Diapers Q&A

Cloth diaper washing boost?

I am looking to give my diaper wash a boost. I use Purex Free abd Clear detergent. Do you use both baking soda and vinegar? I tried yesterday putting baking soda in the prewash and vinegar in the rinse. When I opened the washer they had this awefully funny smell, and I had to run another rinse. What do you do to boost your laundy and avoid funny smells?

Public Comments

1. I didn't use any kind of detergent for my diapers......I chose to use SportsWash, which is what Hunters use to get the human smell out of their clothing before they went deer hunting. When I used something for a booster, I used vinegar in the wash, not in the rinse.
2. Vinegar never hurt a load of dipes, but I had minimal luck with baking soda. Get a box of Borax. '20 Mule Team'...you know the stuff? I had funky dipes for a while, but that keeps it at bay. Every now and then I boil them all in a stock pot with a dab of dish detergent, and...and I used to have a more interesting life, you know? Not that I'd trade it, but just sayin'...and they're springtime fresh again after the detergent boiling deal.
3. i use vinegar in the rinse cycle every other time.....it does smell kinda weird at first but once the diapers are dried they are smell free and CLEAN the vinegar does an awesome job of removing stains and keeping our hemp diapers aborbant and free of build up
4. I used cloth diapers with my four kids and I would fill the diaper pail up with water and 20 mule team power soap and when i washed them I would run them through a rinse cycle then wash them with dref soap and 20 mule team they were white and smell free
5. Hi:: I can not use Purex for anything, Instead I pay the money for Gain, I use all the differnt smells, but I love the Freash Rain one, and I use a Snuggle Dry Sheet in the dryer, I also use a rain on right now!! I also have never put vinegar in my wash, I have no desire too to be honest!! However my clothes smell nice for weeks!! Great luck!!
6. I pour baking soda in the bottom of the washer, and put vinegar in the Downy ball. After the cycle is over, I run another rinse. I also use Arm and Hammer Free and Clear detergent, but only a tablespoon or two. Occasionally, I will use Dawn dish soap to strip them, I just put a couple pumps of the soap into the washer (with diapers that have already been washed), and then rinse it until no more suds show up in the water.
7. I use both baking soda and vinegar. I use a third of a cup or so of baking soda, and I usually put it in the prewash too. For the vinegar, I put it in the fabric softener dispenser in my washer. A Downy ball works well too. The dosage is perfect. Too much baking soda or vinegar can cause a funny smell, especially if the baking soda didn't get completely rinsed out. I have also used Borax and washing soda (NOT at the same time!) to boost my diaper laundry. I found that they gave my sensitive-skinned babies a rash, but the diapers did get really clean. If you try these, just go very light until you get a good feel for how much to use. If you want to get rid of smell in your diaper laundry, consider trying tea tree oil with some fragrant oil like lavender. Grapefruit seed extract works like tea tree oil to deodorize and sanitize too. Good luck!
8. Honestly, the LESS you put in with your diapers the better! I would first run a few rinse wash cycles with NO detergent or additives to clear the fabric of any residues. Detergent build-up leads to smelly diapers very easily. When you do your wash normally again scale back the amount of detergent you use and add an extra rinse cycle. You really only need about a tablespoon of detergent to clean diapers. This should solve your problem. This site is excellent for cloth diaper laundry questions: http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/basics.htm