Storing and Washing Cloth Diapers

Start with a good diaper pail

We recommend using a diaper pail with a secure lid such as the one available on our website.   The best way to keep the smell at a minimum is to remove as much waste from the diapers as possible. This is not an issue with newborn babies and breastfed babies.  Shake excess waste into the toilet and use a diaper sprayer that attaches to your toilet to remove the rest.   If you don’t have a sprayer you can use a flat edged scraper to remove the rest   Wash frequently every 3 or 4 days.  Keep the diaper pail out of the sun and away from heat sources.  Use diaper pail deodorizers such as Citrus Circles deo-disks which contain natural citrus oils in them and give off a nice citrus scent or Diaper Buddies which deodorize diapers and add a washing booster to your wash.  Water in the pail is not necessary. You can put the diaper covers in with the diapers, but be sure to close Velcro fasteners before putting them into the daiper pail to avoid fibers collecting in the velcro which wilo take away from its holding strength.  If you have All-In-One Deluxe diapers, snap the diapers inside out for shorter drying time.
 

Soap or Detergent

You need to use a good cleaning agent.   Soaps and Detergents will both clean diapers.  The difference between the two is that Soap is a mild cleaning agent made from natural materials, but the drawback of using soap is that because of its mild attributes, it may not thoroughly clean your diapers and It reacts with minerals in hard water that leaves a residue on the diapers causing them to be less absorbent.  Detergents are synthetic cleaning products, but have more cleaning power and will clean cloth diapers best and will not  leave a build-up on the diapers that takes away from their absorbency.  You may want to look for detergents made from renewable resources rather than petro-chemicals. Many detergents are available with no dyes and natural fragrances.  Do not use fabric softener as it coats the fabric fibers in the diapers and will also reduce absorbency.

If you care for cloth diapers by cleaning and rinsing well and then drying with high heat, you will not only give them a long absorbent life, but you will avoid bacteria and irritants that can cause diaper rash.

If you do choose to use soap rather than detergent, and it leaves a residue on your diapers, the natural solution to break down the residue is a vinegar rinse.  This will help maintain diaper absorbency.  We recommend that you use no more than ½ cup of distilled white vinegar in rinse cycle.  Make sure it is distilled vinegar to avoid stains made from vinegars with color.  Vinegar may also be used in the rinse cycle to help neutralize the urine odor, equalize the ph balance, help prevent stains from setting in and is a natural fabric softener.   However, if you have hard water, it may cause your diapers to smell bad once urinated on, in that case you would want to discontinue using soap, and  switch to detergent.

More About Your ClothDiaper.Com Diapers

All diapers should be washed before using them so that the diapers fluff up and achieve optimal softness and absorbency.  Unbleached and Organic  (Ivory colored) diapers require at least five (5) washings to reach their optimal softness and absorbency.

To identify the size of your diapers refer to the color of stitching used:

Fitted diapers

All-in-one Deluxe diapers with cover sewn on:

Preemie                  =              Purple Stitching
Newborn                 =              Turquoise Stitching
Small                       =              Peach Stitching
Medium                   =              Blue Stitching
Large                       =              Green Stitching
Toddler                    =              Yellow Stitching
Super Toddler        =              Baby Blue Stitching

Prefold Diapers

Preemie     2x6x2      =          White Stitching

Newborn    2x5x2      =          White Stitching
Infant         4x6x4      =          Blue Stitching
Infant         4x8x4      =          Green Stitching
Regular      2x5x2      =          White Stitching
Regular      4x6x4      =          White Stitching
Premium   4 x8x4     =           Blue Stitching
Toddler      4x8x4      =           Green Stitching

Unbleached and Organic Diapers

Preemie, Infant, Regular, Premium and Toddler Unbleached diapers are all the same color except  the regular has a single yellow stitch  and the Organic diapers all have the same color of stitching.

****Note:   If for any reason you are thinking about returning the diapers – only wash those that you intend to keep, as we do NOT accept returns that have been washed.