Cloth Diapering 101

Laundering

To start with. Save yourself extra work and use a dry pail system (or a laundry tote.) Some people like to soak diapers in a very hygienic solution of bleach and dioxins, but if using less chemicals is one reason you got into cloth? You don't have to use bleach at all. Whew! Bummis has an amazing tote that will last forever. Just toss your diapers in there (covers, inserts, basically anything but wool.)

You don't even need to touch the laundry. Just push the laundry through the sack and then toss the sack inside the washer too.

With a regular washer, start a prewash or soak cycle with cold water. Let it sit for an hour or two. Drain the wash and then start a hot (or sanitize cycle) and use 1/4 cup of the recommended detergent. The detergent is a tough one because each diaper has it's own recommended detergents. Back in the day, I used to use Arm & Hammer FREE. Today, I use BioKleen. This is the page to go to for a list of your favorite detergent and if it's recommended: http://www.diaperjungle.com/detergent-chart.html.

Once your load is done, you separate the diapers from the covers. The diapers go in the dryer, the covers get hung to dry. If you are using inserts/pocket diapers, same concept. Dry the inserts, air dry the pocket diapers. It will extend the life of your covers to just air dry.

With an HE washer, its a little more complicated because each machine has different settings. I have an LG Front end loader and I'll just tell you what I do. I put the button on sanitize and do a prewash, an extra rinse and choose the heavy soil setting and low/medium spin. It takes about 2hr 45 min. If I have a particularly dirty diaper, I put a little (just a little!) BioKleen Chlorine Free Bleach on the stain itself. Some people soak the diapers in OxyClean with no problem. Also, the sun will bleach the diapers, so just set a stained diaper out in the sun for a day and voila! The dryer is the same as any dryer. Just put in the prefolds or inserts and air dry covers and pockets.

WOOL

Wool is a different beast, easier in some ways, more complicated than others. Soak the dirty wool in Eucalan rinse free wool cleaner. Just place the cover in enough warm water to cover it for about half hour. After that, just squeeze out the excess water and air dry (lay it on a towel flat or flat on a drying rack.) To lanolize the cover use pure lanolin (Lansinoh will do the trick!) and just squeeze a tiny amount in hot water and disperse the lanolin. Soak the diaper for about 20 minutes and then gently squeeze and air dry.

Wash when the diaper gets dirty (about every 3-6 weeks, depending our your rotation) and lanolize every 1-2 months, whenever you notice it leaking.

Folding Cloth Diapers

There are so many ways to fold a prefold diaper inside of a cover, but I've included two of my personal favorite ways to fold a prefold below.

BASIC ANGEL WING FOLD

This fold can be used with any size cover. It provides excellent absorbency and a trim fit. Waterproof diaper covers have replaced the need for pins and rubber pants of old. Snappis are a fairly recent invention that replaces the pricking and poking of diaper pins from back when you were diapered!

1. Fold a third of the diaper up on one end.
2. Fold the sides of the diaper in on themselves over the center panel to form a "pad".
3. Unfold the sides at the top a bit to form "wings".
4. Place folded diaper in center of diaper cover.
5. Place diaper cover and absorbent pad under baby.
6. Bring front of cover up between baby's legs.
7. Close around baby and fasten for a perfect fit.
8. After fastening, check to make sure all the diaper is inside the cover so the diaper won't leak.

THE BIKINI TWIST

This particular fold works nicely for the chunky thighs. It's also a great fold for a girls since a larger portion of material will be right in the middle of the diaper.

1. Flip one end of the diaper over forming a twist in the middle.
2. Place the diaper under the baby and bring the front corners up through the baby's legs.
3. Wrap the front corners around the baby's sides and bring the back corners to the front.
4. Fasten the back corners with a Snappi to the front of the diaper.
5. Place the cover over the baby as usual.
6. After fastening the cover, check to make sure all the diaper is inside the cover so the diaper won't leak.