Not yo mamma's cloth diapers: the scoop on poop

The number one thing I was nervous about when starting to cloth diaper was the whole poop situation. I mean how do you REALLY clean that? What do you do after they poop? Do you soak it? Leave it in the pail? Will it stain? What detergent do you use? Which setting is the best? Does that seriously come clean? Bla bla bla bla bla.

 Prepping New Diapers

First things first, prepping your new diapers! When I got my first diapers I was under the impression that you had to wash and dry them about 5 times in order to fully strip the natural oils to make them completely absorbent. It actually depends on the material of cloth diapers and inserts your using. For micro fiber, bamboo, or water proof diaper covers you only need to wash them once (I did mine probably 2 times just because I didn't want any leaking).  Its the organic hemp and unbleached cotton products that need to be washed and dried close to 5 times before they are ready for use.

Detergent

You will also need to get detergent that is cloth diaper friendly. I bought Charlies soap my first time around. Works well, reasonable in price, but I won't lie I'm a scent kind of a gal. I love smelly soaps and lavender and such so I have bought a few packets of Rockin' Green to try. Aaaaaand I like it! Also make sure to note if you have hard or soft water, there are recommended types of detergent if you have hard water!

Diaper Cream

Well apparently you can't use regular desitin or what not. My first thought was "What, this is just an elaborate scheme to get me to buy more cloth diaper product!" But it really does cause funny discolored spots on the outside of your diaper. And the inside makes the cloth less absorbent so leaking can happen more often. I have the brand CJ's butter.

The Wash Routine

Very simple! Wash your diapers every 2-3 days to avoid any ammonia build up and extra stinkyness. 

• First cycle: short wash with cold water - no detergent
• Second cycle:  Longer cycle with hot water and detergent 
• Extra rinse cycle
• I hang dry my covers and machine dry my inserts

-I found an old crib mattress box spring at an antique store. Thought it was a pretty fitting way to hang dry some diapers from! I was going to go to ikea to find something similar to this for hang drying but this was perfect and under $20! I recommend avoiding ikea at all times possible. It's like a lybrinth of doom in there, very terrifying.

Dirty Diapers and Poo!

I have two large wet bags I store my dirty diapers in. No solutions and no soaking, once the diaper is dirty stick it right in. For me it works better that a large pail because I feel like I wash the diapers more promptly. If I had a giant pail I would feel tempted to stuff as many diapers in there as I could and wait longer between washing. Which is obviously not good for the diapers. 

Pee is easy its the poo that's tricky. Newborns and babies strickly on breast milk or formula have easy to clean poo diapers. Those I would just rinse before washing and will come perfectly clean. When your baby starts eating solids you will need to plop the turd in the toilet! I will recommend to any one the flushable liners! Such a huge time saver you literally pick up the liner with the poop inside and just flush it! Easy to clean and hardly any mess on the actual diaper as well.

-Tada! Barely even anything to clean up! No diaper swishing! And if baby just peed in the liner you can wash them one or two times with your diaper laundry and reuse them. That way they are not wasted. 

I also made my own stay dry liners out of fleece. I bought a yard of fleece for $10 and cut them in the shape of a liner, it made about 22. It wicks moisture away from the baby's skin and into the absorbent layer. Poop is easier to clean with these too because instead of having to rinse the actual diaper most of the poo is collected onto the fleece liner. You can also use desitin and other regular diaper rash creams with the fleece liners! Just make sure NOT to wash them with your diapers! Wash them in a seperate load with towels or something if they have desitin on them.

I can proudly say that I do not have any stains on any one of my diapers! (I might be slightly anal about rinsing before washing) I have a sink right next to my washer and I rinse any remaining stain before I toss them in the wash. It has worked well for me!

There you have it! The poopy details of cleaning cloth diapers! 

Over and Out