Home-made, natural, diaper-friendly fabric softener?

[expat-mama]

I line dry all our laundry (no dryer) and because it's sooo hot and dry here year round, things dry super fast and are pretty crunchy feeling when I take them down even when I put them up just at night! Normally I don't mind, but I'm worried our prefolds are going to come out really, really tough and hard and not be nice to put on the babe.

I looked up recipes for natural fabric softeners and so far have tried adding vinegar to the wash, but that doesn't seem to help much. I looked up some recipes online for natural fabric softeners and have found some that include glycerin.
Does glycerin work?
Would glycerin be a bad idea for prefolds and cloth diapers- make them less absorbent or something?
Has anyone tried glycerin in a fabric softener recipe?
Any other ideas for softening up line-dried prefolds in super dry and hot weather?

Thanks again for the insight and advice!

[Nicole730]

I hadn't heard that about gylcerin. Could you post the link to the recipe? I can try it out for you, if you'd like. Our diapers do come off the line a little bit stiff, I just give them a good shake. DS and DD don't seem to mind the roughness of the fabric. I do use vinegar in every rinse cycle right now, even if it doesn't help with the softness, I think it helps with the stink - for diapers anyway.

[expat-mama]

Thanks for the reply!
Here are a couple of the recipes I found. They are pretty simple and all the others out there are pretty much the same. Vinegar, EOs, glycerin, water.

glycerin + water

glycerin + EO + vinegar

There are alot of laundry detergent recipes that also include glycerin out there. So far in my further sleuthing people seem to say that glycerin stops static cling, makes EO mix better with the other ingredients, and softens things up.
That would be great if you want to try it- but don't ruin your diapers on my account!

[Nicole730]

I'll give it a try, I bought some glycerin to make bubble bath with and could never get it to work, so I have a bunch left over. I'll just throw a few prefolds in with a regular load of laundry, so if it ruins them, it'll only be a few. I'm sure it will be fine, if they don't work as well, I'll just have to wash them normally next time or throw some dish detergent in there for a cycle.

[alfabetsoup]

No idea about the glycerin, but WRT to softening diapers: do you have a tumble dryer? If you do, just put the dipes in for 10 mins with dryer balls after you take them off the line and they'll soften right up.

[expat-mama]

Nope, no dryer.

Looking forward to hearing what happens with the glycerin!

[ExuberantDaffodil]

[Nicole730]

Originally Posted by expat-mama

Nope, no dryer.

Looking forward to hearing what happens with the glycerin!

Still going to try it, just waiting for the weather to be nice enough to hang the laundry out!

[freistms]

I'm no chemist, but the wiki on glycerin says it is water soluble, so it seems like it shouldn't be too much of a problem on your diapers, especially if you aren't relying on a wicking fabric. At the very least, it wouldn't be a permanent problem. You should be able to strip it off if it causes undesirable effects.