Washing Instructions
For your new diapers:
Prefolds- You will want to wash these diapers about 3-4 times in hot water. No soap is necessary for this prep. This gets rid of the oils naturally in the cotton and makes them extra soft. Getting rid of these oils is important to get your diaper to the maximum absorbency. They will come out quilty and soft.
Pockets- You will want to wash these a few times. If you are prepping your prefolds, you can do them both at the same time. Again, no soap is necessary for this.
Washing Diapers:
This is my method for washing diapers. You may find that this does not work for you and your machine. That is o.k. There is no right or wrong way. As long as you do not use fabric softener or bleach you should be fine. Also, a lot of the natural detergents and free and clear detergents out there have oils in them that may cause residue on your diapers. So you may want to avoid those. I personally use plain Tide.
Remove the solids from you diapers. If you use liners simply take out and flush. If your baby is breastfed you can simply through in the washer.
A rinse and spin cycle in cold water. Make sure there is enough water because you want your diaper to really swish around in there. No need to use soap in this cycle.
A HOT wash with about ½ the amount of detergent you would normally use. I do the Heavy Duty cycle on my machine. Personally I put about 3 drops of Lavender Essential Oil (this is a natural antiseptic). If you can a hot rinse, if you can’t a warm or cold is fine. If you see suds in the cycle you may have to rinse again to make sure all of the soap is gone.
Dry your diapers. You can machine or sun dry. I machine dry mine on a medium setting. Sunlight gets stains out and sterilizes cloth diapers.
You are done!
Store your dirty diapers in a pail and wash every 2-3 days.
Note: It is recommended that you not stretch or stuff your diapers hot out of the dryer. This will lessen the life of the elastic. Just a minute or two should be fine. I have not had a problem.