No hot water...can I cloth diaper?

[Noah's mommy]

I cloth diapered my other two children without a problem-we lived in the US with a great washing machine, dryer, easily available hot water, special detergent etc...

This time I am in Brazil-we don't have hot water for our washing machine or a variety of laundry soap available. I am worried that attempting to cloth diaper this time around might end up being difficult, smelly, and a waste of money (if the diapers don't hold up well). We have hot water in the bathrooms but I have to be honest-I won't be washing by hand.

Please give me some advice or encouragement about whether you think this can be done! And how...is a cold wash enough?

TIA

[Katie T]

If I were to cloth diaper with no hot water I would probably go with prefolds or even better flats. That way if you do need to do a hot wash by hand every now and then they will be super easy to get clean.

I know there was a thread about this awhile back I'll see if I can find it and post the link. I don't remember the answers that were given.

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...nly+cold+water

[lalemma]

I think if I had to wash with only cold water, I'd get rid of everything but flats and wool covers, and then boil the flats every so often. Also, I think that ordinary detergent is okay - IMO it's just the synthetics that get weird issues with standard detergents. Cotton flats should be fine!

[woodchick]

I never wash with hot water and I haven't had any issues at all. We use prefolds and covers withe a couple pockets.

[prothyraia]

We pretty much only wash with cold water. The dipes get a little stinky after a month or two, and that's when we will do one really hot cycle. I imagine it wouldn't be too horrible to throw the (clean) dipes in almost-boiling on the stove for a minute once a month for the same effect.

[averlee]

You absolutely can use cloth diapers without hot water. Most mothers worldwide probably do not have hot running water or washing machines at all. I always just washed my daughter's home made diapers on cold with cheap detergent, never any problems.