These are not the diapers of the 70's! No diaper service required.
By washing at home, you get to decide what products and/or (not) chemicals with which you wash your diapers.
My diaper load is the easiest of all my laundry. It is already sorted and transportable from the baby's room directly to the washing machine.
HE Washing Machines do the best at cleaning cloth diapers. Lots of rubbing and agitation gets them clean! The fast spin at the end helps with drying time, too.
At the Changing Table:
Change baby. Pee-only diapers can go directly into the pail.
Regarding the Poopy Diapers:
Exclusively
breastfed babies make a lovely water-soluble poop that simply washes away in
the washer. Once you introduce solids, though, things change.You'll need to shake off the solids into the toilet before you put it into the dry pail. For the sticky ones, a
toilet sprayer is helpful. Now that I've introduced solids to my baby, I SWEAR BY THE TOILET SPRAYER! (The
toilet sprayers are also nice and gentle for post-partum cleansing, toilet bowl
cleaning, and later - potty training bowl rinsing.)
If
you choose a microfiber diaper, like Happy Heinys, FuzziBunz or Bum Genius,
most solids simply fall into the toilet. If you go with cotton, like a
prefold or GroVia , you can lay a biodegradable liner between the baby and the diaper. When baby poops, simply grab the ends of the liner, and plop into
toilet to flush. Word of caution: know what kind of plumbing you have in your house before you flush anything besides the norm! For instance, we have a poop-mulcher/pump because our plumbing terminates in our basement, below the grade of the sewer pipe. Having already had to replace the $1700 pump once because a tampon was thrown down the toilet, I don't think that the bioliners will have enough time to biodegrade before they are chewed up and wedged in the pump (and I am not going to test my theory).
Ready to wash?
1) Grab your full diaper pail liner bag. Insert new one. 2) Drag bag to washing machine. Dump diapers in, toss in bag. 3) Set the wash for a Cold prewash/rinse cycle. No detergent. 4) When complete, set to 'Super Cycle' on Warm with the normal amount of detergent and double rinse. DO NOT use super duper HOT water on items that contain PUL or TPU (the waterproofing layer). Hot water will break down the fibers and cause tears, shrinkage, breaking. And will usually void the manufacturer's warranty. 5) Transfer to dryer on medium heat (be sure to read manufacturer's suggestions as well) or sun/line dry for extra energy savings and natural bleaching. My favorite detergents? (in alphabetical order):
* Wash every 1-2 days. * Spray with Bac-Out Stain & Odor Eliminator by Bi-O-Kleen before you put soiled diaper into pail. * Get a toilet sprayer to blow off all the poop directly into toilet (where it belongs!). * Lay diaper out in the sun for a day (a natural and free disinfectant). * Use a bit of OxyClean in the second wash cycle.
Concerned about Bacteria?
Twice a month, whether we are cloth diapering or not, a good practice is to run a load of sheets, towels, shower curtains, etc with bleach or Hydrogen Peroxide (color-safe). This sanitizes the basin.
Stinky Diaper Pail?:
Combine 1 cup baking soda, 5 drops tea tree oil, and enough water to make a thick paste. Press into ice cube trays (or muffin tins - harder to get out later) and set out to dry for 24-28 hours/ Store cubes in ziplock bag. Throw crumbly cube into bottom of diaper pail, then add liner. Replace when stink returns.
Orders placed by 2pm PST M-F will ship the same day.
