Bleach?

ivyvines6

I've been reading manufacturers warnings on a lot of cloth diapers, and they mostly reccomend using bleach once a month for sanitation purposes. I'm highly allergic, and use vinegar or lemon juice in my laundry. Is that really going to affect the diapers longevity? Because bleach has eaten through more clothes in my lifetime than vinegar or lemon juice ever have.

I'm also nervous about using bleach because the allergy runs in my family. Any input would be appreciated!

lionstigersbears

Bleach can be a necessary evil, but it's true, is rough on diapers. Once per month to avoid even more rigorous stripping and sanitizing is generally thought to outweigh the cons. The sun is a great natural sanitizer, and I've heard vinegar in the rinse works just as well. Don't do any of these things every time though, it's more of a maintenance thing!
Edited for typo

freezorburn

IME you don't need to bleach routinely if your wash routine is working. I've been cloth diapering for over 3 years now, and never used bleach until this past summer's heat wave caused a lot of stink in my diaper pail. 

usernametaken1

When ever our covers came out less than clean smelling or I felt our prefolds needed to be sanitized, I dropped a bit of "odo-ban" in the wash. Hasn't torn anything up, doesn't bother my skin (I'm allergic to everything!) and even my birth center uses it to sanitize counters, floors, and what not.

They sell it at Costco and probably other places. It's about $10 a gallon and super concentrated so it lasts forever.

MynaBird

freezorburn said:

IME you don't need to bleach routinely if your wash routine is working. I've been cloth diapering for over 3 years now, and never used bleach until this past summer's heat wave caused a lot of stink in my diaper pail. 

This. In two years of cloth diapering, I've never used bleach, and I've never had stink issues. Get your wash routine dialed in and you should be fine. We use Biokleen Bac-Out to pretreat, which also helps prevent staining and stink.

lionstigersbears

MynaBird said:

freezorburn said:

IME you don't need to bleach routinely if your wash routine is working. I've been cloth diapering for over 3 years now, and never used bleach until this past summer's heat wave caused a lot of stink in my diaper pail. 

This. In two years of cloth diapering, I've never used bleach, and I've never had stink issues. Get your wash routine dialed in and you should be fine. We use Biokleen Bac-Out to pretreat, which also helps prevent staining and stink.

Agreed! Should have shared that I only had to use bleach before I switched to Tide and really figured out how much I needed each load. Prior to that I was using Charlie's with very hard water, tried the booster and everything and still would have stink creep up every month or two. I haven't needed it since June now!

ivyvines6

Thank you everyone for the input! I'm assuming, because science, that living in Florida is going to require me to wash more frequently in this case?

freezorburn

Every other day is fine for the majority of situations. 

lionstigersbears

freezorburn said:

Every other day is fine for the majority of situations. 

Agreed. I find that I wash more frequently based on content of diapers more than anything. Things get....funkier sometimes. Weather doesn't influence as much, but I could see without AC it might be a contributing factor.

Chichigo

I only used bleach when my son had a yeast rash. 18 months since his last infection, no diaper issues with a good wash routine.

ivyvines6

Thank you everyone who commented on this!