Cloth Diapers - the Dirty Details

So now that you have your cloth diapers, what do you do with them when they are dirty?

You can either use a trash can with a washable liner, or a wet bag, which is a waterproof, washable bag.  I have two wet bags that hang from the doorknob in Xander's room that I cycle through.  They hold 12-15 diapers, which is about two days worth for me.  I don't zip the bag up because I have heard that it is less stinky if the diapers are exposed to air, and believe it or not, I never can smell an odor unless I put my nose right up to the bag!

With wet diapers all you have to do is pull the insert out and put the whole thing in the bag.  The same applies for dirty diapers if your baby is exclusively breastfed (no solids, no formula) because their poo is water soluble, it just washes right out in the washer and won't clog your pipes or anything.  Once your baby has started solids or if your baby is formula fed, you have to dump their poo in the toilet before washing the diaper.  With Xander it most of the time just plops off, but if not, the diaper sprayer comes in very handy.  This is a little hose with a sprayer that attaches to your toilet that is used to get the poo off the diaper.  Once it is mostly cleaned off, I spray it with BacOut which is a natural enzyme cleaner, and put it in the wet bag until wash day.  The BacOut isn't necessary, but I think it helps keep the diaper from staining, plus it smells good, which is always a plus when dealing with dirty diapers. Once the wet bag is full, usually every third day, I dump the entire contents plus the bag itself into the washing machine to wash.

Here is where it gets tricky because your wash routine and detergent is going to differ depending on if you have hard or soft water, what kind of diapers you have, what cycles your washing machine allows, etc.  But generally people have the most luck with a short cold wash or rinse with no detergent to get the ick out, then a long hot wash with detergent for sanitizing, followed by an extra rinse to make sure there is no lingering detergent in your diapers.  Then most can go in the dryer if you prefer.  I like to hang dry the covers on a drying rack and put the inserts in the dryer.

A word on detergents: people will say you need to use a "cloth diaper safe" detergent, but I think that is bunk.  Detergents made for cloth diapers are typically not very strong, and are pretty expensive and hard to find (you have to order them usually) and many people have stink or ammonia issues when using them.  A lot of cloth diapering mamas are interested in natural cleaners, which makes sense because a big draw of cloth diapers is fewer chemicals for baby.  But I just am VERY skeptical that any natural cleaner can get your diapers clean enough.  We are talking about pee and poop here - you need a strong detergent to get the bacteria out.  I have seen lots of moms having trouble with their babies getting bad rashes in the diaper area, and unless it's an actual allergy to the detergent or the type of fabric the diaper is made out of, which can happen, I think it is often because the diapers aren't getting clean enough.  I am a huge Tide fan myself, and as far as standard detergents go, it is usually the most recommended.  I have soft water, so I use HE original powder because it washes out easier.  I used to use the BumGenius brand detergent and it left the diapers smelling strongly of ammonia.  As soon as I switched over to a mainstream detergent, that problem went away.  You can use any standard detergent as long as it doesn't have fabric softener in it; fabric softener coats the cloth, making it unable to absorb.

Another pet peeve of mine is when people will say to use LESS detergent if you are having issues.  The theory behind that advice is that you could have detergent build up on your diapers.  I don't know the science behind it so I suppose it could happen, but it just does not make logical sense to me to use less detergent on diapers because of stink problems.  If your baby is getting a rash or your diapers stink or smell like ammonia, it is probably because they aren't getting clean enough!  Use the recommended amount for the load size, or even a little more since diapers are heavily soiled. A tablespoon or less of detergent just isn't going to cut it.  I fill the scoop to line 2 which is the recommended amount for a medium load.

So anyway, if you are using a small amount of a cloth safe detergent and it is working for you, then by all means, keep on!  If it works don't change it.  But if you are having issues with your diapers, go mainstream! My diapers smell good and I can rest assured that they are getting clean.

Well I think I have rambled on about cloth diapers enough.  Thanks for indulging me!