Which detergent for your cloth diapers?

It can be a bit daunting when you first start out cloth diapering and you discover all these new "accessories" that you need to get.  Things such as wipes, wet bags, diaper sprayers, and special detergents can sometimes seem like too much!

For me, getting laundry detergent for my cloth diapers was a big problem.  It was hard enough building a decent diaper stash, carefully scrounging $20-$60 dollars each pay check for me to buy 1-3 diapers at a a time was trying on my patience.  Meanwhile, I was wholeheartedly into cloth diapering full time so I was washing loads of 6-8 diapers at a time, 1-2 times a day so that I wouldn't have to put my Bunny in a yucky disposable.  Until we were able to afford something better, we just used Tide.  Not the best, I know, but it did the trick for awhile. 

Finally, when my stash reached somewhere around 20 (around the time Bunny was 3-4 months old) I gave in and bought some Rockin" Green cloth diaper detergent.  I have to say, I was disappointed.  First of all, it's extremely small.  Over time, I discovered that this wasn't an issue since it lasted me for about 2-3 months of washing cloth diapers every day or every two days.  Secondly, the amazing smell that everyone raves about didn't reach past the little, muslin bag the detergent comes in.  My diapers did not smell amazingly.  Thirdly, it didn't eliminate the need to strip as everyone claims.  Granted, that's probably due to the fact that my town has TERRIBLY hard water which we run through chemicals in a water softener, AND we have an HE machine.  (I would have never guessed I'd be disappointed about having a washing machine that uses less water! Ha ha!).  Over time, I discovered ways to compensate for our hard water and HE machine and I just do a MAD amount of rinses before and after washing, but by the time I figured it out, I was out of Rockin' Green.  And, I"m sad to report that some of it spilled on the floor because I left the bag opened on the top of the machine and it scooted off the edge.  I dutifully spooned up a few loads from the floor, though, so as not to waste one precious and expensive drop.

I don't think I will be replacing my bag of Rockin' Green.  I mean, it's okay.  It works.  But it lacks the WOW factor everyone raves about.

Meanwhile, my husband came home from Sam's Club with a very LARGE and inexpensive bottle of Ecos--an all natural laundry detergent.  Well, many detergents claim to be all natural in grocery stores so I wasn't sure if I was buying it.  I read the label and it's pretty much free and clear of all these different chemicals that I can't pronounce, but I still wasn't sure.

So I googled it! Well, maybe I Swag Bucked it, but that's not what's important.  What IS important is this amazing LIST I  found at www.diaperjungle.com.  It's the most helpful detergent list I've ever seen! You should go check it out.

And guess what?  No more buying detergent online for me because Ecos is rated as GREAT for cloth diapers! Yay!!!!

And what's best is that it smells amazing--like lavender--and it works great!  When you cloth diaper you just get used to not being able to find any of your diapering necesities at actual brick and mortar stores located nearby so this is just wonderful, to me.  And do you know what's even better?  The only reason my sweetie pie even bought the detergent to begin with was that it was the cheapest.  Woo hoo!!!

An update on the weekend

Hey guys, so I'm sure some of you are wondering how last weekend went with just prefolds.

I took lots of pictures and may write a more detailed post later as a guest blogger to earn some free diapers (at this point most of my free dipes will be gifts), but my loyal readers need an update, I realize!

So, we've traveled twice before and used only cloth.  Once, when Bunny was two months old, my husband took the young adults on a weekend retreat (he's also the young adult pastor at our church) and over Christmas when we traveled 7 hours to see my family we used cloth exclusively.  Both times, all we had were pocket diapers.  At the retreat I experimented with hand washing them.  I found that it was possible, but that it's difficult to hand wash and hand dry microfiber inserts because they just hold SO MUCH WATER! I was getting blisters from wringing them out and they weren't drying fast enough! (I think I only had 15ish diapers in my stash then, and since Bunny was younger and only breastfed--no solids--at that point, she went through more.

In the end, I found a dryer and just machine dried them all.  I found that hand washing pockets is doable but not ideal

Over Christmas I just used my parents washer and dryer with the pockets.  This worked fine.  It was much like cloth diapering at home... except that pockets are sort of bulky to carry around.  I had about 20 diapers at this time.

This past weekend, I bought prefolds and flats and brought 29 of them with me. (17 prefolds and 12 flats).  I didn't realize how much less my daughter needs to be changed now that she is 7 months old and that nearly 30 diapers would be unnecessary if I was planning on washing them--which I was.  Since I'm somewhat chicken about using prefolds at night, I brought 6-8 pockets with me for night time.  She only used four.  She generally gets changed only once at night even though she wakes up more than once on some nights.

And prefolding worked well! I'm still not the best at using prefolds.  I'm awkward about putting them on with the snappi and only using a wrap.  No matter how you slice it, it will never be as easy to put a prefold or a flat diaper on a baby as it is to put an All in One or a pocket diaper--or even a fitted.

But I liked it! I didn't mind that I was awkward at it! I'm such a cloth diaper enthusiast that I enjoy trying everything!

ANd I washed them--hand washed them in the bathtub and dried them in front of a roaring fireplace.  There was a dryer available because this was a retreat center with separate houses for showers, bathrooms, washrooms, etc, but I guess I wanted to know that I would be capable of cloth diapering in a worse-case scenario.  Ha ha! Next I'll have to try it while camping :-D.  I'll wash them in the river or something while carrying my baby on my back :-P.  ANyway, the clothesline I used was a rope my husband had along for some activity he did with the kids.

Originally I'd laid them out to dry on a tightrope he'd set up for one of the challenges (let me tell you, my husband is an AMAZING youth pastor! He sets up the most intricate and wonderful retreats generally with a movie to set the stage, challenges, clues, and everything always pulls together to help the kids learn one, God-centered point, but I digress!) but since it was rainy, the outdoor clothesline/tightrope wasn't cutting it.  The rope I eventually used was red and dyed some of my diapers with an orange line, but I'm sure it will wash out.  Also, the diapers were stiff after drying in front of a fire.  I guess they'd be the same way after drying outside.  They usually aren't stiff on my drying rack in the baby's room.

From now on, if a washer/dryer is an option, I"m using it because I don't want so much stiff fabric against my baby's skin.

It turns out that I didn't need to wash them at all, though.  Bunny only went through 19 prefolds (I didn't even have to use the flats--talk about an awkward diaper to learn to use!) and four pockets.  I could have just waited until I got home.

All in all, cloth diapering at a youth retreat was a successful experience.  I enjoyed it! I don't have very many covers, though.  I've discovered that Thirsties are, by far, my favorite.  I brought four of my wool soakers, two thirsties (one Medium with velcro and one duo size 2 with snaps), a Bumkins, and two made from diaeprkit.com.  I mostly used the Thirsties and the wool ones.  But with wool I don't like to have anything OVER the cover because one of the positives of using wool is that it feels almost moist when the baby has wet so there's no guesswork about changing.  No, it doesn't leak, or get anything else wet, but it does feel warm and moist.  Have I mentioned I love wool???

So, with the next points I earn from Diaper Junction from my posts there, I'm getting at least one THirsties.  I'd get a lot more but there are lots of other things I need from them--including a diaper for my friend at church who really needs more diapers but doesn't seem to have a way to get them herself.

 Oh, and we learned that Bunny really loves loud, Christian Rock...which is a GOOD thing since having a youth pastor for a daddy means lots of loud teenagers and their awesome music and festivals such as Creation that she will attend every year for her entire life...well, maybe not this year.  I don't know if I'm brave enough to go with her this year and deal with the throngs of dirty, hot people, port-a-potties, SUN,  and washing cloth diapers.  If there ever were going to be something to put me over the edge with diapers and push me to use disposables, it would be Creation!

My Washing Routine

I've researched many sites for the best method of washing cloth diapers and it seems that everyone has their own routine. Even from one brand of cloth diaper to another the washing recommendations are different. Almost every time! So here's my routine, despite what others say or do because it works for me:

-1 wash on cold with 1/4 the recommended detergent.
-1 was on hot/cold with no detergent.
-Dry the diaper inserts in the dryer.
-Line dry the diapers.
-When necessary, strip the diapers. It seems that the method I used before worked nicely because I haven't had any leaks since.

Stripping diapers

So, I've been diapering with cloth for about 8 weeks now and I've just hit a new milestone. Stripping. My lovely bumGenius which never leaked for me before began to leak like crazy. Now, I normally wash my diapers with two cycles--one wash on cold with 1/4 the suggested detergent for a non-diaper load, and one wash cycle on hot/cold with no detergent. For stripping them I did as suggested from some of my research and after washing the diapers with regular detergent as I normally do, I did a "rinse" with some dish detergent in it. After washing with dish detergent you're supposed to do as many rinses as it takes for there to be no bubbles in the wash... except that I have a front loading washer so that was hard for me. I rinsed it twice and then just counted them done. But apparently that didn't work because they leaked this week as well. So, my new regiment is as follows:

One regular wash with 1/4 the detergent used on non-diaper washes.
One regular wash with a small amount of dish detergent.
One regular wash with nothing.
One regular wash with 1/2 cup of white vinegar.

We'll see if it works!