Cleaning Cloth Diapers, newbie!

[impaz0330]

My baby is due by the end of the month, and I'm trying to have everything sorted out when it comes to the diapers.  I've got a couple of packages of disposable newborn ones from my babyshower, so I'll use those up first, but I'm sure they'll be gone in about 2 weeks! We definitely want to use cloth asap, but we (me, my hubby and 16 year old sister who'll be babysitting!) need to know how to deal with cleaning them.

 Since there are so many different kinds of diapers out there, and I'm not sure what will work for my baby yet, I got a kit that includes:

* One Fitted Diaper (not sure which exactly, since varies according to what is available)
* One Thirsties Diaper Cover
* 6 Indian Prefold Diapers

* One Snappi diaper fastener
* One Thirsties Duo Diaper pocket diaper with micrifiber and hemp insert

* 6 Flannel Wipes

Now, when it comes to washing them, what detergent should I use? Can I use Dr. Bronners? Right now I use these seeds I got, and they work fine for normal clothes, not great at removing stains but hubby and I hardly stain anything.  That's all about to change in a month of course.  Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  I've heard about Rockin' Green, is it?   Has to be as natural as possible, bc I'm as earth friendly and chemical free as I can.  I'll line dry, but how do you ladies wash them? Do you rinse them out in the sink before throwing them in the wash? (I'd rather not, since my sinks get clogged easily) Should I use the 2nd rinse setting? Warm/hot/cold water?  I have a top loader, water's a bit hard I think. Do you use the delicate or heavy duty cycle?

Also, wet bag recommendations, please! I've seen some super cute ones on Etsy, but not entirely sure what I need to be looking for.

Thanks in advance!

Melissa

Edited by impaz0330 - 4/2/11 at 5:56am

[4midablemama]

I am a prefolds and covers mom, and I LOVE my Thirsties Duos and Imse Vimse covers. I have also had great success with Kawaii Baby covers; they aren't as "fancy" as some others (and the prices reflects it, they are probably the cheapest thing in my stash), but they hold up great and they fit my tall, skinny boy really well.  I have also just purchased a Planet Wise wet bag, and it's the best investment I have made yet. It has a zipper, so no icky smells leak out, and it turns itself inside out in the washer (not sure if that's an intentional feature or not, but it's a GREAT ONE!) which means that everything gets clean, inside and out.

My routine is a cold rinse with nothing in the water, then a hot wash cycle with a detergent, (I either make my own or I use the tiny, tiniest amount of whatever liquid we have on hand) a half cup of washing soda, and a half cup of vinegar during the rinse cycle. I use the place in the washer where the fabric softener usually goes for the vinegar, but if your washer doesn't have it, I've been told you can put it in a Downy fabric softener ball with the same results. I dry everything on medium, but I take the covers and the wet bag out after about 10 minutes and leave everything else to tumble. Make sure to do up those laundry tabs!!!

[Monkey pants]

You will want to get more diapers. :)

I do a prewash on cold with NO detergent 

Then Hot wash with detergent and an extra cold rinse. I use Charlies Soap which is all natural and CD friendly.

I think Dr Bronners (which i LOVE and use on almost everything)  will leave a residue on dipes so you may want to look into some other kind of detergent. Ive used Rockin Green besides the nice lavender scent I could not tell the diference between that and charlies. With Charlies I can have the container refilled at my local CD store but you may not have that kind of thing where you live. 

I have a wet bag in the pail which helps on not having a stinky room. No sure what kind it is but its fabric with a layer of PUL on the inside. Dont stress over a wet bag really just get one and a garbage pail with a lid and you will be just fine. Heck you dont really have to have a bag unless you need to transport the dirties and dont mind rinsing out the pail each time. I do this with a squirt of bronners and its all nice. HTH!

[impaz0330]

I'm definitely planning on getting more diapers! We got a diaper pail and put a garbage bag in it, so I guess that should be ok.  It seems I can just dump the diapers in the washing machine without having to rinse them out before hand, so that's a relief.   I'll have to try out diff detergents, Rockin Green seems expensive.  I do have some 7th generation detergent.  Maybe I can just use baking soda
 

[4midablemama]

I've never been able to justify the price of my most of the ready-made diaper laundry detergents, so I've mostly made my own. There are plenty of good, simple recipes you can find on the internet. I like these:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5124280_use-zote.html

http://www.diaperjungle.com/homemade-laundry-detergent.html

For the second recipe, I always used Ivory soap, never could find the Naptha and didn't want to use it anyway because my son has eczema and I have to super, super careful what I put next to his skin. The washing soda (Arm and Hammer) and the Zote soap I find at Wal-Mart, most other places in my area don't carry them. There are other sites with different recipes, just do some browsing and see if you can find one that suits your needs.

[somegirl99]

For pees and breastmilk poops you don't need to pre-rinse the diapers before putting them in the machine, although you will see poop stains on the diapers (putting them in the sun helps with stains).  For solid poops later on you might want to think about a sprayer at your toilet.  Or look into EC and catching at least some of the pees and poops in a potty.

I also have a top loader (older) with hard water and this is working for us (mostly cotton prefolds and/or hemp/cotton inserts/doublers but occasionally fleece and/or microfiber inserts):

1) Cold rinse with no detergent, white vinegar in a downy ball

2) Hot wash/cold rinse (heavier duty cycle) with country save detergent, white vinegar in a downy ball

3) Cold rinse with nothing added

I buy Country Save in bulk from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Country-Save-Laundry-Detergent-160-Load/dp/B001561MWS/), you can also buy a smaller amount to try from a link on their website (http://www.countrysave.com/).  It's been working well for both diapers and regular laundry for us.

We use a Planet Wise pail liner.

Finally if you are going to have a few different people washing the diapers, I recommend putting written instructions next to the washing machine so you can make sure everyone follows the routine properly.

[impaz0330]

That sounds good, thanks so much!  I'm definitely going to get a sprayer later on, but I'll be breastfeeding exclusively for the first 6 months if not longer, so that was a big concern.  My 16 year old sister, aka the babysitter, told me she absolutely refused to deal with poopy diapers if she had to clean them out before dumping in the wash, so it'll be nice to tell her she won't have to, lol. I'll try out a few diff methods, see what works best with our washer, but all this info really gives me a great place to start and methods I wouldn't have thought of.