Can someone tell me why my fleece liners have gone all yuk?

[Shitemum]

We don't use much bum cream, not even every day unless DD2 is sore but the one we use has halibut oil in it. Normally this comes out fairly well in the wash. I wash at 60ºc most times and occasionally at 90º. We have changed to a basic soap-flakes stuff from Ecover/Ariel 'with soap'.
The liners have gone really stiff and oily. i'd have thought the temperature alone would be enough to get them clean? I know some people even use washballs for the nappies - do they get out oil-based creams?
Any advice or should i just go back to ecover/ariel?

bump

The nappy balm I use has olive oil and macadamia oil in, I wash at 40 and haven't had any problems. Not much use to you though is it?!

Hopefully one of the nappy advisers will be more help!

Oops meant to say I use soap nuts or fairy (we changed a few weeks ago to soap nuts and are still using up the fairy)

thanks for replying. I'm non-plussed because we never had this problem before and the nappies are on their 2nd child, we've always used the same cream.

bump

Hmm... not a clue... Do you use vinegar in the wash? That might cut through it a bit better... or try soaking them in washing up liquid before the next wash - again, cut through the grease.

will try vinegar, thanks - plain white vinegar?

Yup

I think what has gone wrong is a combination of the oil in the bum cream, the occassional hot wash and moving to just soap flakes.

A hot wash will actually set some oils into a material. In order to overcome this, certain washing powders have grease-dispersing agents other than simple soap included in them. What I think has happened is that you have set the oil into the liners with a hot wash and the soap alone couldn't shift the oil. If you are lucky you will be able to get it out with the washing liquid as flame suggested but make sure you use warm water (about 40C - no more). Some oils will set in at 60C (I have a feeling halibut may be one of them but I'm really not certain and can't be bothered to-- reach my old food hygiene course notes right now

If you want to do a hot wash again it would be best to do it once you are sure any grease has come out first (i.e with a 40C wash).

I only ever wash at 40 most of my nappies probably wouldn't appreciate a 90C wash - though you should do what you feel comfortable with of course

wow thanks coby! - i'll try washing them at 40ºc with Ariel or similar for a while and change to a less oily cream. Thought the bacteria wasn't killed at less than 60ºc?

Am a bit wary of using washing up liquid as i'd have to rinse them really well by hand before putting them in the machine (and i cant be bothered) - have heard washing up liquid in washing machines is a no-no...

Squirtin it in the machine is a no-no (you get a lovely snow bubble effect I found so I've heard ), but soaking/washing in first, then a rinse cycle and a normal wash shuold be fine.

Fascinated by Coby's knowledge of halibut oil!!!

oh yes, my brain is full of useless info, it's the useful stuff that goes in one and out 'tother with 15 seconds.

I'm a microbiologist (well, used to be until DD2 came along) and I wash everything at 40C. 60C won't kill the bacteria, just make life a little harder for them than 40C does but do what you feel is best - 60C shouldn't set grease in much, I think the 90C is to blame tbh.

The kids thought it was great

Thanks for saying about the 60 not doing much more than 40... is it true for thrush too?

nope, it's a bit different with thrush, washing at 60C can make quite a difference. You can pretty much safely say you'll probably have killed off most yeasts at that temperature so well worth the extra 20C in the wash.

Thing is bacteria that cause illness in humans are designed to thrive at 37C i.e body temperature. Obviously 40C is not much higher than that but most of the nasty bugs have a relatively small range of temperature at which they can survive.

Once you take the nappy off and bung it in the bucket its going to get colder than 37C then you put it in the wash, reheat to 40C with some washing powder then dry them out and store at room temperature (about 20C). All that is a bit much for the average enteric bacteria IMO so not much chance of them surviving all that. Thats why I;m happy to wash at 40C

Then there's the other nasties which cause disease, viruses not really the problem...but protozoa such as cryptosporidium can survive at 60C for 5 mins at least.

Ok I'm even boring myself now and this sort of thing usually interests me....

not boring at all! thanks, will go with 40ºc and the odd one at 60ºc just to keep the bacteria on their toes...! will be more ecological too.

quite a lot of people seem to do that so see how you get on.

Hope you get your oily cardboard fleece sorted

Thanks! Was panicking I was giving dodgy info for thrush