[henhao]

Someone told me to use Borax to clean my diapers or my baby would get diaper rash. I said I've been using detergent in a hot wash and then doing a hot rinse and all has been well.

Is Borax necessary? It is necessary to use more than detergent?

 

[kath]

i've never used borax in my life. i use a warm rinse with a squirt of dawn, then a hot wash with tide, then 2 cold rinses and the first has some vinegar in it. never had a problem. it will depend on your water. is it hard or soft or just in the middle?

 

[LizaBear]

Do you disinfect your underwear ?

I wouldn't worry about it unless your child has had a stomach virus.

 

[ibusymomto5]

I've actually heard just the opposite about Borax, that it is harsh and can cause irritation to babies. I've also read that it can shorten the life of some diapers. We've been cloth diapering for 8 1/2yrs, and I've had the best luck keeping the wash routine very simple. A cold rinse with nothing, a hot wash with a tiny bit of regular detergent, and an extra cold rinse. I don't use baking soda, vinegar, washing soda, borax or essential oils, although I've used all at some point in the past. I've just found that they're simply not necessary on a regular basis, and if anything end up causing trouble after extended use. They might have an occasional use, once in a while, but for our normal wash routine with our soft city water, simple detergent and hot water is sufficient and doesn't give my dd any rashes.

 

[henhao]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LizaBear Do you disinfect your underwear ? I wouldn't worry about it unless your child has had a stomach virus.

Hee. No, but I don't poop in my underwear either.

 

[guestmama9924]

to my knowledge, our dipes were never infected

seriously, we are the only ones using them, so a nice couple of hours in the sun is all that was ever needed.

 

[ibusymomto5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by henhao Hee. No, but I don't poop in my underwear either.

:

 

[LizaBear]

Quote:

Originally Posted by henhao Hee. No, but I don't poop in my underwear either.

Do you wash your hiney with soap and water every time you do poop ? If not - you are getting poop on your underwear.

 

[mknight]

Just out of curiosity, does the sun disinfect as well as bleach out stains?

 

[guestmama9924]

mine never had stains. white and bright, and resold on ebay

 

[marymamma]

You can also put some tea tree oil in the wash to disinfect. TTO kills staph and ecoli bacterias just to name a few. You can buy it at target or walmart for about $4 a bottle. I found it at Target on the bottom shelf of the viamin aisle. I think some stores put it where the antiseptics, alcohol, and peroxide is.

Just a capful along with whatever detergent you use will do the trick!

 

[Is3enough]

I use borax but not to disinfect. I am with others, I didn't know they were infected

I use borax from time to time because we have really hard water and it helps with that. For us anyway.

 

[wawoof]

If my dipes get stink of ammonia when peed in (rare now that I have a front-loading washer with sanitary cycle), this tells me there is bacteria that needs to be removed and my normal wash routine isn't doing it. In this case, I do an ultra hot wash with a scoop of oxyclean (oxygen bleach). In the rare event that this hasn't solved the problem, I'll do a cold wash with 1/2 cup of chlorine bleach, followed by another super hot wash to denature and rinse out the bleach. However, like the prev posters, if you don't have stink and your dc doesn't have a rash, I see no reason to routinely "disinfect".

 

[eirual]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marymamma You can also put some tea tree oil in the wash to disinfect. TTO kills staph and ecoli bacterias just to name a few. You can buy it at target or walmart for about $4 a bottle. I found it at Target on the bottom shelf of the viamin aisle. I think some stores put it where the antiseptics, alcohol, and peroxide is. Just a capful along with whatever detergent you use will do the trick!

A CAP FULL...really??

I've never used in the wash, but that seems like A LOT!! I would think a few drops would be more than enough no??

That is good to know though since I'll be CDing at daycare and they require a "sanitizing" step in the wash process.

 

[amberthesugarcat]

Just to warn you about TTO, many babies are super sensitive to it. If you read the MSDS (you can do a search) it is not always safe to use anywhere near skin. It should get diluted enough in the wash, but I think if you want to use enough to sanitize anything you run the risk of enough sticking around and possibly irritating your baby's skin. It is never meant to be used around children or babies! It is not one of the "safe" EOs like lavender... http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH...l?d=dmtContent Pretty much everyone suggests not to use TTO around babies or children just in case.

I would stick to 1/4 cup of bleach added to the cold prerinse. That should sanitize and it will be washed out by your hot water wash. Also detergent and super hot water should eliminate most bacteria. Basically, if you diapers smell fresh coming from the wash and night diapers don't stink strongly of ammonia in the morning then they are probably bacteria free and you don't need to sanitize them. But if you get stink then you must kill the bacteria!

 

[Llyra]

Hot water seems to me like it would be sufficient to take care of normal sanitizing needs. If multiple children were using the same dipes, like with a diaper service, then I can see how disinfecting would be necessary, but not for just your own kids. The only time I might use anything stronger is during intestinal illnesses, when I might use a tiny bit of bleach with several good rinses afterwards.

More likely, though, I'd just make the water a little hotter.

 

[3 Little Monkeys]

I've never done anything to disinfect my dipes - just some hot water and regular detergent. Occasionally I'll put a few drops of TTO in there but that is very rare (because I rarely if ever remember

)