Stripping Recap…

I know the title sounds a bit suggestive – but here in cloth diaper world it means something completely different!!  As a seasoned cloth diaperer will tell you, it’s almost impossible to keep your diapers 100% build-up free no matter what laundry detergent you use.  The more additives and chemicals in your detergent, the more you will probably have to strip them, that is the general rule. 

Ways to know that you might need to strip your diapers -

1. They are randomly leaking – this usually happens when the build-up causes them to repel rather than absorb liquid and this can happen as a result of lots of things.  You may use fabric softeners for your other laundry (in the dryer or the washer), might be because of rash cream, or lotions, or even oils in your wipes. 
2. Your baby is getting a rash.  It could be yeast that is not being killed or treated properly, also it could be a contact type of allergy where the urine combines with the build up in the diapers and is irritating your baby’s skin.
3. The cloth diapers are getting stinky!  This is a sure sign that your diapers need a good stripping….read on for some tips!

The best and easiest way is to use a good squirt of the original Dawn dish liquid in your SUPER hot wash.  This probably means you might have to turn up your hot water heater’s mixing valve for a little while – depending on the size of your water tank, doing this an hr before you wash should do the trick. After the hot wash (or 2 if you want) make sure to run the rinse cycle until there are no bubbles as it is agitating. 

The other way that I have found will really kill the nasties especially if you think you might have reoccuring yeast or something else (or you just cannot find the original Dawn liquid) is to boil.  It sounds daunting, but trust me it really does the trick.  I use my largest lobster pot and a big pair of tongs and do them in batches.  Be careful with any diaper with PUL in it, I usually only boil those for a few mins and I stir the whole time (you probably don’t have to bother with your covers if you don’t want to), but other diapers especially my prefolds and inserts, I just boil the crap out of them.  Next I take them from the boiling water with the tongs, put them straight into a sink full of cold water and then wring them out well. You can also put them into the washer and run a spin cycle if you don’t want to wring by hand.

Follow either of these methods with a good hot dry and voila – clean, build up and nasty-free diapers.  They will be like new. If anyone has questions or suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments! Happy stripping everyone!

Tags: build up on cloth diaper, cloth diaper, laundry build up, stripping cloth diaper, washing cloth diapers

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 4:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.