Cloth Diaper Wash Routine

JJ is officially 16 weeks old and we’ve been cloth diapering since we ran out of the disposables from the hospital. A few weeks ago Jett actually said to me, “Cloth diapering is so easy I can’t believe more people don’t do it.”

Cloth diapering has been really easy for our family. Jett and I don’t have much experience with disposable diapers so there isn’t much to compare our diapering process with but what we are doing hasn’t added any stress to our family.

In Considering Cloth I had mentioned posting about our wash routine. I ended up holding off on that post because we were adjusting our wash routine. JJ recently started pooping less often and we have switched up part of our wash routine. I recommend anyone considering cloth diapering doing their own research into their wash routine because there are a lot of factors such as water hardness and detergent that can affect your wash routine.

Our Initial Wash Routine

Here is what we did when JJ was first born and still pooping quite a bit.

1. Pre-Wash – Start washing machine with warm water and an extra rinse. Add one line of Tide Powder into water to dissolve before adding diapers.
2. Add separated diapers and inserts(We separate these as we take them off JJ and put them into the wet bag).
3. Once the pre-wash is complete we pull the diapers and inserts off of the washer drum.
4. Main Wash – Begin wash cycle on hot. Add two lines of Tide Powder. Since the diapers and inserts are already in the drum you may need to dissolve the Tide Powder separately in water before adding to the washing machine.
5. Turn wet bags inside out and add to the wash.
6. Once everything is washed we try set everything out in the sun. The sun lifts breastfeed poop stains. Also, one of the reasons we cloth diaper is to be more economical so why use the dryer when the sun works just as well? If it’s raining we will just use a drying rack.

Tips

• Don’t forget that breastfeed poop stains can still be lifted in overcast weather!
• If you use the dryer make sure to read the labels on your inserts and diapers. We dry ours on tumble, air dry or low heat.

Our Current Wash Routine

We’ve been using this wash routine for about a month, so since JJ was 3 months old and started pooping only every few days.

1. Pre-Wash – Start washing machine with cold water. Add one line of Tide Powder into water to dissolve before adding diapers.
   We switched from warm water to cold water because most detergents on the market work the same in cold water as in warm water. We also eliminated the “extra rinse” on this cycle since we have hard water and we realized the extra rinse just deposits those minerals back in.
2. Add separated diapers and inserts(We separate these as we take them off JJ and put them into the wet bag).
3. Once the pre-wash is complete we pull the diapers and inserts off of the washer drum.
4. Main Wash – Begin wash cycle on warm. Add two lines of Tide Powder. Since the diapers and inserts are already in the drum you may need to dissolve the Tide Powder separately in water before adding to the washing machine.
   We switched from hot to warm water here. I learned that unless your washing machine specifically has a “sanitizing” setting, the water doesn’t get hot enough to actually sanitize so there isn’t a difference in washing in hot vs. warm water.
5. Turn wet bags inside out and add to the wash.
6. Set items out in the sun!

The main differences between out two wash routines is the extra rinse cycle and changing the temperature of the water. Again, your wash routine may be different than mine. We have made these changes and still have clean diapers with no stains or stench!

The hardest part about cloth diapering is definitely figuring out your wash routine but once you’ve got that down, it’s so easy.

Interested in getting started? Shop Mama Koala cloth diapers through this link for a 10% discount!