How to Care for Your Cloth Diapers

Once you've gotten started with cloth diapering, you will undoubtedly have questions about how to care for your diapers. Here are some basic guidelines for diaper care. Be sure to refer to manufacturer's instructions on caring for your diapers, and follow those instructions along with these recommendations.

Dry pail or wet pail?
What do you do with all these dirty diapers until wash day? You can either keep them in a dry pail or a wet pail. A wet pail holds water to soak your diapers until wash day. Some parents swear by the wet pail. If you choose to use a wet pail, be aware that it is not only unsanitary (all those germs just floating and breeding in the water), but it can also be a drowning hazard for young children and pets. When setting up a wet pail, be sure to change the water frequently and get a pail with a locking lid. Don't count on the bathroom door keeping the little kiddo out of harm's way.

A dry pail is much more common these days. Simply dump any solid waste into the toilet, rinse if necessary, and toss into the pail. Many parents use things called pail pills to deodorize the diaper pail, but if your pail has an airtight lid, you may not need to use these.

Whatever method you use, there are a variety of diaper pails on the market. I recommend the Diaper Champ. It's fairly airtight, and collects the diapers into whatever bag you choose to use. (I use an old pillowcase, so that it's washable and reusable.) For a less expensive, more versatile option, you can simply use a trash can with a lid. Really, any kind of container will do, as long as it has a lid.

Washing
When your baby is still very young, before solid stools, you can just toss the diapers in the washer (poo and all) and run them through a rinse cycle to remove any waste before you run them through a soak/wash cycle. When baby is older, simply dump the solid waste into the toilet before tossing the diaper into the pail, and on wash day, run the diapers through a rinse before washing. It's as simple as that. Always set your washer to do an extra rinse after the wash cycle. One rinse will not get all the detergent residue out of your diapers, and that residue can cause absorbency problems and rashes.

Don't use as much detergent as you normally would for your laundry. I know this seems counter-intuitive, but it's not. If you use the normal amount of detergent, that residue is going to be very difficult to rinse out of your diapers. Use ¼ to ½ the normal amount of detergent when washing cloth diapers.

If you find that your diapers are still smelling a little weird after washing, they simply need to be stripped. To do this, run your diapers through a hot wash with a little bit (and I mean just a little bit) of Dawn dish detergent, or no soap at all. Then run them through 3 or 4 more hot washes with no soap, and then dry as usual. This will help remove any oils and residues from your diapers, and soon they'll be as good as new. (New or used diapers should also be stripped before using them for the first time.)

Detergent choices
When choosing the right detergent for your cloth diapers, there are quite a few things to keep in mind. First, you'll need to look for a detergent with no dyes or perfumes. While Dreft is a popular choice for baby's laundry, it does contain perfumes, and as such is not a good choice for laundering your cloth diapers. The skin on a baby's bottom is very sensitive, and dyes and perfumes can be very irritating, causing a killer diaper rash.

You'll also want to make sure that your detergent has no fabric softener in it. Fabric softener actually leaves an oily residue on fabric - that's how it prevents static cling. This residue will make your diapers less absorbent.

Also, try to look for a powder detergent instead of a liquid. Liquid detergent contains enzymes which can deteriorate fabric over time.

Drying
When drying your cloth diapers, don't use a cling-free sheet. As with liquid fabric softener, cling-free sheets will leave a residue on the cloth that will make your diapers less absorbent.

Before tossing your diapers in the dryer, first make sure that they are dryer-friendly. Some diapers, especially all-in-ones and pocket diapers, have a built-in waterproof cover that will melt or weaken in the dryer. Some will do fine in the dryer, but only at low heat settings. If you use prefolds, flats, or fitteds, they will likely do fine in the dryer, but watch out for your covers. They may not hold up well in the dryer.

Ideally, cloth diapers should be line-dried in the sun. Sunlight is a natural disinfectant and odor-killer, as well as a stain remover. Drying your diapers in the sun also ensures that your diapers won't melt from too much drying heat.

Stain removal
No matter what kind of cloth diaper you use, chlorine bleach is a no-no. It eats away at the cloth, resulting in rougher, less absorbent diapers. If you start encountering stains, a natural whitening agent such as Oxi-Clean or Borax will be much gentler on your diapers. Be sure to read any laundering instructions for your specific diapers though - if there are warnings against using these products on your diapers, stay away from them. No stain is worth damaging your diapers.

To avoid stains in the first place, there are a couple of things you can do. First off, you can invest in some flushable, biodegradable diaper liners. These allow wetness through while keeping solids up away from the diaper. Then simply toss the solids (and most of the stain) into the toilet. Also, don't soak or rinse your diapers in hot water. Heat will set any stains and make them nearly impossible to remove.

Follow these tips, and your diapers are sure to be clean and bright, and will remain in good shape for hundreds of washes.