How Often Should I Wash Cloth Diapers?
The question of how often you should, or will, wash cloth diapers, often comes up. Really, you will find your groove in time; you’ll find what works best for you and your family. But here are some pointers.
Choosing Your Detergent
What kind of cloth diaper detergent you use will actually affect the frequency of your laundry. This is because some detergents, and certain diapers, will eventually develop what’s known as “build-up.” What happens is the diapers get a detergent build up which causes a crazy reaction with pee. As soon as pee hits the diaper, the diapers can give off a nasty ammonia odor. If your diapers have build-up, you may feel the need to wash diapers everyday, as the odor in your diaper pail will be difficult to contain.
P.S. Getting rid of build up involves a couple of things:
Strip wash: Wash diapers hot with several rinses; use no detergent.
Switch detergents.
Overnight vinegar rinse followed by strip-washing.
Bleach, preferably oxygen-based.
How Many Diapers Do You Have?
We had about two dozen prefolds at any given time. We had about 8-10 different diaper covers in rotation too. With two dozen prefolds in rotation we were washing diaper about every 3 days. Sometimes we would wash after 2 days, and rarely at 4 days. Some of this depends on the quality of your diaper pail.
I would rinse the nighttime, pee-soaked diaper, in the sink in the morning before putting it in the diaper pail. This would keep odors down. Sometimes I would put the rinsed diaper right into the washing machine until we were ready to run a load.
2 dozen prefolds is fairly standard. Even with more than that, you’ll want to wash diapers after 2-3 days, simply because they will start to smell and bacteria will build.
P.S. Don’t waste time folding diapers. Anyone who tells you otherwise has too much time on their hands. You should neatly stack diapers or put them away in a drawer or closet, but don’t waste time folding. Folding prefold diapers for wearing is the only kind of diaper folding I recommend.
Diaper Pail
Again, the quality of your diaper pail may determine what you can tolerate. A good diaper pail should get you through 2-3 days. At that point, even without clear odor, you should wash the diapers so too much bacteria doesn’t build. Again, cater to your own needs. It may be working for you to stretch it 4-5 days, if you have a large enough supply to get you through that many days.
Now We’re At One Day
Recently we started washing diapers just about every day. This may seem excessive, but we just can’t stand the smell of diapers in the pail after a few days. Perhaps we need a better diaper pail.
But washing the diapers is easy. The loads are small, and really, the washer and dryer do all the work!
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