How to wash modern cloth nappies

There is a lot of talk about how to wash your cloth nappies in internet land, and as with everything on the internet, there's plenty of nonsense mixed into the good advice.

I have recently discovered the Fluff Love University website, which I consider really good advice. It has heaps of really in-depth info about cloth nappy cleaning, along with a well-attended Facebook page offering tailored advice to those with problems. The most frequent problem seems be people using either not enough detergent or detergent that is too weak, which can lead to (among other things) ammonia burn on your baby's bottom from urine building up in the nappies. Severely suboptimal!

Because I wouldn't wish that on any baby (or parent) I thought I'd share our washing routine. This is based on the principles found on the Fluff Love Uni site (though we had this mostly in place before I discovered the site), and works well for us - we have very little nappy rash, our nappies don't stink (unless, uh, they have good reason to) and the process is very easy.

1. Remove excess solids if required. 

I know, ew, but it's important. This is only relevant once your baby is eating actual food, as before then their output is fully water soluble. There are various methods for this; the easiest is using disposable liners, which you can then bin (pro tip from plumbers: don't put these in the toilet if you can help it - can cause blocked drains). Other options include flushing the nappy (or washable liner) in the loo; using a nappy sprayer; or using some kind of scraping tool.

We prefer to do this soon after the nappy change but depending on your preferences and setup you can wait until you're putting the wash on.

Now that we've got the worst bit out of the way...

2. Put nappies in washing machine

This step is easy, especially if you use a bin liner wetbag you can just upend into the machine.

3. Add detergent

Preferably without fabric softeners (as they coat fibres to keep 'em soft, so can inhibit absorbency), but otherwise pick your favourite (or cheapest) supermarket brand. You want your nappies to get clean so a good detergent, and the recommended amount, is important here. Detergent doesn't build up in nappies so don't be shy! If you're worried about cleanliness Persil is the Consumer NZ choice for best laundry detergent.

4. Pre rinse

If your machine can't do this without adding the detergent you might need to reverse these two steps. This step removes most of the soiling from the nappies so that the cleaning step can get a better clean. Some people skip this and have no trouble, but it makes sense to me that a quick rinse first will get better results so we do.

5. Wash 

Ideally you'd do a warm wash but many people have success with cold. We tend to do ours at 40C. Evidently temperatures over 60C can damage PUL (the waterproof stuff) over time so best avoid the 95 degree cycle. Don't skimp on the wash but no need to go overboard either - keep it simple.

Many machines can have the pre-rinse programmed in at the beginning of the wash cycle so that steps 4 and 5 merge together - as if it wasn't already easy enough!

6. Dry

On the clothesline is ideal but inside on a rack or in the dryer is fine too. The sun has magical bleaching powers but its antibacterial abilities are compromised since the UV-C rays you need for that are blocked by the atmosphere (i.e. make sure your nappies are clean before hanging them out - well, duh!).


So that's how we do it - a bit boring but hopefully useful to someone out there wondering if they need to buy fancy-pants cloth nappy "safe" detergent.

Do you have any tips to add?