Vinegar is for softness (especially if you line dry) and for smell. But vinegar is a tricky thing. It helps soem people and doesn't help others. I use it occasionally, but not all the time.
HTH,
Vinegar is for softness (especially if you line dry) and for smell. But vinegar is a tricky thing. It helps soem people and doesn't help others. I use it occasionally, but not all the time.
HTH,
Beth, mom to older DD (8/01) and younger DD (10/06) and always missing Leah (4/22 - 5/1/05)
This peek into your CD world has been so helpful to me. Baby is due any day now and for some unecessary reason I have been obsessing about the actual process of pailing, washing, cleaning my cloth diapers! We will use disposables in the beginning but having a rough idea of what to do beforehand will make things easier.
I am just curious, do you not do a cold rinse either by hand or in washer before you do the hot wash? I heard that hot washing could set stains. What's the least number of cycles you can get away with? It seems like the cold rinse as a final step would be more important than a cold rinse before the hot wash to ensure that everything is rinsed out of diaper. Especially, if I plan to rinse out and pre-treat diaper by hand before pailing.
Thanks again for the tips and info,
Cheryl :)
Neve,
You've got it right. I'm saying they're great but NOT for newborns.
If there is any polyester in your dipes, even the minutest amount, vinegar will make odors worse not better. That also seems to be the case, as Beth said, for some people even if there dipes are 100% natural fibers. I'm another person who only uses it occasionally.
I do only one warm wash/warm rinse cycle. I have a front loading washer though and I'm not certain I could get away with that with a top loader or without using a wet bucket method.
With your wet bucket method, do you add anything in it while dipes are soaking besides cold water? Would adding baking soda help?
Cheryl :)
I add a teaspoon or two of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castille Soap.
I haven't tested my Malden Mills microfleece for absorption yet.. I hope I don't have problems. I can't remember where I got the fleece, I think from thefleeceshop.com. I plan to make some of my own diapers, that is why I went ahead and got Malden Mills.
I researched different laundry methods to death. I do my laundry routine this way as it simply works. This last time however, I eliminated the initial cold cycle and added some Tea Tree oil to the wash. No stinky diapers, that's for sure!
I read somewhere along the research way that if you're using vinegar and you have odors, stop using it. If you're not using vinegar and having odors, try using vinegar. So far so good in our case.
As far as cloth diapering a newborn, I highly recommend disposables the first week or so. Especially if this is your first baby. I was so tired, overwhelmed and simply not interested in learning anything new at the time. Plus I also have a 2 year old. And you don't want to worry about getting meconium stains out of your nice new diapers.
Other than that, just relax, and have fun. I really have fun diapering my DD! Now DS, who is still in disposable.. that's not fun! LOL.. he hates having his diaper changed.. so I started telling him there's a monster that wants to eat his dirty diaper. It works!