Cloth Diapering - Soap/ Detergent

During the time we were cloth diapering Juni, I constantly had to strip. Diapers... We had barnyard stink and ammonia. I followed the advice of blue dawn and extra rinses. I used only "safe" detergent. Hell, I even spouted off that advice myself. My diapers were crunchy, stinky and not absorbing well.

I joined a few Facebook groups. They all praised Tide. They all said the blue dawn thing only worked for grease. Everything I knew was wrong?

I thought I would give their advice a try. I refuse to use P&G products - so no Tide for me. I picked up a super cheap box of PC Ultra Free Laundry Detergent. I used the full amount. Then I prayed. Forrest's diapers came out fluffy. There was no stink! 

A couple weeks later, I decided to try Melaleuca since it is what I use on the rest of our laundry (it gets delivered to my door. I'll leave the Melaleuca praise for another day). Similar results. The diapers were the cleanest they have ever been. I'm a convert. No special detergents around here anymore. 

Side note: I've had very good results with Country Save detergent. It is super cheap, powdered and works well for diapers. 

Cloth Diapering - HE washing

I'm back for round 2 of cloth diapering tips. I've been using cloth on Forrest from about 2 or 3 weeks old. New baby, new house, new machine, new diapers...

Before we moved into the house, we rented a townhouse with an apartment sized stacking washer and dryer. For almost 2 years, that is where I washed my diapers. I had to strip all the bloody time. We had bad ammonia stink. I also had farmyard stink. 

I kept hearing people complain about HE machines and cloth diapers. I am going to give you some tips on cloth and HE machines.

We have a Whirlpool HE machine. It was our one big upgrade on appliances. I wanted a very large capacity machine (someone will inevitably piss all over my kingsize down duvet). It had to be quiet (genius architect puts the laundry room right next to the kids' bedrooms). It had to be easy to use. 

This is my current wash routine:

-Quick Wash with Cold temperature

-Allergen cycle with Extra Rinse (add soap to this cycle)

I hang to dry or machine dry. Haven't had to strip once.