INFO ON WASHING YOUR HEMP...

[mama2be]

Taken from the Baby Kicks Web site

Washing your hemp:

You may use any detergent that does not contain enzymes (as enzymes can eat away at your baby's skin once he or she wets, causing a painful rash). If you use a soap product, be sure to do a second cycle with 1/3 cup baking soda to avoid build-up. You may also want to try using 1/4 cup vinegar in the rinse.

My personal wash routine:

I wash once in cold water with either a detergent (only using about 1/2 the recommended amount) or about 1/8 cup Dr. Bronners soap (pretty much depending on my mood :-) Then I wash once in hot water adding 1/3 cup baking soda. Last comes a rinse cycle. I tumble dry on medium heat to reduce wear on the fibers.



What to do for "stinky" hemp:

Since hemp is such an absorbent material it sucks everything right to the core of the fiber. This causes smells from a residual build-up once your baby wets. You may not ever experience this, depending on your water type and wash routine.

There's a couple of things you can try to solve this.

- Try washing your diapers or Joey-Bunz in hot water with no detergent, 1/3 cup baking soda and 1/4 cup vinegar. Do this a few times until the water no longer looks soapy at the end of the cycle.

- If the smell remains, you may want to try boiling your hemp for five minutes.

-After you get the smell out of your hemp, be sure to use baking soda on a regular basis to keep everything smelling fresh.

[egoldber]

Personally, I only use about 1/4 of the amount of recommended detergent and my water if moderately hard. This is what I do for my regular laundry as well. Very little detergent in actually required in today's modern washing machines to get clothes really clean. If I notice any smells, I do an extra rinse and that seems to help. One thing that really helped me to get my diapers cleaner with no smell was not washing too many diapers at once and making sure that I used a high enough water setting. I have found that they really need sufficient room to agitate to get clean.

Happy washing! :)

[parkersmama]

Moving this thread up to the top. :-)