HELP - washing nappies (Motherease)

[looneytune]

Hi

I'm new to reuseable nappies. Had 2 children in disposables and with my surprise baby, I decided to try reuseables when some kind person was giving away a load of motherease nappies on freecycle. They've all been washed and put away for a while and I started using them on my 6 week old a few days ago after seeing a YouTube video and discovering that I could use them afterall (they looked huge so thought I couldn't, didn't realise about the folding over for newborn!)

Anyway, some of these nappies were slightly stained but most were fine and yet I've just done my first wash and they are all stained :-( I'm EBF so it's the lovely bright yellow coloured poos and I did start rinsing them out and then putting in the bucket with water to soak and then I read some people put them in dry so I did a couple without rinsing first (much easier!) but all have come out the same, stained! I did a cold prewash first and then added non bio washing powder (but a smaller amount as smaller load) and put on a 60 wash. Have I gone wrong? I didn't put vanish in or anything like that as thought would be bad on this sort of stuff.

Anyone any advice or can tell me where I've gone wrong?

TIA :)

p.s. I have a load of boosters that pop on but from youtube clip I believe I use those once I move to the none newborn setting

Your washing routine sounds the same as I use. Do you use liners? I've always used fleece liners and not had a major problem with staining. Also hanging them in the sun should help get rid of the stains although that's bit feasible with every wash. Hope that helps.

Thanks for your reply :) They are currently on the line in the sun as I'd read about that helping but I think my problem might then be the lack of liners! I did try the paper ones but of course it just goes through at this stage so no point. I've saved an old fleece blanket so think I'll make some fleece liners as I don't mind so much if they get stained :) I just wanted to make sure my washing routine was ok. Can I ask do you rinse and/or soak or just chuck them in the bucket dry (well wet from being used but you know what I mean)

You don't need to soak them no, in fact a lot of nappy companies recommend you don't anymore. I'll be using bio though not non bio, have done a lot of reading up on bio vs non bio and the fact it's r really not necessary.
hanging in the sun will help massively even just in daylight when it's no longer summer, or hanging in a window (I have one of those sock peg things that I intend to use on the curtain rails in bedroom when it's winter so they still get some UV light!

Fantastic news about not needing to soak as MASSIVE difference! :) Will see how the sun works! As for non-bio, that's all I use normally as ds1 has problems with his skin sometimes so always wanted to be careful although I stick vanish in when needed. Do you think I should add vanish oxy action stuff then? Or do you think I'd be better switching to bio after all - I'd prefer that but dh always had non bio before we met as he has sensitive skin. If changing to bio is no different then I'd be very happy swapping! :)

WOW @ what the sun has done for these stains!!!

amazing isn't it :)

re vanish vs bio, I guess it'd be trial and error with your baby but I'd def recommend reading some info about bio vs non bio - I think we are only of only a couple of countries that have non bio, and one with the highest excema rates, which is weird I think?!

and handy tip, if your nappies get a bit rough either rub them together or leave them out on the line in a rain shower, really softend them up :)

Very interesting! Oh and thanks about the rain water tip :)

i soak soiled nappies in a bucket of water with a few drops of lavender oil - i find it helps with the stains. Also, increasing the washing temperature does the trick - my DS2 is 24 months now and i wash soiled nappies at 90 (when he was a baby 60 degrees was sufficient). But I cannot stand stains... i also found that powder detergent gets rid of the stains a lot better than liquid one. I also add some Vanish.

For wet nappies I only use liquid detergent and no vanish.

Sun bleaches nappies quite well.

In the winter I put DD's nappies on a sunny windowsill. Even in January the sun would get the EBF stains out, although it did take a few days.