Oh no.....a accidentally added bleach

[TayTaysMama]

I accidentally added bleach to my diapers.

I was washing my diaps and it had been a long time since I had added any vinegar to a rinse so I grabbed a bottle and added a bit.

Well, I grabbed bleach instead.

I am scared to know what could have happened? What can I do to fix it? I am running another hot wash now with nothing added to the water.

Any one have any experience with this that can give me some advise?

Thanks ahead of time!

[somanyjoys]

I've added a bit of bleach to a mixed diaper load (prefolds, pockets, covers) before with no major problems (except some fading on some hemp prefolds). I think you wouldn't want to do it regularly, but once shouldn't hurt performance. The extra wash is nice to get off the bleach smell.

[fruitfulmomma]

Honestly, I doubt it did anything to them. Mostly the issue is that over time it can cause the fabrics to break down faster than they would normally. Other than that possibly some fading in the color.

[lifeguard]

I only use prefolds - but I use bleach fairly regularly. I had such problems with stink at first (because of the water we had) & it was the only thing I found helped. Now it's only occassional but I do find it helps when things start getting stinky.

One time should be fine.

[thefreckledmama]

There's not too much you can do now, but in the future if anything like that happens again, keep filling the water up all the way (to dilute asap), and then spin it out immediately. Bleach takes a few minutes to really start doing anything except on very delicate fabrics, so if you get it off the fabric quickly, it shouldn't do too much damage. It's when it's contacting the fabric through a 20+/- cycle that you can run into problems.

FWIW-My MIL bleached my diapers once (I don't know how much she used), and they started falling apart and getting holes with the next wash (ruined my PUL covers too).

[TayTaysMama]

I feel a bit better. Thanks for the replies. I haven't gone back in to see what they look like yet. Guess I should go look.

Thanks for the tip on what to do if it happens again. I really need to move the bleach away so I don't grab it again.

[octobermom]

I started regurally adding a touch of bleach to my diaper wash after we had a bad round of staph. It did absoultly no damage other than slightly lightening up a few diapers. (and removed the color from a few colored kissaluv seconds) Actually doing this restored many of my diapers my covers stopped leaking for example. You don't want to like soak your diapers in bleach of course but I seriously dout one round will do anything.

Deanna

[Lynda&Jenna]

They will be fine. bumGenius suggest adding bleach to your wash 1 time a month I believe.
Lynda