Dirty Laundry - How to Wash Cloth Diapers

One of the biggest concerns of people when considering cloth diapering is how to clean them. If you don't have to consider cleaning them they are just as easy as using disposables. Since many of us were diapered using disposables, we haven't had the generational wisdom passed down to us on how to launder diapers, and are pretty clueless.

The good news is if you are exclusively breastfeeding you don't have to worry about doing anything with the poo. You just throw the soiled diaper in your wet bag and wash it because breast fed poo is water soluble.

The bad news is once you start on solids or if you are formula feeding you need to shake off the poo into the toilet before watching. Using flush-able diaper liners or a diaper sprayer can be helpful with this. I have heard of some people having a designated "poop spatula", but this method is not for me.

Since college I knew that I wanted to cloth diaper. But it remained a nebulous idea, until I became pregnant; then I realized if I was actually going to cloth diaper I was going to have to do some research and educate myself on it. I spent a lot of time researching cloth diapers, and consider myself an expert on the topic now, not just because of research, but because now one year into raising a cloth diapered baby, I have experimented a lot and learned what works and what doesn't.

One option you can keep in mind is having a diaper service, they will pick up your soiled diapers and drop off cleaned diapers. Personally, I could never get on the used diaper bandwagon - it just grosses me out putting something on my daughter that other babies have pooed and peed in.

If you can't afford or don't want to use a diaper service there are certain steps you can add to your washining routine to sanitize your diapers. Though I had read up on other peoples diaper washing routines and had decided that cold water rinse, hot water wash, cold water rinse, dry in the dryer was the way to go, I noticed after we started solids that the diapers would stink when I was drying them in the dryer, a nasty fishy smell. Some sites said that if this is happening then it is probably a problem with the detergent, either you are using too much and the detergent is not being fully rinsed out or you are using to little and it is not enough detergent to fully clean the diapers. At the time I was using Rockin Green Classic Rock (yes I had done a water hardness strip test to select the appropriate formula for my water). In desperation, I  switched detergents to Charlies.  This improved the situation a little, but the diapers were still smelling.

So if you are suffering with stinky diapers, here are a few things which have worked for me:

Vinegar
Use vinegar in the final rinse (warning you want to remove any PUL covers or AIO diapers with PUL). You could also use bleach, but it is hard on fabric and will decrease the lifespan of your diapers.

Sun
Sun your diapers. The ultraviolet light from the sun kills germs. Also diapers take a really long time to dry in the dryer; you could cut down on your electricity bill by sunning them. I like to do this every few washes to sanitize mine.  The sun also helps remove some of the poo stains; it is especially effective with EBF poo.

Hot water
If you have control over your water heater you could also increase it so that the hot water gets to 140-150 degrees (the temperature required to kill germs). Although, this route could be dangerous when you are bathing the lil one. Heating some hot water in an electrical kettle and adding it to the washing machine is another option.

In case you are interested in my diaper laundry routine here it is:

1. Do a cold water rinse to get rid of any poo or pee that was not rinsed off. 
2. Hot water wash with two tablespoons of Charlie's laundry detergent.
3. Remove the PUL diaper covers at this point (vinegar breaks down their absorbency so I just line dry them)
4. Run a final rinse adding between 1/2 to 1 cup vinegar (depending on load size) to the rinse water and let it soak at least one hour and sometimes overnight.
5. Hang outside on clothesline in the sun to dry.
6. Finish up with 10-15 minutes in the dryer to soften the diapers up.

Sometimes I skip step 5 if I am in a hurry to dry my diapers and sometimes I am lazy and skip step 6 and just deal with diapers that are a little stiff.