Just curious which detergents other moms and dads are using out there for cloth diapers/clothes. I have heard good things about Rockin Green detergent, but haven’t tried it.
Just curious which detergents other moms and dads are using out there for cloth diapers/clothes. I have heard good things about Rockin Green detergent, but haven’t tried it.
We used our regular family detergent on baby clothes. My thoughts were that Baby is going to be snuggled up against my clothes, my bedding, the cover of his car seat and swing, Grandma’s clothes… and none of them have been washed in special detergent.
If I needed to use a special detergent for some reason (if regular wasn’t working on cloth diapers or something), I’d see how a home-made detergent would work. Basically, it’s just a combination of borax, washing soda, and bar laundry soap. Some people add essential oil to make it smell pretty, and some people like making liquid soap so they add water, but it’s still essentially three ingredients. For cloth diapers, if it looked like the soap was causing problems with their absorbency, I’d add 1/2 cup or so of white vinegar to the rinse cycle.
This is my favorite "recipe" for home made laundry detergent. It works really well, and any bar laundry soap can work (Zote, Octagon, Fels Naptha, Liro…).
http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Laundry-Detergent/
i use what we use
Babies especially Newborns have very, highly sensitive skin. You should not expose the baby to baby powder, perfumed anything, or detergents.
Babies R’us and Target carry known and safe brands like Seventh Generations baby detergent. For big messes you can rinse in the bathroom sink and then soak in warm-to hot water in a small bin using Oxi clean for babies and toddlers.
Lavender detergents/hand soap can make anyone skin to itch.
i make my own:
2c borax
2c washing soda (NOT baking soda – not the same stuff at all!)
2 bars soap (ivory when she was a baby but now i use whatever’s on sale)
additives like tea tree oil, lavender oil, and citrus oil to add scent, kill bacteria, and boost cleaning.
grate the soap into a pot, add water, bring to a simmer until the soap’s all melted.
keep at a low simmer and add the powders, stir until all dissolved.
pour into a BIG container and add 20litres (ish) of the hottest water you can get – if your hot water tap isn’t hot enough, then heat it in batches but it must be as close to boiling as you can get it or it won’t work. keep stirring as you add it – you can use it right away, but wait till it cools for full effect. once all the water’s added, you can add any oils you want to use and an optional 2c of vinegar for fabric softening and deodorizing.
let cool overnight and in the morning, it will be a giant solid block of a creamy gel. break this up using your hands or whatever and voila. you can use this for dishes, to clean rugs and upholstery, laundry, you name it. not good for dishwashers, though, as it leaves a film over everything. i think that’s the soap.
excellent for HE machines, btw, as it makes no bubbles whatsoever – it’s just pure cleaning power, no showy bubbles (the bubbles in soaps and detergents do nothing but tell you how well you spent your money).
for laundry, use about 1 to 1-1/2c per load.
cost analysis:
3kg washing soda – about $5 (check your local big grocery chain)
5kg borax – about $5 (also big grocery chain or hardware store)
bar soap – you can get them as cheap as ten bars for about $2
oils – varies widely
vinegar – you’ve probably already got it.
so you’ll probably spend less than $5 for a batch of laundry soap that will do roughly 60 to 80 loads.
I just used what I used on my clothes it was just fine
We used Allens but you know what all free and clear is just as good as the "recommended" stuff for cloth diapers at half the price.
Baby dreft or the All for babies
i just use anything rated for sensitive skin. . . .
first on a rinse cycle with no soap then again with soap using hot water and a extra rinse. . .
Dreft
I just use the regular stuff
I learned early on that babies are completely fine using the same detergent that adults use. Really, it’s just a marketing ploy to get people to buy special baby detergents. It’s the dryer sheets that should be avoided because they contain lard that still stays on the clothes and can irritate sensitive baby skin until they’re older.
I used clothe diapers for my daughter and used Mountain Green Baby Detergent. I really liked it because there were no Enzymes, Brighteners, or Dyes.
tide free and clear!
Dreft.
I use just bleach and water.
With cloth diapers it really does make a difference what detergent you use. Any detergent that contains fabric softeners (Dreft), or optical brighteners and other additives can cause the diapers to become less absorbent (in other words, make perfectly good diapers leaky). Some babies are super sensitive to enzymes and can get really bad rashes when the enzymes are acitivated by urine. The vast majority of the time, when a parent tells me their cloth diapers no longer smell clean when washed, it is a detergent residue problem.
Natural soaps and any bar soap will ruin diapers. Natural soaps are made with oils. They will leave a residue on the fabric.Just like the soap scum on your tub, these will leave invisible residue in the diapers. Over time they become less absorbent and they start to hold odors. I have sold handmade soap for almost 3 years. I would love to say it is safe for diapers – but I have seen many lovely diapers ruined with soap residue. It is REALLY hard to get out once it is in the cloth..
Water is also different in different places. A detergent that works great in one kind of water can cause major problems for others. Some people do fine with things like Tide, but for most parents these detergents cause major problems. Using a detergent with additives can also void the warranty on most brands of diapers.
We use and love Allen’s Naturally. One quart lasts us 128 loads – so it works out to less than 10 cents per load. If you have a front loader it will last almost twice as long. Buy a gallon and it will drop the price even more.
I am currently testing Rockin Green for my cloth diaper review site. So far it is performing better than many other brands recommended for diapers – but it is not as good for us as the Allen’s Naturally. I think in normal city water it would work great, but we are on a well so we have more problems with detergent than most other people.
Bleach is not only bad for the environment, it breaks down the fiber and elastic in fabrics. So, it will wear out your diapers prematurely. It can also leave a residue in the fabric that can cause really bad rashes for a lot of babies. I rarely recommend using bleach in diapers – it will void the warranty for most brands. However, BumGenius says it is ok to use 1/4 (and only 1/4 cup) of bleach once a month to get rid of odors in diapers. I almost never find this necessary if you are using good detergent.
There is a list of detergents and what additives they do or do not contain on my web site, as well as a lot of other information about washing cloth diapers.