tell me how to wash nappies? please!!

[tentative123]

Hello

Weve got a stash of mostly muslins and terries with a few shaped terries and i dont really knowhow to wash them. I will need to know this in 5 weeks max. So far i know to put them in the bucket with nothing added and ghen to shove them in the machine. Id probably opt then for 60deg with non bio powder. I might add a spoon of napisan but im not sure why and whether that goes in the machine or one of the compartments.

I dont have a tumbler so line dry is sorted.

Also washing machine \ nappy periodic maintenance - should i do something here?

Please score my knowledge and plan and fill the gaps...

I have shaped microfibre and I:

Put in a mesh bag inside a plastic bucket with a tight-fitting lid. Stick a cotton wool bud to the inside of the lid and soak one end in an essential oil (eg tea tree or lavender) so it smells ok.

Wash at 40 degrees non-bio. Use a really quite small amount - eg a 1/4 of a capful. Add one tbsp of nappy sanitiser to the main drawer with the detergent.

Every so often, do a strip wash (basically just wash on a long cycle with no detergent) to prevent detergent build up and nappies becoming less absorbent and smelling of wee.

HTH

I never bothered with napisan. Do you live in a hard water area? I washed my nappies with half the usual quanity of washing power and used aqua softener. A build up of too much washing powder can make the nappies stiff.

You need to pre wash new nappies about three times otherwise they will not be absorbant.

I would say that one of the better things is to do a cold rinse first as well.

So I store in a bucket with a tight lid, lined with a mesh bag. I don't use essential oil as I found the smell of wee + poo bad enough, and wee + poo + lavender/tea tree even worse .

Throw mesh bag into machine and run a rinse cycle.

Put a quarter amount of Simply Pure powder (doesn't have optical brighteners or perfumes which can build up) in on a 40 deg wash, with spin less than 1000, and with a prewash.

I sometimes add a scoop of sanitiser, but not always as I use pocket nappies, and it degrades the PUL. Sometimes I do an extra rinse at the end as well.

Line dry.

To get stains out you will be amazed what daylight does - rain or shine hang the stained ones out and it magically disappears! This time of year it is taking a day or two, in the summer was an hour or two....

I used to dry pail and then give them a cold rinse in the machine first before a 40 c wash with non bio, 60 c if any tummy upsets. Strip wash every so often like Wigeon- your nose will tell you when. Didn't tumble dry them- out in open air and then finished on the fire guard when nippers were in bed. People used to think me weird but I loved cloth nappies for my two. Even got myslef in the local papers banging on about them

As previously, dry pailed and then washed at 40/60 (up to you) with half the amount of powder you'd usually use.

Ok this is great - do i just put the wraps in at the same time?

Also this strip wash - is this a super long wash with the nappies in as well - ie not just for the machine's wellbeing?

yes... a long wash- it removes build up of detergent. You can add a sploosh of white vinegar as it breaks down uric acid and detergent residue

Wraps go in at the same time as nappies. Every so often I used to soak 'em in a waterproofing rinse (Nikwax) as my wraps were about third hand

Yes, put wraps in with nappies.

Strip wash - for the nappies, not the machine - to get rid of detergent build up which reduces the effectiveness of the nappies because they get less absorbent. And can smell. You'll be surprised about how many detergenty bubbles appear in the wash when you do a strip wash without any added detergent at all.

Apparently you are meant to run the machine on a v v hot wash (90 degrees) with nothing in it from time to time, for its own good (totally unrelated to nappies), but I never remember (and feel bad about the "waste" of water).

I love my fluffy nappies too

Don't use vinegar on bamboo though...

this is what i do

cloth nappies / liners / wraps / wipes (+ occasional soiled vest) into nappy bucket with a mesh liner

(i have 2 buckets)

every 4th day i stick both mesh liners (containing nappies etc) in washing machine.
i put the machine on rinse and select extra rinse.

i then put in 1tbsp of non bio powder and 1 scoop of mio-fresh nappy sanitiser, and run the machine on cotton 60C, with intensive and extra rinse selected.

nappies are clean and fresh afterwards, for me to line dry