Taking on the impossible.... Cloth diaper at night

So you made the decision to cloth diaper and you did your homework. You now know that you should change baby every 2 hours or so and all that good stuff. But what about night time?  Are you doomed to have to wake baby every 2 hours to make sure he wakes up with dry sheets?  HECK NO!!!!

There are nighttime options for every family, you just have to test out a few to see what works well for your family.

My son sleeps on his tummy, about 12 hour stretch every night. He used to wet more when he woke up at night to feed but the diapers still held up.  Here are my faves:

1. Sandy's Fitteds. These are made by Mother-Ease and are available in four sizes, newborn, small, large and toddler. They come in a variety of fabric including bamboo, cotton and a cotton terry.  The new retail on these is about $13-15. I LOVE these for nighttime. The larges that I am currently using hold 15oz of liquid and you can add a booster that holds an additional 7 oz.  These may look like granny pants but they work awesome. Paired with a good cover they have been bullet proof. They are not stay-dry on their own but you can get stay dry boosters or add a fleece liner.

2. Bamboozle Bamboo fitteds by Bummis.  These bamboo fitteds are a OS diaper fitting from about 9-35lbs. They are made with super soft bamboo rayon and are super thirsty. They are also really trim so your baby doesn't have a basketball for a bum. They come with a snap in booster but you can add another one if you need to, but I found that it was totally not needed. Again with a good cover these are great at night. They retail for about $22-24 new.

 3. Flip Organic insert topped with a Flip stay dry insert. Now I was not a big Flip fan but the 100% organic cotton insert is super thirsty on it's own. I add the staydry microfiber insert for the stay dry effect. These fit right into the Flip cover and have been bulletproof for us. In fact the back of the inserts it often dry in the mornings. The retail price can vary a bit depending on where you buy but a cover is about $16, an organic insert $10 and a staydry insert $5. I have also taken the Organic insert and stuffed a pocket diaper with it for nighttime successfully.

 

 

4. Bumgenius Freetime AIO. This may not work for super heavy wetters but for us it works just fine. I do add a hemp booster under the 2 flaps so there is a 2 layer hemp booster and 5 layers of microfiber. I live that this is staydry on it's own so I don't need a fleece liner. This would be about $16-18 new.

 

 

5. Little Fancy Pants Fleece Sleepy ( or Little Fancy Pants Windpro Sleepy)

This is like a great fitted with a fleece cover all in one. Many families can use this without an added cover. I do find that this is a bit bulky compared to the other options but it does work. I was not able to go cover-less in them yet because my son sleeps on his tummy and tends to squeeze the moisture through the front of the diaper. These are available new for about $36-39 new.

6. Although I no longer use prefolds and covers, many families use doubled up prefolds like this with a cover and get great results. Prefolds can be made out of cotton, hemp or bamboo.  You can just lay it in a cover like this or use a snappi to fasten it on baby and then cover it. Prefolds are not staydry on their own so you may want to add a fleece liner to pull moisture away from baby's bottom. Prefolds are usually pretty inexpensive with a 6 pack of mediums around $20.

7. Last but not least is the Wizard Duo.  This is also made by Mother Ease. The covers some in 2 sizes and there are a variety of insert options available. My favourite is the nighttime stay dry insert. It is a synthetic fibre, but it is super absorbent. The only issue I had with this diaper in general was that the rise was too short for my tall baby and he outgrew it height wise before he hit the top of the weight range. There is a nighttime pack available on the Mother Ease website for about $60, including 1 cover and 2 inserts.


If you are using something different at night time and would like to share I love to hear comments of what works for other families and what doesn't.



Cold Washing Final

So last week I said that I was going to dial up the heat of my wash to my warm setting and keep all the other variables the same. Well, me being the co-ordinated and non-klutz that I am I knocked the entire container of Charlie Banana Soap into the mop bucket. Which was full of water. of course. So I went back to my favourite detergent, Country Save.

I still rinsed and soaked my over night diapers in water until wash day. I did a cold rinse, a long warm wash with 1 scoop of Country Save dissolved in a bit of warm water and an additional cold rinse.
This week I had no stinkies at all.  So I am going out on a limb saying that hot or warm washes are the best way to get your diapers clean without any fuss. Now that being said if you are only able to do cold washes try these tips to help tweak your wash routine.

1. Rinse your diapers well before storage
2. Try a wet pail for your prefolds, inserts, flats and some fitted and use a dry pail for anything with PUL.
3. Don't delay washing for longer than 3 days because the smells and stains really get set in and can be stubborn to get out.
4. Don't wash more than about 18 diapers in a load.
5. Use the longest cycle you have available on your machine, and use the soak function if you have one. If you have no soak function try letting your machine go a few minutes and then stop it so the diapers can soak in the detergent for an hour or so.
6. Use an appropriate detergent. My favourites in cold washer are Charlie Banana Soap, Nature Clean liquid, Nature Clean powder, and Country Save. (I was really not blown away by Tide Coldwater)
7. Make sure you rinse well because at colder temps the detergent can be harder to rinse out
8. Try doing 1 wash a month on hot water.

I found that the diapers that were hard to get clean were the ones made out of synthetic fibres like microfiber and fleece. Cotton, Bamboo and hemp seemed to clean out better. Now I did not focus too much on what fibres made up my stinky diapers so I am not 100% sure on it.

If you are looking at washing in cold to save money here are some stats from Applecheeks website:

Based on 2008 Hydro Quebec rates it will cost you:

• $0.38 for a hot wash
• $0.18 for a warm wash
• $0.03 for a cold wash

A dryer cycle  will cost you a grand total of $0.17 cents!

So washing your diapers every three days will raise your energy bill by a grand total of approximately $68.80 per year!

If you wash all your other laundry in cold water diapers will cost you an extra $68 a year. That's not too bad. Especially because to me, having to rewash and the extra fuss to get diapers clean with cold washes is not worth it time wise... but that's just me. If you have a cold wash routine that you have been using and are happy with the results please feel free to comment below. I would love to hear them. Please include your washer type ( top or front loader, HE or non- HE), water type if you know it, detergent and amount, type of diapers you use, and your wash routine.

Stains on my diapers? NEVER!

OK, so we all know that diapers, cloth or disposable, have one purpose. To catch poo and pee. So does that mean that you are destined to deal with poop stained diapers?  Not in this household! Yes stains happen and really they are not that big of a deal. But, I do show off my cloth often and there is nothing like showing a non cloth diaper using, sceptical mom your super cute Charlie Banana diaper with a massive poops stain inside. Kinda gross, don't you think? So what the heck are you to do to make sure that you have as little staining as possible?

1. Get a liner

Fairly simple. Using either a flushable (some brands are better than others) or fleece liners in all your diapers keeps stains at bay big time. A fleece liner is super easy to rinse off and washes clean. They are really inexpensive too. You can buy a 10 pack of Bummis fleece liners for about $5 or make your own by buying the thinnest fleece you can get and cutting it to the size you need.



2. Deal with the poop

Simple laundry 101. The longer a stain sets in the harder it is to get it out. I rinse all my poopy diapers ASAP with a diaper sprayer and if the stain is bad I do pre-treat right away.



3. Switch to a warm pre-rinse

Stains come out best at the temperature they were created at. So poop stains tend to come out better with warm rinses than with cold ones. My machine only does cold rinses so I normally start my wash routine with a short warm wash cycle. The warm cycle also helps deal with super stinky diapers.



4. Diapers don't worry about skin cancer

I was totally sceptical about this before I cloth diapered, but yes the sun is amazing at bleaching out stains.  You don't even need a clear sunny day. You need direct sun light in the form of UV rays, and there are plenty of those floating around.  This means you can sun your diapers in the winter when it is below freezing. I live in Northern Canada so believe me when I say it gets COLD! Like -40 Celsius cold in the winter.

This is my way of sunning in the winter. I hang my clean and wet diaper on a coat hanger using clothes pins and then hang the hanger off the curtain rod. Yes I probably get a few stares from passerbyers.



5. Lemon juice makes awsome sunscreen

Well maybe not for people but for diapers it is a great helper. On stubborn stains squirting half lemon juice half water as it dries in the sun help lift out the stain.



6. Stain Treatments.

There are tons of options here. I used a few on my diapers with great results. Don't use them all together of course.

Buncha Farmers Stain Remover.  This is great stuff. You wet the stick and rub it into the stain before tossing the diaper in the pail. I use this on all kinds of stains from cloth pads, food and greasy work clothes.

 

Nature Clean Oxygen Bleach. I add about 1/4 cup to my pre-wash or first rinse. This is 100% Natural and will not harm your diapers. You can also add 1/4 cup to your wet pail if that is the storage method you are using.  For keeping stains at bay a wet pail is a better option but keep in mind that PUL doesn't like to soak. If you are going with a wet pail I would only use it for inserts, prefolds, flats and maybe fitteds depending on what they are made up of. I personally find a wet pail more cumbersome than what it's worth.

Nature Clean Oxy Stain Remover. This is basically a powdered version of the oxygen bleach. About 1 tbsp in the prewash or first rinse usually does the trick. You can also add this as a detergent booster to your regular laundry.

And last but certainly not least, good old Baking Soda. I use about 1/4 cup baking soda to 1 gallon warm water and soak my diapers for a few hours or overnight then wash as normal. I found this baking soda also works great on new to me diapers that smelled a bit, well, off if you get my drift.

Now some diaper fabric do stain more easily than others. Cotton like the insides of a GroVia AIO or a BumGenius Elemental are examples. These do sun out really well though. At the end of the day stains will happen. If all else fails they will get lighter and lighter the more you wash the diaper.

 

 

Cold Water Wash Week 3

Well we are three weeks in and I am really on the fence with this one. I am having no issues at all getting my pocket diapers clean in cold water but my fitteds are another story. It seems that I HAVE to soak those before washing or I end up with stinky diapers.

This week I tried only soaking my overnight fitteds in warm water and a tiny bit of detergent. After all those are the ones that are on the bum the longest and should be the ones with stink issues right. Well turns out the fitteds I did not soak were a 50/50 hit or miss. It seems that some of them would come out clean and some wouldn't.

I could fix this is I soaked all my fitteds but I really don't like having a wet pail. Soaking 2 overnight diapers in an ice cream bucket in the laundry room is no biggie but all my fitteds would be a pain.

I tried adding 1 tbsp Funk Rock by Rockin Green to my pre-rinse but it did not seem to help. I ended up having to rewash my fitteds in warm every time. After the warm wash they were fine. It is likely that the warm water is needed to help the detergent do its job well enough to penetrate all the layers of the diaper. Fitteds usually have lots of layers which is great for absorbency but it is a bit of a challenge if you are not washing on hot water. According to some of the research I did there is a 50% drop in the effectiveness of your detergent for every 10 degrees your water temp drops below 45 degrees Celsius.

This week coming I am going to dial up the temp to warm washes, in my machine that is about 30 degrees Celsius and we will see if it makes a difference. I will keep using the Charlie Banana Soap and continue to soak the overnight diapers, to keep all the other variables the same.

Diapers are a poopy matter

The first question I get asked ,immediately after the "you really use cloth diapers?" is " What do you do with the poop?"

Well when you use cloth diapers, just like disposable diapers, you will come face to face with poop. Let me tell you, after a few diapers it really won't be a big deal. With disposables most families just toss the diaper and it's contents into the garbage. Did you know though that in quite a few places you are not supposed to dispose of human waste in the garbage? You should check your local bylaws. You are supposed to dispose of human waste in the toilet and then toss the diaper.

So with cloth, what do you do? You dispose of poop in the toilet. There are a few methods that you can use to do this.

1. The Diaper Sprayer

This is a funky little shower head that attaches to your toilet tank and uses the water from the lines. You basically use the shower head to spray off the soiled diaper into the toilet and you are done. When I told my husband that we are going to cloth diaper, this was his requirement. While I would cloth diaper without my sprayer, I love it and it is one of my can't do without accessories. I purchased the BumGenius Diaper Sprayer for $50 and it was the smartest $50 I spent. You can purchase less expensive brands also on Amazon or Ebay.

2. The Flushable Liners

Biodegradable, flushable liners are available from several brands including Bummis, GroVia, Charlie Banana and Applecheeks.  These come on rolls and you lay them into your diaper. When you change the diaper the liners simply get flushed down the toilet and then the rest of the diaper goes into your pail.  The solid poop stays on the liner and no need for a diaper sprayer. Wet liners may also be tossed into a compost pail instead of the toilet. Most brands are safe for septic tanks, but always double check.  I use these when we travel and I will be using them with daycare. I do find that some of the liners like to stick to my sons bum but they all do their job. If you are breastfeeding exclusively you won't reap all the benefits of these as breast fed poop is really runny and will go straight through the liner.

3. The Dunk and Flush

I have tried this once or twice and it is not my preferred method by far. It is basically what it sounds like. You dunk the diaper into the toilet and flush repeatedly to get the poop off. I found this to be the least effective and messiest method. I would rather spend the $6 on a roll of 100 Bummis liners.


 4. The Wash Machine

This is ONLY for exclusively breast fed babies.
Human breast milk poop is water soluble. You do not need to rinse poopy diaper off just store them in your pail. The initial rinse cycle in your wash routine will take care of it for you. If you wanted to you could run a cold or even a warm short cycle without any detergent added instead of just a rinse.  Breastfed poop can stain more but it also suns out the easiest.

Cold Wash Week 2

For those of you who have been following, I decided to test out cold water wash routines for the month. Cold washing is not the norm for cloth diapers but many families do not have the option to wash on hot. There is very limited information on the net about cloth diapers and cold water washing. Most sites and discussion groups will tell you that you have to wash on hot to sanitise diapers. Well based on the research that I did before I started, the average home wash machine does not get hot enough to sanitise. If your machine has a sanitise setting you may get hot enough but it will melt your PUL.  My hot water comes out at 50 degrees Celsius and that is not hot enough.

I have been washing on cold for 2 weeks now and so far so good. I have a mixed stash of pockets and fitteds. I am finding that straight cold water washer are OK for my pockets, I have no smell issues and no staining. My fitteds are mostly OK also, the only ones that seem to need more TLC are the fitteds I use for overnight.

This week I tried out a combination of a wet and a dry pail. I normally use a dry pail only. I used a wet bag for my covers and pocket shells and a wet pail for my inserts and fitteds.  I had the wet pail in the bathroom with some water and 1 tbsp of detergent. It worked well and even my overnight fitteds came out clean and fresh. It was a pain to deal with though. It was heavy, and if it wasn't in the bathroom I would have dropped it after day 1.

This week I also ran out of Tide, so I switched to Charlie Banana Laundry Detergent.

This is relatively new on the market. Charlie Banana introduced it in September 2012 and currently it is only available off the Charlie Banana website. The tub says that it does 80 loads but with hard water and an old style top loader I need 2 scoops per load so a tub is about 40 loads. It does not list its ingredients all it says is that it is made of coconut oil based cleaners, natural washing soda and sodium silicate. It does not contain phosphates, dyes and fragrances. It is hypoallergenic, safe for sensitive skin and completely biodegradable. It is formulated to dissolve well in cold and warm water as it is made for Charlie Banana diapers. I was surprised that this did not give my son rashes because normally he is super sensitive to all things made with coconuts. Well , I gave it a go. I was very impressed that it got all the stinkies out and my diapers came out smelling clean and fresh. I did find that it was not as great on stains as some of the other detergents that I have tried, but that really was not a big deal because I can sun them out easily enough. I used 2 scoops ( 2 tbsp) in my long cold wash.

So far things are going well overall. I am thinking that I will wash my pockets on cold and my fitteds on warm since I am not 100% impressed with how they come out after cold washes.

Stay tuned for next week...



Enzymes, and Brighteners, and Dyes, Oh my!

So if you ask what detergent you should use on your diapers you will get about a thousand replies. So what is a new cloth diapering family to do?  Well there are things you should stay away from in your detergent.  Enzymes, brighteners, dyes and fragrance can cause irritation in babies and softeners reduce absorption in diapers.  The detergent that you decide to go with must work for you. If a detergent is working well and you are happy with the results then by all means stick with it. If something is working then don't fix it.

I have used several cloth diaper safe detergents and a few not cloth diaper safe ones, and I am still in the process of testing some more, here are my findings on the ones I have tried to date:

Nature Clean
It is made by a Canadian company without Enzymes, Brighteners, Dyes, Fragrance, Phosphates and SLS.  This detergent is cloth diaper safe and is available in a liquid and a powder format. I prefer the powder format but they both do a really great job. I had no stains or smell issues while using this detergent. It works well in all water temperatures. I did find that the powder made some of my natural fibre diapers a bit stiff because it is made with corn starch based ingredients. You can soften up stiff diapers by throwing them into the dryer on low for a few minutes after you take them off the line. This would be one of my top recommendations. It is readily available at most Loblaws grocery stores.

BumGenius Detergent
This is made by the makers of Country Save. It contains no enzymes, brighteners, dyes, fragrance, phosphates or SLS. It is made specifically to work with cloth diapers. I found it does a really great job on diapers. I do use 2 scoops per load as I have hard water and a top loading machine. It is available at most on line cloth diaper retailers. I found this worked well in hot and warm water but you should dissolve it in warm water if you are using it in cold water.




Rockin Green
Made to work specially with cloth diapers. This is one of the most recommended cloth diaper detergents available. It comes in 3 formulas made for soft, regular, or hard water. You really need to know where your water sits so that you get the correct formula. It works awesome. It is a bit more expensive and you have to order it on line but a bag really lasts a long time. I really like this detergent and I was very impressed with the customer service provided by Rockin Green. They will work with you one on one to trouble shoot any issues you may run into.

Nellie's Laundry Soda

My son is sensitive to most coconut based ingredients so unfortunately we got a reaction with this detergent. It is also a Canadian Company and it is an all natural detergent.  I was not too blown away with how it did on stains but stains can be sunned out. I do like that it dissolves well in cold water so if you are washing in warm or cold this would be on my suggestion list. I did like how it did on my regular laundry. This is a cloth diaper safe detergent.

Country Save

This is by far my favourite! It works amazingly well on both diapers and regular laundry. Out of all the detergents this is the cheapest at $5.99 per 40 load box. It contains no additives and is 100% natural. I had no stains, no smells and nothing but clean diapers with this detergent. I do dissolve it in warm water before adding it to my load regardless of the temperature of the wash. I have slightly hard water and this stuff rocks in hard water even if you are washing in cold water. I am switching over to this full time. This is a cloth diaper safe detergent and it seems to be one of the most recommended ones out there.

Seventh Generation Free and Clear

This detergent received some mixed reviews. Some moms LOVE it and would never use anything else others say that they got major stinkies with it after a short while. I found that I was not happy with how it did on stains in my water conditions. I would use this if I had nothing else available but this would not be my regular diaper detergent. Honestly I was not too impressed with how it did on my regular laundry either. It does contain enzymes and it can void some diaper warranties.

Tide

I know, it has all those things you are told to stay away from. That being said it did get voted cloth diaper detergent of the year in 2012 on the Padded Tush Stats and it is recommended by a few cloth diaper manufacturers. Lots of moms swear by it and it does rinse out quite well. I was a Tide user all my life up until I started to cloth diaper. I did use this on my diapers for the first while and I was happy with the results. No stains, no stinkies and no rashes. That being said lots of babies are sensitive to it and it will void some diaper warranties as it is not considered cloth diaper safe. I have decided to switch over to natural detergents since I cloth diaper more for environmental reasons than anything else. I feel that if I am trying to be more environmentally friendly by reusing diapers I shouldn't add chemicals into the waterways. I did find that it worked better than other detergents that I have tried in cold water washing. If you are limited in detergent choices I would say give this a go before any of the other mainstream brands like Sunlight and Purex.

Regardless of what detergent you decide on the key is that it works for your water and you are happy with the end result. Clean diapers are not optional, they are a MUST!

 

 

Bum Wrappers Diapers

BumWrapper Diaper is made by a stay at home mom in Grand Prairie, Alberta.  They are a One Size pocket style diaper, so they typically fit from about 12-40lbs. You can purchase them online at clothdiaperkids.com.

I was fortunate enough to test these diapers in the first round of testing as well as the final phase. The first thing that caught my attention was that the diaper has a minky inner in some fun colours. Pretty much all of the diapers I have seen out there are either white fleece, micro suede or a black charcoal bamboo. But none of them come in green, red, orange to name a few.  I like that. The minky is super soft and I was actually pleasantly surprised at how easy it cleaned up. No stains.

 

 

The other thing I really liked about these right off the bat it that they had leg gussets to hold in all the messes. The pocket opening is at the front of the diaper, another feature that is a bonus in my books.

 

When I got my diapers they do not come with inserts as they are testers. I didn't mind though because I prefer to use cotton flour sack towels or hemp as inserts in my pockets anyways.



This is the phase one tester of the diaper. It has 2 rows of snaps on the front giving you three different rise settings and 3 snaps on each flap at the waist. I found that the rise snaps were just a tad bit off on this and having it on the smallest setting would have been awkward. I did like the way the snaps are set up on the waist band. I did notice that the front flap of the diaper was lower than the waist band and some of the inner part of the diaper was exposed when you snapped it up. I never had a leak though. The only other thing that

was a bit odd on this phase was that then inserts I had all seemed to be too long for the diaper, so I had the insert sticking up past the waist band at the back of the diaper.

 







Recently the final phase testers were done and I got one to try out. The issue with the inserts not fitting and the rise snaps being odd got fixed so I was really excited to try it out.



This one has 4 snaps on each flap and has an option to cross over the front flaps so you can get a great fit on even the thinnest babies. I actually prefer the snap set up of the phase one better, but that is just a personal preference. It does not effect the function of the diaper.

The main features of the diaper are still the same as before. I love the minky inner, the fun colours, the front pocket and that it will fit my tall baby for quite some time. I stuffed this one with a cotton flour sack towel also and it is super trim under my son's clothes. The pocket is generous enough, though, that you could add additional inserts if you needed to boost the absorbency. The only issue I had with this diaper is my snaps seemed weak and they were a pain to snap closed and then they did not seem to want to stay closed. I did contact the seller and they did have some issues with the snaps on this batch but have made adjustments to correct it.

Here is Mr. B modelling the final phase.

Cold Wash Week One

So it has been 1 week, 4 diaper loads since I decided to try cold water wash routines. I originally decided to only change the water temperature in my routine so I still stored my diapers in a dry pail, washed every other day, but after a bit of research I decided to use a detergent that was made for cold water use. I had a partial box of Tide Coldwater powder from before I quit using Tide that I figured I might as well use up. I know my son is not sensitive to Tide, and Tide has a great track record for cleaning in cold water. I know it is not the best option from an environmental point but I can't stand letting that box go to waste either.

I have a mix of pocket and fitted diapers.I rinse out my overnight diapers in warm water before storing everything in my pail liner until wash day. For the test period I will rinse out all my diapers. The cold setting on my machine is just below 10 degrees Celcius.

I started with a cold rinse, followed by a long cold wash and an additional cold rinse. I used Tide Coldwater to line 1 on the scoop and I dissolved it in a bit of warm water before adding it to the machine. Filling the scoop to line 1 worked really well in hot water when I was using Tide before. I also did a hot water strip on all my diapers before starting this to make sure there was no residue of any kind left over that could cause stink issues.

After the first wash my pockets and inserts came out clean, most of my fitteds came out clean but my overnight diapers smelled. Not like pee, but musty. I rewashed the load in warm and it was fine.

The second wash I added a soak. I still did a cold rinse but then I added my detergent and started the long cold wash cycle and raised the lid to stop the machine after a few moments of agitation. I let things sit like that for about an hour before finishing the cycle and then running another rinse. This load was almost all pockets and 2 overnight fitteds. This load came out fine. No smells at all.

I repeated the second wash process for the third wash. This load had more fitteds in it and B had a very busy day with lots of poopy diapers. The pockets came out fine but again a few of the fitteds were a bit musty smelling. No stains though.

For the final wash this week I had mostly fitteds in the load. I added 1tbsp of Funk Rock by Rockin Green to my first rinse. I was not able to let the diapers soak today so I did increase the detergent to Line 2 on the scoop. According to the box you are supposed to use to line 2 for a medium load so I was under dosing in the previous washes. This load came out clean except for the overnight diapers. The 2 Sandy's fitteds again smelled musty.

So what I learnt so far....
1. Cold water washes work fine for pockets and inserts but a bit of TLC is needed on fitteds because of all the layers.
2. If you can, letting the diapers soak an hour or so before washing helps get them cleaner.
3. Rinsing out your inserts before storing them in your pail also helps them get cleaner.

For next week I am going to stick to the same routine of rinse, long wash, rinse all on cold but I am going to see is using a wet pail on my fitteds and inserts can cut out the soak. When I go back to work I won't have the time to mess around with soaking before washing. I would love to make cold water washing work but if hot washes are more convenient then I will go back to that. So this week I am going to separate my inserts from my covers and pocket shells. The covers will go into a dry wet bag and the inserts and fitteds will soak in a wet pail with water and 1tbsp detergent. Stay tuned for the results.

You are washing your diapers with WHAT?

Well now that you have your diaper stash and it is all prepped and ready to go what about that washing thing? I mean using cloth diapers that is sort of unavoidable.  The issue many run into here is that there are about as many wash routines out there as stars in the sky. So what is the right way?  The right way is the way that works for you. Your diapers have to get clean, be stink free and your baby has to be rash free.  But where to start. Well for starters get familiar with your water. hard water reacts different from regular or soft water and you need to know what detergent works best in your water. You can read reviews and google it until your fingers are numb from clicking but the only real way to know what will work is to actually try it out. Here are my basic recommended detergent, I will post about them later:

Country Save
Rockin Green
Bum Genius Detergent
Nature Clean
Charlie Banana Soap
Nellies

I have had good luck with all of these detergents but Country Save is my favourite by far.

A basic wash routine looks like this:
Wash every 2-3 days
Do a cold rinse to remove any pee and poop particles that may be on the diaper
Do a hot long wash with your detergent
Do an additional cold rinse to remove any left over detergent.

I have been using the above routine successfully for about 9 months. I do a warm rinse first instead of a cold one because I have found that it helps remove stains better. Bonus for me, because in Northern Canada the days are short and the light rays are not intense enough to sun well in the winter.

Now in February I have decided to take on a challenge. Lots on people only have cold water as an option. In other countries cold water washing is the only way to go, including diapers. Some diaper companies like Charlie Banana, Giggle Life, Alva and Kawaii all suggest cold or warm washes. Can cold water really work as well? 

One argument in favour of hot washes is that your detergent works better in hot water. Get a cold water detergent. Country Save, Nellies and Nature Clean all dissolve well at all temperatures. Charlie Banana Soap is made to use with cold or warm washes specifically.

A second common argument is that you need hot water to sanitise the diapers. True, but you would need a minimum of 160 degree water to do so. Most homes have their hot water set to 130 so it comes out of the tap at 120 or less. 

So here is my wash routine for the month of February:   Same as above but using only cold water....

We will see what happens, keep checking for weekly updates.