Laundry fine-tuning questions re: baking soda, vinegar, bleach, fragrance

[samsonsmom]

First, let me just say that I sure appreciate all of you gracious and helpful mamas here. When I get a minute, I'll officially introduce myself (I've lurked quite a bit and posted a little, but haven't shared much about myself yet), and offer a couple of humble tips that I have discovered myself.

Anyhoo...I'm still tweaking my wash routine, and I'm wondering about the following:

1. I've been using baking soda in the first cold rinse, as I read that it prevents the stains from setting. But if I'm not really that worried about stains (I've been line drying our diapers and this seems to take care of any stains that we get), am I ok to omit the baking soda? Or does baking soda serve any other purpose?

2. I've been putting vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser in the hot wash cycle, so that it supposedly gets released into the last rinse. My understanding is that this helps soften the diapers up, and maybe that it helps keep them white. Well, with line drying, vinegar or no, they're pretty crunchy by the time they're dry---and pretty white. I throw them in the dryer for 10-15 min and that softens them up a bit. So my question is, is there any other reason to use vinegar if I don't think it's making much difference on the softening or whitening front (not to mention that my washing machine now smells like vinegar all the time and I'm not crazy about that)?

3. From the way I hear some folks talk, you would think that diapers will completely disintegrate on contact with a little bleach in the water. Yet I know that old-fashioned mamas (like my own) always bleached their diapers. I'm sure it's true that they won't last AS long if they are bleached, but are they really going to be ruined? Or are we just talking about lasting, say, 5 years instead of 10?

4. I think I read somewhere that we should avoid detergents with fragrance. Is this because it can be irritating to baby's skin, and if we have established that it does NOT irritate baby's skin, is there any other reason to avoid fragranced detergents such as Tide or Arm & Hammer (I've discovered that the liquid A&H does have fragrance)? I personally kind of like the nice fragrances in some of the detergents.

Thanks for your help!

Amy

[RwnMayfair]

1. I believe baking soda can also help with any unpleasant scents in your diapers.

2. I've never used vinegar with our diapers, though I've heard it's supposed to help soften the diapers. I've never really had a problem with that, so I've never used it.

3. I've never used bleach, as a lot of our diapers have colors in them, and I'd rather not bleach them out. ;) Nor have I ever tried color-safe bleach on them, I've just not seen a use for it. I've never heard of it damaging diapers, but I've never looked into it either.

4. I use Cheer for our diapers, same as I use for our clothing. I don't know if it technically has fragrance or not, but it sure smells like it does. :) Washing our diapers with it has never irritated skin on either of my children. I don't see why you should have to avoid it if it doesn't irritate your child's skin.

Of course, going over this I'm realizing I just sort of wash and use my diapers without any massive thought into it - once I established my routine, that's what I've stuck with. And it's the same routine I've used since I started with my son at six months. We haven't any issues with our diapers yet! Hopefully it'll stay that way. ;)

-Melissa

Taran, November 20, 2003
Elowen, August 20, 2005

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[kitmama]

1) Yes, I've also heard that baking soda in the wash will help eliminate odors. However, I've also read that it can cause builup on fleece- so whether you use it and how much might depend on what kind of diapers you're washing.

2) Vinegar is also supposed to help rinse out ALL the detergent. I've read that it can cause PUL to stink, though. If you don't like the way it makes your washer smell I'd probably quit using it- or use a lot less.

3) My mom used bleach on her diapers pretty regularly- but she only had PFs. I think a lot of the issue with using bleach is because now most people have a variety of other kinds of diapers too- with materials like elastic, hemp, fleece, PUL, colored and printed fabrics, suedecloth, velour, microfiber. . . not to mention that since the diapers are sewn garments rather than flat cloths, there is stitching, snaps etc that create stress points in the fabric- and as the bleach starts to weaken that fabric those stress points deteriorate much faster than a plain old PF would. Does that make sense at all? That said though, I know that a lot of CD mamas will still use it very sparingly to freshen and disinfect from time to time.

4) Yes, the reason to avoid fragrance in the detergent is if your kids are sensitive to it. Otherwise, I don't think it's a problem. We use plain old Tide often, and it's not caused any problems. However I do think I've read that Arm & Hammer detergent has caused build-up problems for some people here?