Friday, January 14, 2011

New diapers on the way! And how to wash them...

Okay, I did it! I ordered my own set of prefolds! I ordered 30 Bummis organic cotton prefolds.... so luxurious! I also got two more of the strech bamboozles for night time. Hooray! Now let the real fun begin....

So, the washing. People always think it's totally gross to wash poopy diapers in your washing machine, the same machine that your clothes go in. Honestly, I definitely thought it was disgusting too until I started doing it. What you need to understand is that you're not throwing piles of poop into the machine. When babies are exclusively breastfed, their poop dissolves in water, so that makes the first 4-6 months of cloth diapering a breeze. No worries at ALL. Just throw all that into your machine and go. Then, you start solids. Admittedly, it's not as easy, but it's still not very gross. The Eskimo's poop is super solid, so you just shake it into the toilet and you're done. I don't have a fancy diaper sprayer attached to my toilet, I don't have to scrape anything or touch anything. Just shake, and put it in the wetbag. Now, maybe I'm just lucky. Maybe other babies have really nasty gross sticky poop. I dunno, I just have the one baby and so far it's been fine. :)

Here are a few things you need to know about washing cloth diapers:
1. NO FABRIC SOFTENERS - these will do very bad things to both your diapers and your diaper covers.
2. You must use a diaper-safe detergent. This means no dyes, perfumes, or brighteners. Pretty much everything you find at the local grocery store will have these in them. I use Charlie's Soap. I love it. There are a lot of diaper-safe detergents available out there (or you can make your own!), just be sure to do your homework first.
3. Less is more. It only takes a tablespoon or two of detergent. Don't dump a whole cup in there. It collects on the diapers and prevents them from absorbing the stuff they're supposed to absorb.

My routine:
1. Put the diapers and wetbag in the wash and run a cold rinse cycle
2. Start the real cycle, on HOT... let it sit and soak for about 15 minutes then continue on its way. Don't try to wash an entire week's worth of diapers all at once. They need plenty of room to agitate and get clean. Also, be sure to run it on a "Large" load, not small. It takes lots of water to get those suckers clean.
3. Peek in on the final rinse cycle to make sure there aren't any suds. If there are, you've used too much soap. It's okay, just run another rinse cycle until the water is clear. And use less soap next time. :)
4. You "can" dry your diapers in the dryer. But, the sun is the best thing in the world for them. Not only will it remove all those poop stains (and it does, it's like magic), but it will naturally disinfect them. The sun is your friend.

Okay, that about covers it. Questions?

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