Cloth Diaper Care: Washing Diapers and Dealing with Detergent Build Up

Using cloth diapers shouldn’t mean you have to struggle with worries about how to wash them right. 

•        Should you use a special detergent?
•        Should you only wash them by hand?
•     Can you wash them in the machine?

Yes, we at Smart Baby, know that your cloth diaper care questions are many! So here are the answers:

Cloth Diaper Care: Washing How-To

 Before you put the dirty diapers into the diaper pail, gently rinse them with a diaper sprayer or under the tap. Remove solid waste.

Wash a load of diapers every other day, however, don’t let dirty diapers sit for more than 3 days.

Wash the diapers in cold water with ¼ cup of baby-friendly detergent.  A baby-friendly detergent is free from dyes, bleaches, perfumes, enzymes, brighteners.

Do NOT add any additives, fabric softeners or disinfecting agents, including vinegar or baking soda. 

If your cloth diapers stink after being washed in the washing machine, you can wash them again and leave them to dry flat in the sunlight to get both the odors and the stains out.  Smelly diapers can also be an indication of detergent buildup, so you may want to see how to strip cloth diapers (see#2) or give the diapers an extra rinse to get the detergent residue out.

Once a month, you can add a ¼ cup bleach to your diaper load to sanitize and deodorize diapers.

Dealing with Detergent Build Up

Detergent buildup can be gotten rid of by stripping the diapers. In other words, wash the diapers once in hot water with one teaspoon (for high efficiency machines) to one tablespoon (for regular washing machines) with a Pril green liquid dish detergent and up to 1/2 cup bleach in the wash cycle.

Do two additional hot water washes with no detergent to completely rinse the diapers clean. If you still see soapsuds, keep rinsing until the diapers are rinsed clean.

Resources to Help You Get Clean Diapers… Every Time

Should you still want to read more about washing cloth diapers and getting them really clean, here are some more resources:

• Caring for Cloth Diapers
• How to Wash Cloth Diapers by Rockin’ Green Soaps 

Cloth diaper care, dealing with detergent build up, washing your stash of cloth diapers doesn’t have to be tough. Keeping a few things in mind – choosing the right detergent, washing enough diapers in the machine, rinsing extra and drying in the sunlight, will help you have clean diapers to keep baby and you happy.

Questions? Ask the Diaper Guru or Join the Smart Baby Community on Facebook and ask away. We look forward to making cloth diapering happy for both baby and you.