The Trials and Errors of Diaper Washing

Oh, I was a young (ok, not so young) expectant mom, anxiously awaiting the arrival of my first child (mostly I was tired of being fat, I think).

I had my new cloth diapers, all prewashed and ready to go, lined up ever so neatly on the shelf of the changing table, awaiting a christening by their newborn owner.

Flash forward 3 years...those same diapers are in a jumbled heap on the change table, some on the floor beside it, some forgotten on the laundry room folding table, and one is even in my daughter's room, wrapped around her doll as some weird some of towel/wrap. My diaper pails are overflowing today, awaiting a much-needed wash, that I really must do soon before I run out of clean dipes.

During that time in between then, and now, I have had many trials and errors over washing these diapers. I am going to share my hard-earned wisdom, so hopefully others don't go through some of the same "crap" that I did.

To start off, one thing that I did correctly was diaper pails: these were free, saved from a local restaurant. The first set of diapers they contained smelled slightly of dill pickles, but not to worry, that was soon overpowered by the smell of stinky diapers. Make sure your pails have tight-fitting lids, and are big enough. It's amazing how much room sodden diapers take up.

A lot of people debate "wet" pailing (filling up the pail with water and adding dirty dipes) and "dry" pailing. I tried wet pailing exactly once. I don't know about you, but I don't like lugging around 100 lbs of sloshing, dirty water (it felt like 100 lbs anyway), and then trying to pour out the water without spilling any, and loading the sopping diapers into the washing machine. Dry pailing (aka just tossing the dirty diapers into a pail) works JUST FINE. If you are washing every 2-3 days you don't need to worry about excessive smells, and you will have to wash this often unless you have a stash of about 50 diapers!

The tricky part of washing diapers comes with the actual washing. You don't just toss them in, dump in some soap and away you go. The reason is this: detergent buildup. Before diapers, I had never heard of such a thing. Then, my diapers started to smell, even when they were clean. They reeked of ammonia and would make your eyes water, and my baby's bum burn. After much research online, it seems I had buildup from my laundry soap. So, first, I had to strip away all this buildup.

Once again, after researching, I found out you can run them through the washing machine numerous times, with hot water - no soap - and eventually the residue will be washed away. At one point, I was so desperate to get rid of the horrid ammonia smell I even considered boiling them in a pot on the stove, as per one website I read. Rest assured, I couldn't bring myself to "cook" poopy diapers in my kitchen, so if I invite you over for dinner, all is safe.

To avoid residue, I began experimenting with various types of soap and detergents. I won't bore you with the details of that, but I will tell you this. No matter which type you use, you only need about 1 tablespoon. That's right - 1 tablespoon. That small amount will still get dirty diapers clean. Kinda makes you feel as though you've been had by all the laundry detergent companies that have you adding 1/2 cup or more to your regular laundry - YOU DON'T NEED THAT MUCH SOAP!

I don't actually use soap on my diapers anymore...I use about 1/8 to 1/4 of a cup of washing soda. You can buy it at most grocery stores, it's cheap, it comes in a big box, and it lasts forever. I have also used baking soda, and it seems to work fine too. I sometimes toss vinegar into the fabric softener dispenser on my front-loader washing machine just to help keep any residue at bay, and to keep the diapers a bit softer and less "crunchy" (you cloth diaper uses will know what I mean by this).

I have experimented with different wash cycles; soaking, prewash, etc etc etc. The winner? Hot water wash, cold water rinse, that's it. Every couple of months, I do put them through an extra wash cycle though, to help keep any buildup at bay and to keep them smelling fresh and clean.

Now the drying: DO NOT put your diapers in the dryer. You know the lint collector on there? All the lint is actually fibres from your clothing. The dryer will cut down on your diapers' life expectancy by helping them on their way to becoming threadbare. Instead, and this is a much greener alternative as well, dry them on a wooden laundry dryer. Locally, you can order very sturdy ones from the Home Hardware.

Diapers getting stained? That's to be expected, considering their purpose. Don't use bleach; ever. It breaks them down. Simply line dry them out in the sun, and the stains will be gone like magic. Really.

I hope that my knowledge gained through my laundry follies is helpful. The disclaimer? Washing diapers seems to be a bit different for everyone, depending on the hardness of their water, their type of washing machine, the sensitivity of their child's skin, the type of diapers, and so on. The bottom line, is to do whatever seems to work the best for you. And do ANYTHING to avoid the cloying, choking, eye-burning smell of ammonia emanating from your poor babe's bottom. If you haven't experienced it, you simply can't imagine anything this awful (although childbirth is still right up there).