Breaking in unbleached prefolds

[solinox]

I just ordered another couple dozen unbleached CPFs yesterday. Hopefully the last batch (!!), and although I feel silly buying brand-new diapers when he's already 18 months old, I'll be very happy not to be putting shredded rags on my baby anymore.

Anyway, my usual procedure for breaking them in in the past has been to run them through 8-10 regular wash/dry cycles with regular detergent. It works, but man is it tedious! And I hate waiting so long, it takes almost a week to work all those extra wash/dry cycles in with my regular 2 loads a day. So I was wondering: is the dry necessary? And would using the super-hot water on the sanitize cycle on my new washer strip the fibers faster? I'm wondering if I could just run them through 3-4 sanitize cycles, without drying in between, and then just dry once. What do you guys think? Any experience with this method?

[LZP]

No experience prepping diapers yet... but I am sure i read somewhere about boiling unbleached (or putting into just off the boil water) for a few minutes, and then washing.... something about loosening the oils?

if you maybe do a general search for boiling prefolds...?

I was thinking boiling would be my method if we get new unbleached... seems like SO much work to have to wash so many times before we can even use them!

[carmel23]

with the last batch I just got out the huge canning pot, and filled it 3/4ths full... and boiled the water, added the diapers for 10 minutes...

and then ran them in a hot wash. Done!

waay easier and less water used. If you don't have a huge pot you could do a few at a time.... saves water.

[solinox]

With the amount of water my HE front-loader uses, I doubt it would save much to do them on the stove!! But, thanks, that does reassure me that the sanitize cycle would probably do the trick very quickly.

[carmel23]

Originally Posted by solinox

With the amount of water my HE front-loader uses, I doubt it would save much to do them on the stove!! But, thanks, that does reassure me that the sanitize cycle would probably do the trick very quickly.

yeah, it should do it... and I if you need to, just run a few cycles back to back, no need to really dry them between each wash. If you take one out, you should be able to compare it to an already prepped prefold (it will be smaller then at first, and puffier ).

Have fun

[octobermom]

honestly I liked wash 3 times on hot adding a little clorox 2 (helps break down the natural oils) and tide and dry once... They will not be super assorbant at all at first but I then start to use them change often at first and wash with in a few days or by the end of the week they have ussually been washed enough for full assorbancy.

Deanna

[NSmomtobe]

I'm picking up mine tomorrow, so this is good information, but I have always wondered why diapers don't come preconditioned?

[solinox]

Presumably the only cost-effective way to industrially condition the diapers is to bleach them. If you're specifically looking for "unbleached" diapers...well, then you get them unconditioned, too.

JMO

[cristeen]

Personally, I just tossed my pfs in with the other laundry. Since it's all done with the same detergents, it doesn't really make a difference. That allowed me to save time, water and effort.

[solinox]

If only I had room in my other loads of laundry!!!

[NSmomtobe]

Originally Posted by solinox

Presumably the only cost-effective way to industrially condition the diapers is to bleach them. If you're specifically looking for "unbleached" diapers...well, then you get them unconditioned, too.

JMO

Why can't they use hot water if that's what they expect us to do? It's not really cost effective for us either, but they could do HUGE batches at once.

[carmel23]

I think that chinese prefolds (which are bleached white) also require the fluffing before use, as well.

That is one of the advantages of buying diapers second-hand.

It is probably easier for the manufacturer to ship them un-fluffy (packs tighter) and why do something that is expensive if the consumer can? It would make the diapers more expensive, presumably.

[solinox]

Doesn't bother me much. Over the course of diapering six kids, I've saved literally thousands of dollars on diapers, even though I've pretty much bought a new batch of prefolds for each kid (only bought a whole new set of covers once).

[octobermom]

some CD sites will sell there prefolds prepped for a small aditional fee.. I'm totally willing to pay it when I can.

Deanna

[NSmomtobe]

I would probably pay too, although I'd be reluctant to pay more for prefolds when I am not 100% sure how to use them yet.

However, the instructions that came with mine said to wash 3x in hot water with detergent, drying in between. So yes, the drying stage is apparently necessary, but 3x is more manageable than 8-10.

[thefreckledmama]

I've prepped two batches of unbleached prefolds...first our infants, then the premiums when she was big enough to move up-they were all the same brand.

I don't remember exactly how many it was, but when I dried every other wash or so, they prepped in fewer washes than when I did the washes back to back without drying.

I would probably boil them next time, since that's a lot less steps...boil, wash, dry, done.