in the normal wash is what I do. It is longer than the pre rinse cycle. 

mrshudson618

JP27 said:

Not to hijack but I have some used diapers too that I need to bleach to get any potential grossies out.

Would I go about my routine as normal and just add a 1/4 cup of bleach? So for example, cold rinse, hot wash with detergent and quarter cup of bleach, cold rinse (repeated cold rinse several times).

Or do you add the bleach to the prerinse?

Normal wash. You wouldn't want to add it to the pre rinse with all the nasty water.

TugboatSheila

mrshudson618 said:

Not to hijack but I have some used diapers too that I need to bleach to get any potential grossies out.

Would I go about my routine as normal and just add a 1/4 cup of bleach? So for example, cold rinse, hot wash with detergent and quarter cup of bleach, cold rinse (repeated cold rinse several times).

Or do you add the bleach to the prerinse?

Normal wash. You wouldn't want to add it to the pre rinse with all the nasty water.

Thanks I will get on that soon then.