Cloth nappies - a few questions

[sapkot]

I have recently started trying cloth nappies on my lo. I have a few questions -

1. Alternative to fleece liner - I used fleece liner but it seems to irritate my baby's skin. She got a rash, which went away in 2-3 days after I stopped using fleece liner. I've heard of silk liners. Anything else?
2. Please suggest some bamboo &/or cotton nappy brands. I have tried a few but all seem to have fleece liner inside
3. Prefolds / Muslins - Are they good for keeping the baby's bum dry if I don't use any liner on them?
4. Washing - This is how I wash the nappies. Please tell me if it is ok.
5. So I remove poop from the nappies. Rinse them under cold water / sometimes use soap to remove stains. Then every other day I wash using non-bio powder at 60 degrees for a 40 min cycle.
6. Then every few days I wash at 60 degrees, non bio powder longer cycle
7. Is this ok
8. Removing stains from nappies - I know stains is not dirty but I would still like to remove stains.
9. I soaked all the nappies in oxy powder for an hour. Then washed them on a normal cycle
10. Is soaking in oxy powder ok?
11. Drying nappies - I have a mix of nappies & most say it's safe to tumble dry them on low settings. I do that & then line dry inside house. Is that ok? Have you tumble-dried nappies? If yes, have they been ok in long run?

So sorry for so many questions. But there's so much stuff on the internet that it feels daunting. I hope some of you who use cloth nappies regularly can help me.

Thanks in advance a lot

Alternative to fleece liner: I used rags (old clothes I cut up to useful sizes), I threw them out when soiled, else washed with urine-only items (which is to say filtered in constantly with rest of our washing, washed at 30 degrees in bio powder like the rest).

Prefolds / Muslins : I still used liners. I didn't expect skin to stay super dry while nappy was on. Air time seemed to resolve most rash risk.

Washing : I tried soaking for 3 days & never again. What a messy faff. Dirty nappies only got a 60 degree wash, not extra long, was usually bio powder.

Stains : sunshine. Wash with Napicleanse (I think it's called?) if I wanted. non-colour detergent has optical brighteners in it, anyway

Tumble drying stripped my terries, only ever tumble dried when we were on holiday with family who felt it disgusting to ever line dry.

Don't use bio powder as it can ruin some of the materials. Refer to the nappy lady website.

Hi welshweasel. If you daily prewash them; then how do you store the wet nappies until the wash day? Also silly question, but do you have 2 buckets to store nappies - one for dirty & other for prewashed?

British nap washing recommendations are wild. Facebook groups are full of people telling each other to do a cold rinse, add extra water and use a half dose of detergent but they don’t understand why they can’t get rid of the ‘barnyard ‘psmell.

I use Clean Cloth Nappies - there’s a website and a fb group. Dry pail, daily quick wash at 60 with a scoop of bio, then they wait in a basket for the main wash which is 2.5hr at 40 or 60 with 2 scoops of bio. Never a smell or stain.

And someone above says all babies get nappy rash. No, they don’t.

@tithead22 - do you dry the nappies after quick wash?

Don't nappies go manky & smelly sitting around wet waiting for 2nd wash, eek? And buckets of stuff soaking are wet, can be knocked over or splash (eek).

This reminds me of my (pretends to be super eco) step-sis saying that her baby (single) took too much time, she didn't have time for cloth diapers, too. And she wouldn't have time under an exhausting washing regime. I often had 2 in cloth at same time, or 2 PT and one FT.

I guess Bio deterg not recommended if you have DWR fabrics: I doubt I did. Maybe the MotherEase wraps were DWR (they didn't fail under our regime, though). Bio deterg is fine for rags, terries & uncoated fabrics.

Your wash routine isn't the one recommended. Nappies don't need to be rinsed and put in bucket until wash day as that is more likely to make them smell. Get the worst of and throw them as they are into the bucket. On wash day (should be every other day or 3 days max) put all nappies in machine. It should be half full so if its less chuck in a towel as they need to be agitated. No detergent just put on pre wash. Once that has stopped add detergent and put on longest cycle usually cotton but not the eco one. They also don't need loads of detergent should be about half amount. Too much will cause detergent build up which reduces absorbancy. This can be fixed with a strip wash (see nappy lady website as there is lots of information on cleaning and storing nappies) also tots bots bamboo 2 part nappies do not have fleece in

I realise it goes against all the official advice, but I just scraped off poo, dry pailed, then washed them at 40 degrees every day/ every other day with small amount of non bio. Dried outer nappies on those sock drying racks from Ikea, and the inners/ prefolds in the tumble drier. Occasional 60 degree wash. Used a mix of bambino mio, fuzzi bunz, smartipants and cheapy pockets. Used disposable tots bots liners for DC1 and fleece liners for DC2- different routines suit different kids. The nappies lasted 2 children, no stinks, and I worked full-time and kept on top of it all fine. Nursery happily used them too.

My approach would not work for nighttime nappies - I could never get the smell out of the little lamb bamboo nappies. In fact, we never got on well with night nappies, and largely used disposables at night.

I also agree that the advice online was overwhelming! I found my own way that suited me. Good luck!

You should also make sure your machine is clean. Buy those tablets and run a 90 degree wash every now and again. You can't clean nappies in a dirty machine. Tried my wash routine in a holiday cottage once and it was a disaster. Worked out the machine was filthy, which I sorted for them. Heavy hemp boosters for night time need an intense wash to drive the wee out. Someone above said not to do an eco wash which is probably right. But I looked at the manual for my machine and decided it was the best. I had huge amounts of trial and error to get it right. At one point the utility room stunk of ammonia and I had to learn what strip washing was. The nappy lady website is undoubtedly the best source of information on washing.

My favourite ones are these - they're all in 2's so go on like a disposable but dry quickly babybarenappies.co.uk/collections/frontpage

They're slim fit so go under normal clothes, don't leak, contain poo explosions really well and come in massively cute prints. I tried a lot before these ones but they weren't quite right. They have a lot of sales so you can pick up and try a few quite cheaply.

For washing them, I put them in the big wet bags dry, then wash them twice a week. A pre wash, then a full wash on 40 with non bio and nappysan to disinfect, then an extra rinse. Don't have any stains, the bamboo is great doesn't twist etc, or shrink. I also only change the bamboo bit if the outer is clean and dry.

Oh and we work full time in response to the other poster. It's not very much work to use them. A lot of friends are using cloth also got environmental reasons

Thank you all. Lots of very useful information

stupid question - my baby isn’t weaned yet. Her poos are still very runny & mustard. How do I get those off the nappy without using water?

@Franca123 @DanceToTheMusicInMyHead @A1b2c3d4e5f6g7

Nope. They’re not soaking wet, they’ve been spun. They go in a normal plastic washing basket until the next night.

Day 1:
7pm - today’s nappies go in (including the night nappy) 1hr, 60c quick wash, 600rpm, one scoop bio

Day 2:
7pm - today’s nappies go in (including the night nappy) 1hr, 60c quick wash, 600rpm, one scoop bio
8pm - I add in yesterday’s nappies and they have a 2.5 hour, 40c cotton 600rpm wash, two scoops bio.

Pre weaning poos are water soluble (I breastfed, don’t know if formula pops are the same?). Unless it’s particularly gross, they don’t need rinsing. Scrape if you want.

People who use half amounts of detergent - do you use half amounts of detergent on your own underwear, or wash them properly? Bearing in mind that you aren’t weeing or pooing in yours. Proper quantities of detergent don’t affect absorbency 🤯

clean cloth nappies website and fb group are both great.

we do prewash every day - 1hr at 40 degrees C with 120ml Daz and 120ml supermarket bleach. we main wash every day at the moment too as have 2 in cloth, so that's 4.5hr cotton plus intensive option at 40 degrees C with 240ml Daz.

Bio is fine, better for cleaning. I think if you use non bio then to get optimum cleaning you need to wash at 60 (from clean cloth nappies)

started off with the nappy lady washing advice and had smells pretty soon so switched to CCN. we use bleach in prewash on advice of CCN because of very stainy toddler poos.

our favourite nappies are the little lamb bamboo (nippa version) and we don't use a liner at all. 10 week old in little lamb size 1 atm and not had a single poo explosion, and he often doesn't go for 4 days! we use nature babies wraps.

I used cotton prefolds with separate cover. I had 24 then 4 of each size of cover. They lasted 2 children from 3 months to 4 years (well one of them to 4, autistic so late potty training) Had them on both at on point. Didn't use liners

I tumble dried my nappies in winter but dried the covers on on little indoor line in winter

I simply stored mine until I had a wash load in a plastic bin with lid, used normal washing powder on the cottons wash 60 degrees. Really no different to other clothes

We did no pre washing.
Just stopped using after 2 years now Ds is potty trained

Tots bots easyfits daytime, tots bots bamboozle and wrap nighttime. All with fleece liner.

Always washed at 60 degrees. Wash every other day ( so approx 12-14 ish nappies at a time). Always used bio powder, Ariel or persil.

Very odd stain came out hanging in sun after wash on sunny day. But rare. Always hung to dry on rack indoors or outside if nice, never tumble dried.

I now still use the easyfits at night incase of an accident. So only one used a day. Easier than wet bed if he did wet. The rest, the newborn teenyfits, all the spare easyfits (we had 20) and the bamboozle night nappies are in a box away. All white and gleaming to be used by us again in future or pass on.

You shouldn’t pre soak new nappy styles, no bleach or conditioner or stain remover, and tumble dryer not great on elastic.

I washed every 3 days. They were dry pailed. They were washed on 60 degrees. I had paper disposable liners that meant it was easy to remove poo.

Yes, after 3 days when you opened the bucket lid they smelt strongly of ammonia. However, they went straight into machine, sometimes with some white vinegar as well as non bio detergent and when they came out they smelt fine.

I suspect there was a smell that humans couldn’t smell that remained, as my cat liked to get in the clean nappy basket and wee on them! He could smell ammonia when I couldn’t.

I worked and my childminder used them. She had a waterproof bag to put the usually 3 produced during the day in. They generated just over 2 extra washes per week - not a big deal. They were line dried or around a Rayburn.

And ours just on bog standard 60 degree cotton wash. Took about 90 mins. On first thing, finished by the time dressed and eaten.

You don't need to. Baby poo pre-weaning can go straight in the machine. If there's a lot you might want to carefully hold the nappy/liner in the toilet and flush to get the worst of it but it's not necessary.

I used terry nappies with my 3, the old fashioned terry towelling squares. I used disposable liners as there wasn't much choice when they were small (20/18/16 now). after a while I'd just rinse them and put them in with the regular wash at 40 degrees with a scoop of Napisan, occasionally I's soak them in a bucket with some Napisan then wash them at 60 but generally it wasn't needed.

very different to normal clothes - there are usually multiple layers of absorbent fabric soaked in wee and poo. you need intensive cleaning for them to be properly clean. a prewash, a long main wash with lots of water to rinse through, correct detergent doses in both washes. cloth wipes can be washed in normal laundry though.

Yes like @Itstarts baby is breastfed and I just wipe off as much of the poo with a wipe, and chuck it in the big wet bag for storing before washing. It doesn't smell while stored, the wet bags are really good actually. wouldn't recommend the disposable liners until your baby has weaned though, we tried them and had leaks using those with the liquid pre-weaning poo.

Forgot to say, every month or so I do a hotter wash with nappisan just for the bamboo pads - this seems to be enough for us to ensure they don't smell.

Just let the machine do the job. But I really do think you need to run a rinse cycle first. Not pre wash programme. Rinse. A pre wash programme usually recycles the water into the main wash. You need to flush all that poo and wee away before you run the wash cycle. I actually used to use a disposable liner though and the poo which wasn't plopable, I'd put in a nappy bag and bin. Still an absolute fraction of the landfill waste of disposables.

My faves are motherease onesize cotton with the stay dry boosters and airflow wraps. Simple but effective and very absorbent. Terries and airflow wraps also a great combo.

Wash - dry pail and then I would wash every 2-3 days - start with a rinse cycle followed by your longest cotton cycle that’s not eco - on 60 if baby under 3 months otherwise 40. Powder is generally better to wash nappies with as liquids/pods can stick a bit to the fibres and reduce absorbency. No softener.