How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #3 Laundry

Washing cloth diapers was probably the scariest thing for me before I started doing it.  Washing poop out of diapers just seems gross and potentially dangerous.  I wasn't sure how safe it was: would my baby be exposed to harmful bacteria?  Would I get poop on me?

We looked into getting a diaper service so that I would not have to wash the diapers but it was so expensive that we decided that I would try washing the diapers myself.

Laundry has turned out to be incredibly easy.

When babies exclusively breastfeed, their poop is water soluble.  That means that all dirty diapers just go straight into the bin.  We just use a large rubbermaid plastic storage bin as our cloth diaper pail.  When things get stinky, I pour some baking soda into the bottom of it.  Every time we wash diapers, I spray out the bin and let it bake in the sun.

Now that Little is eating solid foods, her diapers are slightly more complicated.  If there is a poop, you must do your best to get that off the diaper and into the toilet before you wash your diapers.  I just use a spatula and scrape the poop off the diaper.  Its not the most glamorous way to do it but its cheap and it works for us.  Another option is a diaper sprayer.  These little contraptions attach to the plumbing on your toilet and make a nice little jet of water to spray poop off the diaper and into the toilet.  Sounds more glamorous right?  Diapers with the poop removed go into the bin same as usual.

We wash diapers around every four days.  You can do it more often or wait as long as a week.  It really depends on your diaper supply and how big your washing machine is.  Remember that you do not want to have your load too full because you want extra water when you are washing diapers.

Washing diapers is really easy.  We wash the covers and the inserts all together.  Start with a cold prewash.  Wash on hot with half the normal amount of detergent (make sure the detergent is free from perfumes and enzymes).  We use All free and clear detergent but there are also detergents made specially for diapers.  Do an extra rinse and your diapers all all done!

Diapers can be dried in the dryer.  Make sure that your covers are only dried on low heat (this extends their life).  I have almost always dried our diapers on a drying rack.  In the winter, we dried them in Little's room (it works great to add humidity to the air) and now that it is summer, we dry them outside in the sun.  Drying diapers in the sun has the added bonus that the UV kills anything that might have survived the wash and it bleaches the diapers so that even the worst stains come out perfectly white.

That's it!  Your diapers are clean and dry and ready to go.  Not so bad right?  I do this several times a week and I know that I would definitely cloth diaper my next kid!

Want to know more?

How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #1 Options

How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #2 Diapering

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