cloth diapers part 2---washing time

i love when a hater says, "well, aren't cloth diapers bad for the environment since they need SO much water to wash them all the time?",  because the answer is no.  i won't go into all of the reasons as you will see for yourself if you go cloth, but the fact of the matter is that the more diapers you buy the less you have to wash them.

if you go with my recommended 24 diapers to start, you will be washing them every few days during the newborn phase and even less later.  as a matter of fact, my son only pooped once a week from 4 months until we started some solids at 11 months.....granted, he peed of course, but you can leave a wet dipe on longer than a poopy dipe.

anywhoo...onto the washing instructions.  read carefully please:

when you first get your diapers, you HAVE to do the following prep in order for them to absorb/work:

DIAPER PREP:
1.  wash in cold water with detergent
2.  wash in hot water with a second rinse with detergent
3.  dry
4.  repeat steps 1-3 FOUR times or until diaper absorbs water

DETERGENT:
use a non borax detergent like planet, ecos or charlie's soap.  i believe whole foods has all of these.

NORMAL DIAPER WASHING AFTER INITIAL PREP:
1.  wash in cold water with detergent
2.  wash in hot water with a second rinse with detergent
3.  dry

***regarding washing wool diaper covers...you can ruin wool's natural oils by over washing it.  if pee gets on the cover, you only need to lie it out in the sun as wool is naturally anti-microbial.  spot clean poop with cool water and a little natural soap.  never wash or dry in the machine, and for long term maintenance, read more at the bottom of the page here.