Back to Basics
Basic Laundering Tips
Add a Nice Touch
Diaper Laundry No-No’s
Soap vs. Detergent

 

Back to Basics

There is really nothing fancy about getting diapers clean, white, and sanitized. The following items you will find at your favorite grocer. Most people do just fine with this basic list of products and techniques. If you find that you like a little more odor control and stain fighting power, or just want to make laundering diapers that much nicer for yourself and your whole family, check out our Add a Nice Touch section.

Detergent –Your favorite detergent may be just fine for laundering your diapers; but take a look at the ingredients first. Choose a detergent without phosphates, fabric softeners, or too strong a fragrance. Phosphates are dangerous for aquatic life when the laundry water enters water table, but nearly all laundry detergents are made without phosphates now. Fabric softeners and some fragrances add a residue that makes diapers repel moisture and diaper covers absorb it. So will too much detergent – so don’t overdo it, and never soak your diapers in detergent. Some natural laundry powders, such as Bi-O-Kleen Laundry Powder, are great with diapers and certain diaper covers. But pocket diapers such as Happy Heinys and Fuzzi Bunz should not be laundered with it or any other natural laundry powder. Always check with the washing instructions for your diaper covers before choosing a detergent. For more on detergents, see our article The Scoop on Soaps and Detergents.

*Always keep detergents out of reach of children! With the reduction of phosphates to help aquatic life, detergents are now more caustic and can cause serious burns if even a small amount is ingested. Liquid detergents are easier for little ones to swallow, so you may want to consider powdered detergents.

Baking Soda – We are big on baking soda! It is cheap, natural, and very effective! It will whiten your diapers and will neutralize odors without masking them with a perfume. Look for the big box in the baking section of your grocery store.

You can find Washing Soda in the laundry aisle – this works, too, but it has an even higher pH and is caustic – it can burn your skin if you come in contact with it. You should wear gloves if you handle it. Since baking soda does such a nice job, and is useful for so many things around the house, we recommend staying on the safe side and using it rather than its more potent cousin.

Distilled White Vinegar – Again, cheap, natural and easy! While the baking soda brings the pH of your laundry up to kill germs, vinegar brings it back down, killing more germs and balancing the pH back to a more neutral level. It is also a natural fabric softener that leaves no residue behind – especially useful for line-dried diapers.

Vinegar works best with hard water; if you have soft water the vinegar may react with minerals in the water and cause an acrid odor in your diapers – especially noticeable every time your child urinates in them! Do not use apple cider vinegar – it will leave a dingy brown hue to your diapers. You can find a big jug of white vinegar in the condiments aisle at the grocery store – usually on the lowest level.

Basic Cloth Diaper Laundering Tips :

Fasten Any Velcro Tabs – For the sake of the Velcro and all the other laundry items it might come up against in the washer and/or dryer, always fasten the tabs. Velcro likes to stick to other things, and it can snag your other diapers, as well as become full of various fibers, making it less effective as a secure tab. It’s not much fun to sort through your dirty diapers to fasten tabs – so we recommend you do it when you first throw your wrap into the diaper pail.

 

 

Add a Nice Touch

In the course of our diapering journey, we have discovered some products and ideas that have made laundering diapers just a little bit nicer. Some of the following will cost you a few pennies, some a few dollars, and some will just cost you a little more personal energy. None of these products or techniques are necessary to get your diapers clean or white or sanitized. But we sure love them! We sell most of the following at Punkin Butt; others you can find at your grocery store or local health foods store.

Bac-Out Stain & Odor Eliminator - Made by Bi-O-Kleen, Bac-Out is wonderful for cutting odors and for pre-treating stains on your diapers – or other laundry. It contains live enzyme cultures and citrus extracts that are non-toxic to humans but which naturally break down and destroy organic waste (like poop and pee!). Add a couple of squirts to a soak or wash cycle. Or fill a spray bottle with a 1-4 solution for pre-treating diapers. This stuff is so effective, and it has a pleasant citrus scent to it. It’s also great for a wide variety of uses around your home. shop for Bac-Out

Oxygen Bleach – Using a hydrogen peroxide process to whiten and disinfect, oxygen bleach is very effective and works as a great substitute for chlorine bleach. It is especially effective if you soak your diapers – add a scoop to your wet pail, or two scoops to your washing machine wet pail. Oxygen bleach needs warm or hot water in order to dissolve. Be sure it is rinsed out of your diapers completely before drying. shop for oxygen bleach

Tea Tree Oil - A natural disinfectant and odor eliminator. A couple drops in a wash will eliminate odors and help disinfect your diapers. A little goes a long way, so don’t over do it! (coming soon to Punkin Butt)

Nylon Tote - What a great invention! They’re light-weight, machine washable, water-resistant and extremely durable. What are they for? Use them to line your diaper pail, so that you can just lift your diapers out of the pail and transport them to the washer – whether in your home or at the laundromat. They’re much easier to hold over a washer than a diaper pail (for when you’re dumping your diapers in). And you can throw them in with the diapers and wash them up – just hang them (inside-out is best) on a door knob or a dry rack to dry (don’t dry in the dryer – a quick 10 minutes is okay if you need it dry fast). You could use garbage bags, but you’d need to throw them away and keep buying them (why you decided against disposable diapers in the first place).

We have our own Punkin Butt Totes and Bummis Nylon Totes and loved them both! Use the Large Bummis Nylon Tote for the 7 gallon diaper pail and the XLarge Punkin Butt Tote for the 14 gallon pail. We recommend you keep two on hand to rotate so you always have a clean one. Use the Small Nylon Tote in your diaper bag to hold dirty diapers until you return home. Each tote has a pull-string, the Bummis have pull-string and toggle that closes a bundle up tight and opens up easily.  (available at Punkin Butt)

Cloth Washies – You might think this has more to do with the diapering side of things than the laundering, but here’s the thing: if you use disposable wipes, I guarantee you’ll wash a few! I can’t tell you how many times I have found clean, dry paper wipes in my clean diapers! And when you do remember to separate out your used paper wipes from your cloth diapers, it’s an awfully gross process – let me tell you! It’s just so much easier to throw it all in the diaper pail.

I finally convinced my husband to use cloth washies once I invested in a small Rubbermaid container in which I could store washies – wet with a natural wipes solution. What a difference! I even take a few with me in an old travel size wipes container whenever I go out. It’s things like this that make cloth diapering that much nicer!

Rubber Gloves - Many people want to use cloth diapers but can’t imagine touching them when they’re poopy - or even wet, for some people. Using rubber gloves for the job is a great idea! You can use the sturdy, multiple use kind if you like – just be sure to wash them like you would wash your hands after each use, and then hang them to dry. The disposable medical gloves are very convenient – just keep a box on the back of the toilet or next to your changing station. Of course, we’re entering the realm of “disposable” plastic waste again, but many parents feel that this is a responsible choice for them – a couple hundred thin gloves in the trash instead of thousands of heavy, soiled diapers.

Line Dry Your Wraps and Pocket Diapers -  Most diaper covers do fine in the dryer, and some need the dryer to lose some of their stiffness. But, to maximinze the lifetime and effectiveness of the waterproofing laminate, you may want to line dry them. I inherited a set of high quality wraps from a friend who had tumble dried them for two years. She was very good about fastening the Velcro tabs, and these wraps are still in great shape. But I have noticed that they don’t keep wetness in as good as my newer Bummis wraps. So I line dry them, and will probably get another year or so of use out of them. And after a few months of “breaking in” my new wraps, I’ll probably start line drying them.

Diaper covers are made to repel water and dry quickly, so you will find they take very litte time to dry. Don’t have a clothesline? Throw them over the shower curtain rod, or set up a clothesline in your laundry room if you can. Some people buy those small carousel line dryers and set them up in their tubs or on their dryers. I often hang my covers over the edge of an empty clothes basket – usually the one I’ll use for the diapers once they, too, are dry.

Cloth Diaper Laundry No-No’s

The following products and processes are not recommended for use in laundering cloth diapers. Some will just cause a few troubles, others will slowly (or quickly) destroy even the highest quality diaper or cover.

Chlorine Bleach - Many people love their bleach! It is so fabulous at killing germs – yet it is also great at killing diapers and their covers. It will actually eat away at the fibers in your diapers, leaving holes and frayed edges. Chlorine can often turn white fabrics a dingy yellow. What started out as thick, absorbent diapers will quickly become thin, tattered, yellow rags if you use chlorine bleach. Even occasional use is not recommended. Baking soda and oxygen bleach are great whiteners to use instead. Chlorine bleach will also destroy the waterproofing – and sometimes the fabric – in your diaper covers.

Fabric Softener – It is hard for some people to part with their fabric softener when it comes to doing diapers. You might think soft, snuggly diapers would be so sweet and comfy. But not so – fabric softener, either in liquid or sheet form – leaves a water-repelling residue on your diapers. It also coats your diaper covers and debilitates their water-proof laminate. Some fabric softeners can also irritate your baby’s skin. If you’ve used fabric softener and want to amend the situation, you will need to strip your diapers and covers.

Dreft or other “Baby Detergent” – While these detergents are supposed to be gentle on baby’s skin, they have softeners and additives that will leave unwanted residue on your diapers. If you’ve used one of these products and want to amend the situation, you will need to strip your diapers and covers.

Pure Soaps – We wish we could recommend pure soaps because they are the more natural choice in the world of cleaners, but soaps will leave a residue on your diapers and covers – similar to the soap scum you find in your tub and shower.

How Soaps and Detergents are Alike:

Soaps and detergents do three important things in order to clean materials. First, they increase the “wettability” of water. That is, they act as surfactants (surface-active agents) and remove what is known as “surface tension” between water and other materials. Ever notice how water beads off some fabrics? Soaps and detergents help water “connect” with the fabric in order to do their second important work: lifting grease and dirt. Soaps and detergents have a clever molecular structure that helps them dissolve in both water and oil. They each consist of long molecules that have water-loving (hydrophilic) “heads” and grease- or fat-loving (hydrophobic) “tails.” The heads make a soap or detergent water-soluble, while the tails are attracted to and can immerse themselves into beads of grease and oils. So, hundreds of molecules of soap or detergent will surround one bead of grease or oil and lift it out of a fabric. This leads to the third property of soaps and detergents: their ability to keep grease in suspension so that it can be rinsed away. The things we want washed out of our diapers are materials surrounded by, composed of, or immersed in oils: dirt, sweat, feces, bacteria, etc.

 

The Difference Between Soaps and Detergents:

The story of soaps and detergents is another example of science imitating nature. Soaps are made from naturally occurring ingredients, while detergents are produced from petroleum products. Soaps are made by a chemical reaction called saponification. Soap makers of old would boil animal fat and lye – the alkali leached out of wood ash. Today, most soap is made with sodium hydroxide - instead of lye - and vegetables oils - in the place of animal fats. But the chemistry is basically the same: the alkaline component (lye or sodium hydroxide) becomes the water-soluble “head,” while the fat – a chain of fatty acids – makes up the grease-loving “tail.” One trouble with soaps is that they react with calcium and magnesium compounds found in hard water and produce soap scum – that lovely film that coats our tubs, showers, and our babies’ bath toys! Used on your laundry, soap can turn your clothes a dirty looking gray, while also adding a layer of residue to your clothes.

Detergents, also known as synthetic surfactants, are man-made versions of soap. Basically, a sodium ion makes up the water-soluble “head” of the detergent, while a grease-loving “tail” is synthesized (“put-together”) by a number of chemical reactions on hydrocarbons (molecules of hydrogen and carbon). Detergents can be tailor-made to suit their use. For instance, shampoos are detergents that are made to remove dirt and oil, while leaving behind a sufficient amount of natural oils so as not to dry out your hair. Laundry detergents include foam stabilizers – to keep clothes from getting too sudsy – along with water softeners to handle the calcium and magnesium in hard water – to prevent a film from coating your clothes.

Most detergents used to contain phosphates, a chemical compound dangerous to aquatic life. In response to environmental pressure in the 1990’s, most detergent manufacturers removed – or dramatically decreased - phosphates from their products. More and more, laundry detergents in your grocery store will be low in phosphates or phosphate free – but you should still check the label. In addition, a number of generic laundry detergents are made of biodegradable compounds, so you can feel fine using them.

Natural, or Biological laundry detergents contain enzymes which break down and “digest” substances such as proteins, blood, and sweat.

Procrastination – Don’t let your diapers sit for too long without washing them! Bacteria can really come to life and proliferate given time – making stains, odors, and the gross factor a big problem. Dry pailed diapers should either start soaking or be washed after 2 days. Soaked diapers should have fresh water or be washed after 2 days. If you’re thinking: hey, diaper service diapers sit dry and unrinsed for a whole week, remember: they’re washed 13 times in huge industrial machines! If you tend to put off doing laundry, then you should use the dry-pail-to-washing-machine-as-a-wet-pail strategy to stretch out your laundering days.

 

More on washing cloth diapers...

Sources

Coney, Norma, The Complete Soapmaker: Tips, Techniques & Recipes for Luxurious Handmade Soaps. Sterling Publishing Company, New York, 1996.

Farrisi, Theresa Rodriquez, Diaper Changes: The Complete Diapering Book and Resource Guide. Homekeepers Publishing, Richland, Pennsylvania, 1997.

HarperCollins Complete Book of Baby Care: From Birth to Three Years. Borders Press, 1999.

Jones, Sandy, eds, Consumer Reports Guide to Baby Products: 7^th Edition. Consumer Reports Special Publications, New York, 2001.

Kippel, Edward, eds. Consumer Reports Books: How to Clean Practically Anything: 4^th Edition. Consumers Union, New York, 1996.

Morgan, Nina, Chemistry in Action: The Molecules of Everyday Life. Oxford University Press, New York, 1995.

Sears and Sears, The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two. Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2003.