washing cloth diapers

[Jen]

Hi Everyone,

I am a new mom of a 6-week-old baby. I just start using cloth diapers from
disposables. I need some advice about that:

1. can I wash the cloth diapers with other baby clothes?
2. for dirty diaper, after wash away the poop, should I soak diapers with
vinegar before putting into the washing machine?
3. how often should I change the diaper? once it wets?

Please give advice for the newbie. Thank you in advance for wisdow words.

Jen

[Larry McMahan]

Jen > writes:
: Hi Everyone,

: I am a new mom of a 6-week-old baby. I just start using cloth diapers from
: disposables. I need some advice about that:

: 1. can I wash the cloth diapers with other baby clothes?

Early on, when we had LOTS of diapers we washed them seperately. After a
couple of months, though, we washed everything together.

: 2. for dirty diaper, after wash away the poop, should I soak diapers with
: vinegar before putting into the washing machine?

We actually risnsed twice, first with a vinegar rinse, then with plain water.

: 3. how often should I change the diaper? once it wets?

Sounds good.

: Please give advice for the newbie. Thank you in advance for wisdow words.

: Jen

Good luck,
Larry

[Phoebe & Allyson]

Jen wrote:

> 1. can I wash the cloth diapers with other baby clothes?
> 2. for dirty diaper, after wash away the poop, should I soak diapers with
> vinegar before putting into the washing machine?
> 3. how often should I change the diaper? once it wets?

Caterpillar is almost 8 weeks old, and this is what we do.

- Poopy diapers get changed relatively soon after I notice
them. We don't rinse, just dump them in the dry diaper pail
(no water, no vinegar, nothing but diapers in a nylon bag in
the pail), but Caterpillar is breastfed, so everything is
pretty liquid. Formula-fed poop is different, and I have no
advice about it.

- Wet diapers get changed somewhere between "wet in front
but not in back" and "soaked everywhere." Wet diapers don't
bother her, and she's not rashy, or I'd change more often.

- When I'm ready to do laundry, I take the bag with diapers,
covers / wraps, and wipes (ours are heavy enough they don't
disintegrate in the wash) and turn it inside out, so the
diapers are in the washer and the bag (now dirty side out)
goes in too. Add a scoop of detergent (we use Biokleen).
Wash one cycle on hot with no fabric softener or anything
else. Toss in the rest of the white laundry (mostly baby
clothes, washclothes, and our underwear). Wash one cycle on
warm with a scoop of detergent, white vinegar in the fabric
softener dispenser, and nothing else. Diapers and covers
and bag go on the clothesline (or in the dryer with no dryer
sheet). Everything else goes in the dryer (with a dryer
sheet if no diapers, otherwise I don't mind staticky undies).

Phoebe :)

[Jen]

"Iuil" > wrote in
:

>
> "Jen" wrote
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> I am a new mom of a 6-week-old baby. I just start using cloth diapers
>> from disposables. I need some advice about that:
>>
>> 1. can I wash the cloth diapers with other baby clothes?
>
> If I'm going to do this I run the nappies (diapers) though a rinse
> cycle with vinegar first.
>
how much vinegar should I use? with HOT water?

[Alphawave]

Jen asks:

> 1. can I wash the cloth diapers with other baby clothes?
> 2. for dirty diaper, after wash away the poop, should I soak diapers
> with vinegar before putting into the washing machine?
> 3. how often should I change the diaper? once it wets?

It seems like everyone who uses cloth diapers has their own way of doing
things. We keep used diapers in a bin full of water with about 1 c. of
vinegar thrown in. Dirty diapers get scraped in the toilet; wet ones just
go straight in the bin. When the bin is full, we pour off the excess
water and wash the diapers in hot water (letting them soak in the hot
water for a little while before letting the wash cycle go). Our bin holds
about 20 diapers, or roughly two days' worth if you have one child in
diapers. We always wash the diapers separately from everything else.

As for how often to change, I usually just stick my finger in there to
feel whether it's very wet. My husband says, if you have to ask yourself
whether the baby needs to be changed, the answer is yes. :-)

-- Alpha
alphawave at earthlink dot net

[Jacqui]

Iuil wibbled

> I don't soak, just rinse the dirty ones. I have a bin in the
> bathroom beside the toilet for nappies which gets emptied into the
> washing machine when full. *Then* I rinse with vinegar. Soaking
> can actually destroy the waterproofing in the covers and the
> elastic if you're using fitted nappies.

Do you know, we hadn't actually thought of that... The instructions on
ours (Boots) say to pre-soak but I'm not sure quite what timeframe they
had in mind. I think this is going to take some experimentation!

Jac