Anyone Hand Wash Cloth Diapers?

Wow good luck with this hand washing would be very hard without being able to agitating it may not come clean.
I understand the 2.25 each load, you can go 3 days in the early stages if you breast feed but you may need more diapers.
Good luck

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Well, there's a lot of thorough and expert advice in the responses.

I'd just add that maybe you could pick up some more diapers and wash every third day, soaking the diapers. You could do some math to figure out what costs you less in the long run. Babyworks has a calculation method in their catalog, if you want an example.

I use vinegar in the final rinse on my son's diapers. It gently removes any soap residue and mildly disinfects. Removing the soap residue helps them dry faster also.

Actually I just thought of something else, if you're up for it. Diaper free baby! There are books on how to do early-start potty training, starting at about 6 months. Of course at that time it's a lot of attention to the baby, but by 1 year it's supposed to be pretty smooth. I know it's hard to imagine because in our culture we use diapers for so long, and don't believe we should potty train until a child is "ready." But, all around the world there are millions of people who don't have access to disposable diapers, and not enough water/machines to keep up with cloth. So, they do the elimination communication. There are resources on the web and at the library.

Good luck!

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Well, there are some cheap apartment sets...ones that will fit in a small space, etc. I can't imagine hand washing them...sorry.

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By the time you get done paying for the laundramat, the bleach and soap... the diaper service will be affordable, believe me.

If you had your own washer and dryer at home, with no pre-soak cycle on your washer, I would suggest that you fill your diaper pail with warm water and dissolve Biz pre-soak in the water, then place your dirty diapers in the pail, washing them every other day. When you place the diapers in the pail, be sure to rinse out any bm in the toilet, taking care to remove as much as possible. Then before you place them in the washer, rinse them out in the Biz water, rubbing to loosen any stain.

Use HOT water with Biz and Dreft laundry detergent. If you have the opportunity for a second rinse, then add a 1/4 cup of white vinegar to the first rinse. This will remove any soap residue and all that sticks to it. Your diapers (and do this with any of your baby's laundry) will be whiter, brighter as the soap residue is gone. Especially with their pj's, they're flame retardant and soap like Ivory Snow has a tendency to build up a residue on these retardant treated fabrics, the vinegar maintains the integrity of the retardant.

The diaper service really isn't that expensive when you take into consideration all that goes into care and upkeep on diapers. The wraps, you buy from them or find at garage sales, friends or at a store. The two hours you'll spend in the laundry room is two hours that you could be doing other things in your apartment/house while the washer and dryer are working their magic. You'll find that you'll be multi-tasking a lot for the next 18 or more years!!!

I sewed my own diapers. And my Mom and Dad got me diaper service for the first two months, so I could adjust and keep up as your baby will go thru about 12 diapers a day, in addition to all the other laundry.

Take good care and enjoy!!

Gotta love cloth! I think if you are using prefolds with covers that hand washing is totally doable. And don't worry too much about stains. In the summertime you can hang them outside and the sun will bleach out any staining you may have. The sun works like magic!

You will definitely want to make sure that you rinse all the detergent out of the diapers. Diaper residue can cause irritation on your sweet little babies bum. It can also cause the diapers to hold odors. So it might be a good idea to try to wash the diapers in the coin-op machines once per week.

Good luck mama! If you ever need additional advice there is a website called diaper pin that has a lot of information and support for cloth diapering families.

Congratulations on the baby! I hope you like cloth as much as I do. The added bonus is that babies look so cute in cloth!

i highly recommend that you check out "elimination communication," it is an amazing wonderful way of relating to your baby, the benefits of which go far beyond having fewer diapers to wash. (diaperfreebaby.org is a good resource to start with). you can start from birth, tuning in to baby's signals and using a potty. this is the natural way that mothers have cared for their babies for thousands of years. you will of course need a few diapers but won't go through nearly as many. it will greatly enhance your communication and connection with your baby, will help baby feel empowered, will eliminate "potty training" problems later, and you will also be helping the environment! i recommend flat cotton (preferably organic) diapers, you could make them yourself. and use only natural soap to wash them, and air dry. you can do it!

I don't know if you can still purchase them or not now, but when I had my son, I had to use cloth diapers for part of the time. Because I too couldn't afford a diapering service, I had to hand wash some and wash some via washing machine. There was these thin cloth like strips (looked almost like stripped up dryer sheets) that Gerber had that you could place in the cloth diaper for #2s. They helped tremendously. I also used a plastic fitted "diaper" that was made to go over cloth diapers to protect against leakage. Not sure if this helps, but hope it does! :)

Hi, glad to here more people doing this. So much easier on the budget and the landfill.
What helped me was to have a pail full of water/bleach mix next to the tiolet where i rinsed them. I also had enough to get by for about 3 days before needing to wash more. the bleach water kept smell and germs from spreading. I hope this helps you. I can only offer what i have tried. Good luck.

About Me: I am a mother to five children two are by me and three are my hubbies. They are 21,20,18,14,10. I love them all the same. My dear husband too.

It's been awhile, but here goes. I used a "Diaper Duck". It was a clamp that held the diaper in the toilet for rinsing off. Then I had a covered, locking pail next to it with an Arm & Hammer solution. After the pre-soak, I took them all to the washer & used a sensitive baby soap. Worked fine and no diaper rash. We had the diapers with the inside liners, the elastic and velcro pants, and the plastic covers.

Well, at least you can use a good detergent, like Seventh Generation with enzymes that actually breaks down urine and feces, you can find it at Fred Meyer and probably Target. Don't ever use bleach it weakens the cloth.

My mom used to rinse the poopy diapers in the toilet then wash the load by itself with hot water, bleach, and ivory snow soap. This was in the days before disposable diapers, and we're all alive and healthy. When the weather is nice, you might line dry them to save money.

Good for you! I wanted to do cloth, but I knew my husband would not be patient enough for the extra work of pinning and rinsing. I think that even with paying the cost of the machines that you will save money, even the really cheap diapers add up to a lot of money over the time you have to use them. You have some really great advice from the other moms.

I am so glad you have made this choice. I started cloth on my son when he was 22 months and it has gone great. Although we wash ours in the washer, it can be done by hand.
I would get some good rubber gloves (the few times I have needed to wash by hand it hurt very bad when I didn't have the gloves), and just go from there. I would check online, there is a lot of info out there. If you have a myspace I can invite you to my cloth diapering group. The ladies in there are great and have lots of info.
Good luck!

R.

we have 30 prefolds and at the peak of washing we did diapers every 3 days. with an almost one yr. old, we have been doing them once every 5 days for a few months now. for washing, we simply spray the diaper with bac-out, stick it in the pail, and dump the pail in washer and run a regular "hot" load. if the poop is especially massive, we have a toilet wand that sprays it off. for those diapers, we have a small wet-pail in the bathroom, with 2-3 Tbl. bac-out and a few gallons of water. for these, we put the whole thing (bac-out mix + soiled diapers) in the washer and do a spin cycle, then add the rest of the normal "dry" diapers and do a regular wash load.
we love washing our own, and it is SO easy. good luck!