Which detergent? You’ll have to become a label reader. Like buying food, the shorter the ingredients list, the better. Cheap detergents can be just as good, if not better, than expensive ones, since they are less likely to have added ingredients to cause residue, which in turn causes wicking covers, stinky diapers, and rashes. Right up front I’d recommend Charlie’s Soap. But not everyone has access to those or wants to use them, so read on.

I know it gets confusing – one site recommends a detergent, and another says stay away! The problem is that we all have different water, different babies, different routines, and different washing machines. Some people never encounter ANY trouble using their regular detergent, additives and all. Some people have to search a while before finding what works for them. You just have to try a few things until you figure out what works for you. This may streamline your experience…

The key to laundering diapers seems to be getting them clean without leaving ANY TRACE of detergents or their residues.

Residues left by detergents can lead to leaking diapers, rashes, and odor problems, and often it takes months for it to show up. How do we avoid residues? One way is with detergent choice – some detergents are meant to leave residues (fabric softeners, perfumes, brighteners, stain guards all have to stay on the fabric throughout washing and drying in order to work). According to studies done on detergent residue by Clemson University’s school of textiles, 8 washes with regular Tide leaves enough residue to make a garment 2% heavier (see those results here). Another study on detergent residues that compares ecover, biokleen, country save, and others can be found here. Besides detergent choice, people have avoided residues by using less than the recommended amount of detergent so there’s less to rinse out (though going too far on this leads to the risk of not getting things clean) and adding additional rinses or hot washes with no detergent at the end of a wash. Here are some common problems that cloth diaperers encounter that could be the result of residues:

WICKING: How does that residue cause waterproofing to wick? (”Wick” describes water traveling slowly along a fabric or other medium, much like oil would travel up a candle wick) Detergents contain wetting agents designed to break water tension (which helps get clothes cleaner in the wash). Normally our covers depend on water tension to keep water from getting through the holes that allow a little water vapor to go through, but should not allow water through. When residue from detergent is left on the covers, the water (or urine) gets “wetter”, that is, water tension is broken and the water can saturate the fabric. The result is a slow wicking wetness through the covers. With this, you usually have wet diapers or inserts, but also wet spots on the covers or outers themselves, not just at the legs or waist. Many people assume their covers have worn out or were poorly made, and throw them away, but this is fixable! If Bummis ever wick, suspect residues.

REPELLING: This is a fleece/suedecloth phenomenon. If your pocket diapers are leaking urine from the legs or waist, and the insert is not getting very wet, your fleece likely has some residue that is repelling the urine. Soaps, oils, diaper rash creams, plant-based surfactants and fabric softeners can all be to blame. Again, perfectly fixable.

STINKY DIAPERS: It’s not always residue – it could be any number of things (cod liver oil from rash creams, diapers not getting clean enough if you’re not using enough detergent, residues from to much detergent, your baby’s particular chemistry coupled with a particular scent in the detergent…). But residues will trap odors. Sometimes you can smell it straight from the wash, sometimes only after the diaper gets wet. These same residues can be irritating enough to skin to cause rashes, as well.

Residue can be removed, and that is what you might hear referred to as “stripping” your diapers. I would prefer to find a routine that allowed me to never strip my diapers. You can avoid stripping your diapers if you can avoid residue in the first place.

Here are additives that can affect the performance of your diapers:

Orange oil, citrus extract, grapeseed extract: These are just a few – look for similar additives. “Natural” detergents are more likely to have these plant-based oils, which will build up on diapers over time. That’s not a problem on regular clothes, and sometimes it’s not a problem on diapers, but eventually these oils build up. The effect is especially pronounced on fleece – it becomes impermeable and won’t let wetness through, and on waterproof fabric. The nice thing is that these are much easier to remove than those industrial additives listed below. I love the company, but when a customer has a diaper cover that wicks horribly, 7th Generation is the most common “natural” detergent that has been reported.

Fabric Softeners: Fabric softeners work by coating individual fibers with a waxy substance. This repels water, and keeps the fibers from absorbing wetness. So no fabric softeners, either liquid or on a dryer sheet. And watch out for fabric softeners hidden in detergents.

Soap: Laundry soap is not the same as detergent. Soap can leave a waxy residue that will build up on diapers eventually, making them less effective. This includes Dr. Bronner’s and other castille soaps. The traditional recipe for home-made detergent calls for Fels-Naptha, a soap, so I’d not use that particular home-made laundry soap recipe.

Brighteners: Look for “optical brighteners”, “brightners and whiteners”, “UV enhancers” or anything that suggests it “brightens colors!”. It’s a dye designed to stay on clothes even after washing and drying. It bends the wavelength of light reflected off of clothes toward the blue end of the spectrum, which makes whites seem more blue than grey, and colors seem more vibrant (in fact, if you put the detergent or white clothes under a blacklight, it will glow, and explains glowing spots on your clothes at that Disney ride!.) It’s designed to stay in fabric fibers, like a dye would. It’s become very difficult in the past two years to find a major commercial brand, including “free & clears”, that does NOT include brighteners. This questionable additive stays in the environment a very long time – in fact, detecting a UV glow is one way scientists determine if household wastewater is leaking into streams and other water sources.

Stain guards: It’s also “proprietary”, and so not always listed. But the detergent will probably indicate somehow that it “repels stains” or “guards fabric”. Think of these sort of like fabric softeners – they’re designed to coat individual fibers with an impermeable “protection” against stains. Coating diaper fibers with anything makes them less effective.

A note on “Free & Clear”: The term “free & clear” does not mean that there are no mysterious or unlisted ingredients. True, they have no perfumes or dyes, but since “free & clear” detergents are often meant for those with allergies, most add something called “microbiostat” or something similar. It’s a fungicide/bacteriocide used widely in many industrial applications. It would eliminate some of the bacterial or fungal causes of allergies. This may be the ingredient that is responsible for the residue that free & clear detergents seem so prone to leave on diaper covers and fleece/suedecloth. And for some reason, ALL free & clear seems to cause the most trouble for people. This ingredient isn’t necessarily “bad”, just perhaps not best for diapers.

These brands that seem to be cropping up as particularly consistent troublemakers:

• ALL Free & Clear
• Some versions of Bio-Kleen
• 7Th Generation (love the company, just not for my diapers)
• Dreft and other “formulated for baby” detergents
• Soap products like Dr. Bronner’s and Fels-Naptha

So what detergent DO we recommend?
Try your brand – there are some people who use commercial detergents, even with additives, and don’t have any problems. If you don’t encounter wicking outers or repelling fleece, don’t feel that you need to change anything. If you want to be certain to not have any residues in your diapers, I most highly recommend the following detergents. As I said above, my primary recommendations are Charlie’s Soap. Charlie’s, even shipped, is cheaper than most commercial detergents. Here’s a list of detergents specially formulated to rinse completely:

• Charlie’s Soap (they use the word “soap”, but it is soap-free) This is my favorite – it’s the most cost-effective of these specialty detergents, and can be purchased here at Sunshine Diapers.
• Country Save (I love their web site – worth checking out) Find a store near you that carries it here
• Allen’s Naturally – www.allensnaturally.com
• Sensi-clean also sold under the name Sportwash, made by Atsko
• Oxy-prime from Natural Choices – www.oxyboost.com (specialize in allergy-free products and always have a sale going on)

OR
Cheap store or warehouse brands are less likely to have a lot of additives (since they cost more to add!). These would cost less and be easier to find locally than those listed above:

• Sam’s club, often labeled “Windfresh”
• Costco (Clout)
• Sun detergent, which is often found in discount stores
• Check your store brand. Here in the Southeast, Publix brand does not have the extras and is one I recommend to local customers.
• (The same company, HUISH, happens to make all of these above. Their own brand is Sun detergent, and they also make most “store” brands – the stores just put their store labels on it. The “store brands” they make include Sam’s, Costco, Kirkland’s, Publix, Albertson’s, and 95% of “generic” detergents! So if one generic or store brand works for you, it’s likely another would be the same!)

Those of you with front loaders sometimes have more of a challenge cleaning diapers well. Charlie’s Soap has been HE approved.

• HE detergents seem to work well for people with front-loading machines. Most have additives, yet a lot of front-loader owners have settled on them after much experimentation, so I’d give it a try if I had a front-loading machine and nothing else seemed to work well. We’ve been told by one of our customers that Country Save is safe to use for front-loader machines using half the amount as listed on the box instructions. Charlie’s & Country Save is marked with the HE symbol right on the box.

What to Avoid?
This may be “old news” to those of you not new to cloth diapering, but don’t forget the “old standard” ingredients to be aware of – these have been ingredients that cloth users have avoided for years, and I don’t want to neglect putting in a word about these, too:

Chlorine Bleach: Bleach used to be a staple of cleaning cloth diapers in our mothers’ time, but now it’s a no-no. Chlorine bleach weakens fibers, and something that’s washed twice a week or more and expected to last needs to be treated gently. Chlorine bleach will also destroy waterproofing on covers, pocket diapers, and all-in-ones. Besides, chlorine bleach is dangerous – to us and to the environment. Find other alternatives anywhere you now use chlorine bleach. Oxygen bleach (also known as sodium percarbonate) is perfectly fine for diapers.

Enzymes: They eat away at organic stains. Good for diapers, right? Yes and no. Some have found that the enzymes left in the diaper are activated when it gets wet and begins attacking skin. While some have reported horrible open red sores, on my son it was more like old skin rubbing away. I used it again when he was older and it was fine. Like most things, it reacts differently with different skin types and probably more pronounced on newborn skin than that of toddlers. You don’t have to fear them – they can be really helpful. It’s the active ingredient in Bac-out, which a lot of diaper users swear by. Just be aware that some babies, particularly newborns, are sensitive.

Dyes and Perfumes: Of all the ingredients in detergents, these are probably the least of the evils. There’s no reason for either of them, but I would choose these two over any of the additives listed above, as they will not affect performance of the diapers at all, and are only a concern to those who are sensitive to them. If you have to make the choice between a detergent with perfume and one without it but that has stain guards or fabric softeners, get the perfumed one.

Helpful laundry aids:

Vinegar: Proponents of vinegar say that it does a lot of things for diapers – one of them is to help with odor, another is as a fabric softener. I have never felt a need for vinegar, but if you feel you may need it to help soften diapers, add the vinegar to the first rinse and then run another rinse cycle (vinegar residue can cause as many weird odors as detergent residue).

Oxygen Bleach: Wonderful stuff! When my diapers just don’t seem fresh, or they’re dingy or all stained, it’s time for an intense cleaning. In the evening, run diapers through your normal wash routine (rinse, wash, rinse). Fill the washer with very hot water (this stuff works best in hot water) and add the oxygen bleach. I’m not talking 1 scoop – do this only occassionally and go with 4 or 5. Agitate it to help it dissolve. Let it soak overnight (actually, it remains “active” for 4-6 hours, so overnight is not neccessary, but often convenient), finish the wash cycle, and do a final rinse in the morning. They’ll look and smell like new again.

Most of us know this as “Oxy-Clean”. It’s safe for the environment, safe for fabrics, safe for sensitive skin, and it works fabulously. The liquid version would be hydrogen peroxide – totally benign to the environment. It will even help kill viruses and bacteria (good to do after baby is sick). I’ve seen sites that say “no” to oxy-cleaners, but I can find no evidence of why that would be nor have any of the textiles people I’ve spoken to been able to think of a reason why.