Just a quick post about the matter. A Cloth Diaper Malaysia reader e-mailed me and asked:
“Do you think it is okay for me to wash my baby’s Cloth Diapers and clothes together in the washing machine? I usually just dump everything at the same time”
In my opinion… IDEALLY, Cloth Diapers should be washed on its own, and separate from baby’s clothing.
Why?
- Cloth Diapers might have poop on them and it might be unhygenic and unsafe to wash them together with baby’s clothes.
- Baby’s skin might develop rashes or allergic reactions if they wear the baby’s clothes which has poop residue.
- Also, Cloth Diapers and baby’s clothes might require different type of detergents for each.
- For example, you might wash the baby clothing with normal detergent (which might contain anti-bacterial properties, includes softener, bleach, etc).
- However, when washing Cloth Diapers, detergents used should be FREE from enzymes, softeners, additives & bleach. So don’t mix those two together and use the wrong type of detergent which can ruin yo diapers!
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If you don’t have much time to wash Cloth Diapers and baby clothes separately:
- Run your Cloth Diapers under Rinse, then Spin cycle on your washing machine (or rinse VERY well with running water, and remove as much water as possible if you prefer to do it by hand).
- Then you can wash them together with your baby’s clothes (Just load baby’s clothes in the machine after the above is done).
- The first steps will remove the poop away from the Cloth Diapers (not entirely, but most of it at least).
- Make sure you use suitable detergent for washing Cloth Diapers!
- Note: If your baby is exclusively breastfeeding, the poop is easier to come off from the Cloth Diapers (because the poop is soluble in water), compared to baby’s poop who is fed solid foods.
You might agree or disagree with me on this. Although, if you’ve washed Cloth Diapers with your baby’s clothes before and it works just fine… I don’t see why you should not continue with that routine. However, keep these things in mind next time! 
QUESTION: Do you wash your Cloth Diapers together with baby’s clothes and it works out for you (no rashes/allergic reactions)? Or do you always separate the two?
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10 Comments: Trackback URL | Comments RSS
May 13th, 2010 at 9:48 am
For 15 months, I have been washing cloth diapers, baby, husband AND my home clothes together. My boy and I have eczema-prone and sensitive skin, but no problem from such washing routine. (Our rashes are from food or perspiration.)
If there are poop residues, it means the washing and direct sunning are insufficient.
Anyway, babies commonly pee / poo / regurgitate milk / drool onto their clothes, so it is fine that all these get washed together.
Tips: spray off poo into toilet before throwing into laundry. Use Pre-Wash function. If no Pre-Wash function, rinse the cloth diapers in a pail of water before adding into laundry.
Also, try early potty-training to get baby to poo in potty for more clean diapers. Works for us since son was 8 months old.
May 13th, 2010 at 10:44 am
hye .. my style basuh cd is just guna natural hand wash .. is it ok??? i’m never put in my sons cd inside washing mashine …
May 13th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Salam Dian, its ok utk hand wash cd.. Tapi kena bilas bg betul2 bersih dari kesan sabun.. Cuma kalau basuh mesin lagi cepat kering la (sbb terus spin)… Cuma kalau basuh guna WM kena letak dlm laundry net la..
May 14th, 2010 at 1:42 am
MieVee,
But never did, always I separate adult laundry with babies.. Somehow I feel adult stuff like sweat, etc might go to baby’s stuff and that might not be so good.
That’s great! I’m tempted to dump all my laundry in one load sometimes too
Dian,
Even better if you handwash your CDs! They will definitely prolong their life compared to using washing machine. But of course, if you have many many CDs to wash, it gets tiring… And like nuzulu says below, it’s quite important to rinse your CDs well.
Nuzula,
Good point. And CDs in laundry net is a must for me too!
May 17th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
I’ve never mixed CD washing with clothes. It’s always alternate day like if today, clothes washing then tomorrow is CD washing.
Concern on the ‘cleanliness’ issue as we, Muslim particular with this part.
May 31st, 2010 at 10:24 am
saya?…kadang2 campur…kadang2 tidak…;)….depends… klu tak bnyk baju nak basuh….campurkan baju2 kids dgn CD…..tapi first round is bilas CD dulu….no detergent…..bila CD dah siap bilas…then baru masukkan baju2 kids and detergent…
June 5th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
sama la mula2, rinse n spin and then wash the CD with soap but separate the two
March 19th, 2011 at 7:26 am
Thanks so much for this post. I LOVE this blog! I just started cloth diapering about one and a half months ago and absolutely enjoy it. I visit this blog almost every day for tips, ideas and drooling over yummy diapers.
One request: do you use wool soakers/covers? I’d like some tips about it such as how to wash or lanolise them. I haven’t ventured into night time diapering (still use ’sposies for that) as I’m not confident they can last the night…. but I heard that wool can be a good solution for that
March 22nd, 2011 at 11:04 am
Hi Serene,
Glad you found this blog helpful
I hope you continue to cloth diaper until your baby potty trains…
Regarding wool soakers. Yes, I do use them, especially for night time. Best used with fitteds, and they are very simple to use. But I dont use them often enough to have to lanolize them, so I can’t comment about the process. Yes, amazingly it does give a waterproof n leakproof cloth diapering solution!
However, I’m getting comments from my husband that the wool pants that my son wears seems “hot” and that I’m crazy to put it on him in our weather… I guess wool shorties are a better bet for humid weather, or to get less thick wool to wear.
April 19th, 2011 at 1:58 am
i get the point for baby’s cloth diapers. It would just cause more delay in everyday chores, also there’s a lot of effort needed to wash those dirty cloths.
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