Is this washing routine acceptable for sanitizing my cloth diapers?

[Crisyn]

I am looking for some feedback on my washing regime. I studied the thread on laundering cloth diapers, but my washer does not have extra soak or rinse options, and with twins, I am simply too busy to be running up and down the stairs to stop the washer to let them soak :-(. I am soooo committed to using cloth diapers for my twins, so I am hoping that what I am doing is OK, because it is working for me time-wise. Here is what I am currently doing:
1. Put all cloth diapers, wipes and covers in washing machine. Add 1/4cup Tide Free & Clear. Wash on Cold, with cold rinse.
2. Wash again - hot wash, cold rinse. No detergent.
3. Put everything in dryer, on hot for 45 minutes. No fabric softener.

I have been putting my PUL covers in the dryer for now, because I only have a small number of Preemie/Newborn size covers. Once the twins are big enough for the Small covers - which I have much more of - I will hang the PUL covers to dry. Or maybe do I not need to?
Any thoughts on how I can improve my washing routine would be appreciated. Thanks a bunch.

[KrisM]

Detergent works best in hot water. I would skip the cold wash and do a hot wash with detergent for your first step.

[mudder17]

Hmm...detergent actually works better in hot water than in cold. If you spray off your poopy diapers, chances are that you can get away without doing a cold cycle first. So I would change your first cycle to hot--otherwise leaving everything else the same.

The other thing I would do is make sure you're not using too much detergent. In my case, 1/4 cup of Tide is way too much, but I know for some people they need at least that much. It depends on whether your water is hard or soft. If you get lots of suds in the second cycle even though you haven't added any detergent, then you're probably using too much detergent.

For PUL, they really do air dry very quickly. I wouldn't worry to much about tossing them in the dryer, although I know some people do that all the time.

One final thing: if you do get stains, newborn poop stains tend to sun out pretty easily. But you can also spray the poop stain with Zout before washing.

Good luck!

Eileen

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif for Leah

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_emerald_18m.gif , 19 months, hoping for 2 years


http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catcatcvi20040222_4_Kaya+is.png

[kijip]

My little secret is that I never soak or rinse or whatever...we also use a washer with only 1 setting. So once through the hot wash and hot dry and we call it good. I wash the PUL covers with his clothes.

[mudder17]

>I wash the PUL covers with his clothes.

Oh, I forgot about that! That's what I did. Since her clothes were dried on low heat, I never thought twice about putting the covers in the dryer.

The other thing that might help is that I only washed the covers if they got poopy. Otherwise, I would rinse them a little in between and hang to dry for the next diaper change. With one baby, I was able to get by with 3 NB and 4 Small covers.

Eileen

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif for Leah

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_emerald_18m.gif , 19 months, hoping for 2 years


http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catcatcvi20040222_4_Kaya+is.png

[o_mom]

I always do a cold wash first to get the poop out - if I don't, I get stains (dry pail, no spraying or dunking) YMMV

[o_mom]

I think it sounds fine, especially if it is working for you. It is almost identical to our routine. Only suggestions would be:

1. Add a small amount of detergent in the second wash, maybe half of what is in the first, or split it between the two washes

2. Vinegar in the rinse the second time - this really helps them to rinse clean.

[KrisM]

Funny how different things work for differnt people. No cold wash here and I don't have stains, either. Dry pail, no spraying either.

[cvharris]

Everyone's washing routine differs, especially with the type of water you have, so you'll get a wide variety of responses. I would say that if your diapers smell clean and fresh when they are done and you don't suspect build up (one way to tell is if they smell really bad after they are immediately wet by your babies) you should be okay.

I personally like to do a cold soak/rinse before I wash my diapers just so they're not washing in a bunch of really dirty water. So I would keep the first step if I were you. I like to put some Bac Out in that cycle to kill the germies and then I put regular detergent in my hot wash/cold rinse cycle. I do extra rinses, but as long as you don't think you have build up, then you should be fine with just one.

As for the dryer, if you are drying items with elastic I would only dry on medium, not hot. Many WAHMs warn that drying on hot will wear out elastic prematurely. I've never had an elastic problem and we've been using some of the same diapers for over a year. I would also hang PUL covers to dry if you can - they don't take long to dry.

Carolee
Mama to Ben (6/03)
It's a BOY! Baby brother due 12/18/05

[Saartje]

The one tweak I would recommend (but I do recommend this one highly) is to use the detergent in your hot wash, not your cold one.

There's no reason to stop the washer to let the diapers soak. What you're doing in that regard is fine; in fact, rather than do a full wash and rinse on cold, you can turn the dial directly to the rinse cycle to shorten the time it takes to wash them. Do the cold rinse, followed by a hot wash with detergent, and possibly one extra cold rinse at the end (if you find the detergent doesn't seem to be getting out completely without it).

I used PUL covers for a long time (we use wool these days), and most of the ones we used I threw into the dryer on hot with the diapers. We never had any problems with them from that. I usually think that's a matter of personal preference.