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With today's economy is your money "disposable"? SAVE your $$$ and SAVE our planet while making the HEALTHY choice of cloth diapering your baby!
Initial Washing for Your NEW Diapers
***When you receive your new Chinese prefolds, they will be flat & stiff and won’t resemble the soft, fluffy prefolds you’ve seen in photos at all. Fortunately, after the first few washes they will begin to quilt beautifully.***
For white prefolds, please wash the prefolds 2 times in HOT water (with ½ the amount of detergent recommended on the box). Then, do a 3rd HOT wash with nothing added. This 3rd HOT wash rinses the detergent completely out of the diapers. Dry on medium or high in the dryer to adequately fluff the fibers. Now, they’re ready to use on your baby!
For unbleached prefolds, Kissaluvs fitted diapers, Baby Greens fitted diapers, hemp doublers, inserts, and cloth wipes, the process is a little more intensive, though quite rewarding. Unbleached cotton and hemp have natural oils that remain (from the plant) on the fibers. These oils need to be removed before the unbleached diaper can become fully absorbent. So, please wash the unbleached diapers and accessories 4 times in HOT water (with ½ the amount of detergent recommended on the box). Then, do a 5th HOT wash with no detergent added. Dry on medium or high in the dryer. You can go ahead and use the diapers on your baby at this point, but be aware that the diapers will continually become more absorbent over the next few washes. All of this work is not in vain, as I have had many people tell me they feel the unbleached diapers are a bit softer & more absorbent. *** An important note about the initial washes for your unbleached items…Please do wait to add any fleece liners, diaper covers, or used cloth diapers to the wash with your unbleached items until the unbleached items have gone through the first 4 HOT washes with detergent. This is to prevent the unbleached oils from affecting the absorbency or performance of your other cloth diapering items.
After these initial washes, you can just use your regular “cloth diaper washing” routine. These initial repeated Hot washes are just to prepare your diapers for their first use.
New diaper covers only need to be washed once prior to the first use.
All of the diaper covers (with the exception of the Wool covers) can be washed in warm or hot water. I prefer to hang the Bummis & Fuzzi Bunz covers to dry, as it seems to increase their longevity, but they can be dried on low in the dryer. The Polar Babies and Stacinator fleece covers can be dried in the dryer on medium or high heat (with the diapers, if you like).
The Aristocrats, Imse Vimse, and Stacinator STRETCH Wool should be washed before the first use, as well. We prefer to use Eucalan woolwash on our wool covers, as it contains both eucalyptus(great smelling, moth inhibitor, anti-microbial) and lanolin(for softness & restoring water resistance). The Wool covers should be washed by hand in cold water. Add 1 to 2 tbsp. of Eucalan Woolwash to a small sinkful of water & let the new cover soak for at least 15 minutes (I usually leave my covers in closer to 30 minutes). Then, drain the water, and gently press out as much water from the cover as possible. Do not wring the cover. Place the cover on a towel & and roll it in the towel, gently pressing out as much moisture from the cover as possible. Then, hang to dry at room temperature (not in direct sunlight).
