Welcome to our comprehensive guide on washing cloth diapers! Keeping your cloth diapers clean and fresh is essential for maintaining their performance and longevity. Our step-by-step instructions are designed to make the washing process straightforward and efficient, ensuring your diapers stay in top condition and your baby remains comfortable. From pre-washing to drying, we've covered all the essential steps to help you navigate cloth diaper care with ease. Dive in to learn how to keep your cloth diapering routine hassle-free and effective!

Step 1: Pre-Wash Prep

1. Remove Solids: For diapers with solid waste, shake off the solids into the toilet. For exclusively breastfed babies, you can skip this step as their waste is water-soluble. If your child does not have solid poo yet you may want to look at getting either biodegradable liners to catch the poo and easily remove from the diaper, or a diaper sprayer that hooks to your toilets water intake valve and allows you to spray off waste.
2. Loading Your Washer: You want to make sure you have enough in your washer for proper agitation but you don't want it so full that your diapers don't move around freely. We recommend filling your washer 1/2-2/3 full. If you don't have enough diapers to fill your washer 1/2 full, you can add additional articles of baby clothing or small towels after the pre-wash.
3. Pre-Wash or Rinse: We recommend a quick rinse or pre-wash before the main wash. This helps to remove the majority of the urine and solids so your detergent is most effective during the main wash cycle. Make sure that your machine fully drains the water before switching to the main wash cycle. Depending on your washing machine and how well it agitates, using a small amount of detergent in this pre-wash may help. We recommend using hot or warm water on this pre-wash. This will help open the cuticle of the natural fibers and make it easier to get clean.

Step 2: Main Wash

1. Add Detergent: Use the recommended amount of detergent based on the size of your load and water hardness. Choose a detergent free from fabric softeners, as these can reduce absorbency. For more information on detergents and how much to use, scroll to the bottom.
2. Select a Hot Wash Cycle: Run a heavy-duty cycle on hot (40-60°C or 104-140°F). The hot water helps to sanitize the diapers and remove any lingering bacteria or stains. Most detergents work more effectively in hot water. The heat helps to dissolve detergent more completely, ensuring it penetrates and cleans the fabric thoroughly. Some parents opt for an extra rinse at the end of the cycle to ensure all detergent is thoroughly rinsed out.

Step 4: Drying the Diapers

1. Drying in the Dryer: For most cloth diapers and inserts, you can tumble dry on low or medium heat. Avoid high heat to prevent damage to elastics, waterproof layers (PUL/TPU), and bamboo fabric.
2. Line Drying: Sunlight acts as a natural bleach, helping to remove stains and sanitize the diapers. Just be sure not to leave your diapers exposed to a high UV level for longer than necessary. UV rays will start to degrade the laminate, elastics and can dry out natural fibers making them brittle. 
3. Check for Dampness: Ensure that all parts of the diaper, especially the inserts, are completely dry before putting them away to prevent mold or mildew. If they are slightly damp when taking them out of the dryer lay flat to allow them to continue to air dry before storing.

Step 5: Storing Clean Diapers

1. Cool and Dry Storage: Once dry, store your clean diapers in a cool, dry place until ready to use. Some parents prefer to assemble their diapers (e.g., stuffing pocket diapers) before storing them to make diaper changes quicker.

Step 6: Troubleshooting Common Issues

1. Dealing with Stains: If stains persist, consider sunning the diapers right out of the wash for a natural bleaching effect. If you need a little more power to remove a stain you can mix one part lemon juice with one part water and spray on a damp diaper and lay in the sun. Make sure the diaper is rewashed with detergent before putting back on baby. 
2. Odor Issues: If you notice lingering odors or a strong ammonia or barnyard smell as soon as the diaper is peed in you may have a wash issue that needs to be resolved. Scroll down for our tips on solving smell issues. 

Additional Tips:

• Wash Every 2-3 Days: To prevent mildew and odor build-up, wash your cloth diapers every 2-3 days.
• Avoid Fabric Softeners: These can reduce absorbency and cause buildup, leading to leaks.
• Use a Diaper-Safe Detergent: Avoid detergents that have fabric softeners included, this will build-up and cause repelling issues. Depending on the sensitivity of your child's skin you may also want to avoid fragrances, dyes and other additives. 

 

Choosing the Right Detergent

Many families that choose to cloth diaper want a more natural option for their laundry detergent, but finding a natural laundry detergent that is also capable of cleaning human waste can be difficult. Ultimately you want to look for a detergent that has the following components.

• Enzymes - Enzymes break down proteins, starches, and fats, helping to lift and remove stains and residues from diapers.
• Types: Protease, amylase, and lipase are common enzymes found in detergents.
• Consideration: Ensure that any enzymes used are well-rinsed out, as they can potentially cause irritation if left on the fabric.
• Surfactants - Surfactants lower the surface tension of water, allowing it to penetrate and lift away dirt and oils from the fabric. Having a strong enough surfactant is key in getting your diapers clean.
• Types: Anionic (such as sodium lauryl sulfate), nonionic, and amphoteric surfactants are commonly used.  Coconut Oil derivatives are often used in more natural detergents as a surfactant. They can help break down grease and oil but are not considered very strong surfactants.
• Sodium Carbonate - Sodium carbonate is highly effective in breaking down and removing oils, grease, and organic matter, it also helps soften hard water, which can enhance the effectiveness of other cleaning agents and prevent detergent buildup. The harder your water, the more sodium carbonate you might need. This can also be added in addition to your laundry detergent for an extra boost for those with extremely hard water.
• Types: Washing Soda

Most cloth diapering families seem to find the most success with brands such as Tide, Seventh Generation, and Country Save. The later two are more natural and do not contain added dyes and fragrance.

Solving Stink Issues

Barnyard Smell - If your diapers smell like a farm (errr poo) after just being peed in, there are a couple possible reasons. 1) Your diapers are not getting clean enough and what you are smelling is bacteria growth. This is the most common reason for this smell. 2) If you have synthetic fiber diapers, often times minerals from urine and water can build up on the fibers and detergent then clings to it, this becomes a breeding ground for bacteria. To solve this problem we recommend washing on hot with a 1/4 cup of bleach and your normal amount of detergent. Do an extra rinse to remove any residue and slightly increase your detergent usage on diaper laundry moving forward.

Ammonia Smell - If you can smell ammonia right after your child has peed then you most likely have detergent buildup. Depending on the severity, the problem may be solved by just running the diapers through a few hot washes without any detergent. This should help remove the excess detergent from the cloth diapers. If you are able to see in your washing machine while it is running, or you are able to pause it and look inside, you should not see any suds during agitation. Continue to wash/rinse until there are no suds left. If after the first wash there are alot of suds coming out of the diapers, you can also fill you bath tub or a bucket with hot water and agitate with either your hands or a clean plunger and rinse and refill as necessary. Once the detergent is removed you will want to use a little less detergent in your diaper laundry to prevent buildup in the future. If the detergent buildup was significant there may also be bacteria growth inside the fabric, so if you continue to notice a smell after excess detergent has been rinsed out then a wash with 1/4 bleach and an extra rinse should solve the problem. If reducing detergent doesn't seem to be getting your diapers clean then you can add an extra rinse to your wash and use the amount that was working previously to get your diapers clean. If you are already doing an extra rinse you can add wash agitators to the load and try reducing the amount of detergent. 

Unfortunately, it sometimes take a little trial and error to get your routine just right. There are so many factors that play a roll in diaper laundry that it is sometimes difficult to pin point the exact problem. If you have an issue not listed above or have exhausted recommended solutions, please feel free to email us at customercare@smartbottoms.com and we would be happy to help provide more direction based on your specific circumstance.