Washing Cloth Diapers in a Front Loader

When I decided to cloth diaper my baby I had lots of questions and naturally thought this was going to be really complicated. The thing I feared the most was the washing! I have a newer Bosch front loading washer and I had read so many mom forums that insisted you could not get the diapers clean in any front loader. Of course I panicked at first and had flashes of my poor infant with diaper rash and stinky catastrophies. Well I wasn't going to be getting another washer and I had already bought my diapers so what was I to do? Well I figured out a simple and effective routine with my specific washer but those of you with another kind can probably adapt.

Step one: Take the wet or poopy diaper off your little one and clean them up! Put a clean diaper on. Put the dirty diaper or insert in your pail, I recommend the dry method.

Step 2: Repeat step one until your pail is full or you are down to 3-4 diapers.

Step 3: Dump the pail contents as they are in the washer. If you have a baby that is still exclusively breastfed no need to rinse out the poopies. Babies on solids make solid poop so please rinse out best you can in the toilet before putting in your pail.

Step 4: For my washer I do not have a "Rinse" cycle but I have discovered recently how to do this! I select "Drain & Spin" and then hit the "Allergy Rinse" button. This is a hot rinse.

Step 5: After you have run the rinse cycle add a small (I mean small) amount of your diaper safe soap of choice. Diaperjungle.com has a great list of detergents good and bad for washing diapers. I then select the "Xxtra Sanitary" cycle and another "Allergy Rinse" which will just add another hot rinse at the end. If you want a little added softness DO NOT add softener, add a few tablespoons of white vinegar in place of softener. Softener will make your diapers repel liquid instead of absorb.

Step 6: Check to see if there is any soap on your door at the end of the cycle. If there is you may have some soap build up or used too much soap. Just run another hot rinse until it is gone. Then either line dry or machine dry as your diaper brand instructs. I have gDiapers and the waterproof pouch cannot be machine dried. I just toss them on top of the dryer and let the gentler heat dry them. DO NOT USE DRYER SHEETS!!!

There you go! Clean diapers for your baby's bottom.

Tips:
If it smells like ammonia when your baby pees in their diaper you may need to strip them. It is a good idea to do this periodically anyway to keep them from getting any kind of build up. Same goes for if it seems like the absorbancy has decreased, time to strip.

Happy diapering!