I got my Diapers.... Now What??

Well once you have your diapers you have to "prep" them. This refers to getting them ready to use. The way to prep depends on what the diaper is made of and where you got it from.

Synthetic materials like fleece and microfiber only need one good wash in hot with your detergent to get them ready to wear.

Natural fibres like cotton, bamboo and hemp need several washes to reach their max absorbency.  They are coated with natural oils when made and you need to remove that oil to increase their ability to absorb liquids. You should wash them on hot about 4-5 times before use. Now you could just do 1 or 2 washes but just know that they won't be fully absorbent.  If you are prepping inserts, flats or prefolds you can boil them in water on the stove for about 20 minutes and then just wash once.  Any diaper with snaps, elastic or a waterproof layer should not be boiled.

This will work for all your brand new diapers. If you got your stash from swaps and are used diapers the process is a bit different.  The diapers have been prepped so you don't need to prep them for the same reason. You do want to make sure they are clean though.

I put all my new to me diapers through 4 hot washed without any detergent and check for bubbles.  This works out whatever detergent was used on them before hand and may still be stuck in the fibres. Your little one may be sensitive to some detergent and you really don't know how the diapers were cared for so you want to wipe the slate clean.

I then put them through a hot wash with my detergent and 1/4 cup bleach to sanitise. I also do 1 or 2 additional rinses to make sure all the bleach is out.  I only recommend bleach on 2 or 3 occasions and new to you diapers is one of them.  I treat all new to me diapers as if they carried the plague!  You want to make sure they are clean and sanitised properly before putting on your baby.

Now you are all set to diaper baby with all those super soft and cute diapers.  Happy Fluff