I’ve never understood why people use chlorine bleach on things containing bodily fluids. Yes, chlorine bleach is a great disinfectant(if you aren’t extremely sensitive to it like I am), but it is also very corrosive and creates deadly chlorine gas when mixed with the ammonia found in urine. You aren’t even supposed to use chlorine bleach in the bathroom, though there are bathroom cleaners that contain it for some reason. Even the “occasional” use of chlorine bleach is detrimental to your clothes, let alone diapers. If you’ve ever bleached your socks and felt them before throwing them into the dryer then you know how rough they become, that’s the feeling of broken fibres. Oxygen bleach is definately a safer alternative, though the safest and cheapest would be the sun

Has anyone tried the Honest Company’s laundry detergent with cloth diapers? I’m waiting for my first shipment, and it seems like a great natural product, the only ingredients are anionic coconut kernel oil based surfactant & purified water. Any thoughts on whether this would work? I’m pretty well stocked up on Rockin’ Green and Country Save and waiting impatiently for my little man so I can start using my diapers, this question is mostly just curiosity.

I’ve used a sodium percarbonate bleach on my diapers after a nasty stomach bug. Once in awhile, you gotta do what you gotta do!

We have yet to “need” a serious alternative to our current wash cycle…but it’s nice to know whats not ok.

Well, most of us who bleach our diapers didn’t come by the decision lightly. It’s because we had a problem that the “safe” alternatives didn’t solve. It has a place in our house because it’s such a good disinfectant, and a tiny bit knocks out smells cheaply and easily. Oxygen Bleach and the sun are great, but they don’t work nearly as well for this. I’ve tried. Oxygen Bleach is great at whitening, but is not marketed as a disinfectant. As far as the chlorine gas, that’s why we do a good rinse before washing with bleach, and our washer is in the basement, where we spend very little time. Our grandmas bleached all the time, and I’ve never heard stories of issues with bleach and urine. I have heard stories about mixing bleach and straight ammonia, so they were definitely aware of the issue. I also bleach my towels occasionally, and I’ve never noticed the roughness you describe. I’ve also always been curious about how the “excessive” wear due to bleach compares to the wear of using the dryer all the time. I know my grandma who bleached and line tried had very old towels in quite good shape.

I’ve never heard of the Honest Company, and I’m no expert, but if those are the only two ingredients, I’d think it would be hit or miss. If it just has surfactants, and no water conditioners, my hunch is that it would work ok in soft water, but maybe not so much in hard water. Worth a try!

I’ve been having major issues with my daughter’s duo diapers that I use overnight. To the point where every morning she has a rash and is blistered. I have always used cloth diaper safe detergents. It was recommended to me to strip them and also put them in with bleach. It is good to know what is recommended from the manufacturer.

I dislike using chlorine bleach, and eliminated it from our home several years ago. It’s good to know that you can safely (occasionally) use oxygen bleach on diapers, although I think I’ll try sunning them first – if that would work?

I would use the bleach that’s recommended by the diaper manufacturer. As long it doesn’t void the warranty.

My mom told me to avoid bleach because it eats holes through the diapers (she offered to give me the flats that she used on me and I saw what she means!). I hate using chlorine bleach because of the strong smell, and I figure there’s no point when my kids will just poop on the diapers again anyway! But I’m not planning to sell my diapers, either.

We don’t use bleach at all here. I actually make all of my own cleaners anymore, including laundry detergent. I like the thought of using natural cleaners on my clothes and my home. Especially when my children are exposed to them everyday

Good info! I’ve never used bleach but never needed to…yet. Hopefully I won’t have to! I don’t think I would ever use it on anything other than prefolds/flats and I wouldn’t use much. We have extremely hard water so even with regular whites (socks, tshirts, etc), chlorine bleach still doesn’t whiten them well so we rarely use it – maybe once every couple of months! A bottle of it will last us for well over a year!

Bleach is commonly suggested when stripping diapers — I know that thirsties recommends dawn soap or calgon, but it’s hard to find info on how to strip using those (compared to info on stripping with bleach)

I never really realized that peroxide is considered bleach!

I was horrified when I went to grab my bleach bottle for something unrelated to laundry, found it empty and asked around as to why the bleach bottle was empty. My nanny said, “Oh, I meant to tell you that you were out.” I asked her what she had been using the bleach for, and she said she had been using it in the diapers! I had specifically instructed her on diaper washing not to use bleach (she’s never nannied for a cloth diapering family before). Luckily the diapers seem none the worse for it, but yikes.

Wow good to know. I was told I can use bleach once a month on my prefolds.

Always good to have this information! I think I knew most of this but it’s always good to hear it again as a reminder!

So could I use just regular peroxide to try and treat stains? I did not realize that-have been relying mainly on the sun, which hasnt always worked. Thanks!

This info really helped, thanks!!

**In addition to my comment above, I’d like to state that we are not worried about staining or even battling a smell…. we are battling Impetigo. This bacteria is dangerous, and needs to be killed. the peroxide (in colour-safe bleach) is NOT a proven disinfectant like the chlorine is. I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place with this. I don’t want to use bleach on my diapers (I have on my inserts, they are in the wash as I Type!), but I need to kill this bacteria for my LO’s health…. dawn doesn’t exactly work for this situation either.

I’ve used oxyclean, which is great on stains (but I have heard could probably be harmful to cloth diapers when soaking for more than an hour), and have just started using biokleen bac-out, which is great! I don’t think it is a disinfectant, but it definitely gets rid of any bad smells, much more than regular detergent or oxyclean.

I think I will just stick to “bleaching” my diapers with sun light. There hasn’t been a stain yet that I wasn’t able to get out after a good sunning or two of the diaper in question.

Christine, that’s sort of how we stumbled on bleach, too. I was adamant I wasn’t going to use it, but my oldest ended up in the hospital with Rotavirus just before she turned 2. I did not want to mess with that, and bleached everything! Suddenly, the pail stink I thought was normal was gone, and her diapers didn’t smell once they were peed in. Eventually, I decided it was worth it to bleach regularly. I’ve also noticed less diaper rash with well cleaned and sanitized diapers.

I’m also not worried about stains, only odor, which indicates to me that the diapers are not well cleaned and sanitized. My diapers still get stained and dingy eventually, though the sun helps greatly with that.

What is a good stain solution for diapers then. I have used oxi just because that is what my friend that started me on cloth used, and I don’t have my clothes line set up yet. I am not planning on selling my diapers saving for our next kid but I like to have them looking nice, just like the clothes. I do not use bleach at all, and I have been shying away from the oxi because I think it is helping cause build up on the diapers. And stripping didn’t work for me. But I would appreciate the input.

Awsome to have this information good pointers

Wow! Thanks for sharing! Always looking for new info to keep my cloth in good shape!

Thanks for the information about the soaking time. I’ve never seen that anywhere else.

We started using 1/2 cup 3% peroxide instead of 1/8 cup bleach in order to get rid of the toxicity, and I can tell you that our diapers are now immaculately white where before with the bleach there were still occasional stains left after washing. Just FYI we also throw in 1/8 cup of charlies soap with every wash…

I’ve used bleach to strip my diapers once and that was all they needed. It was 1/4 cup with my washer set on the highest water leveel possible. I did 2 extra rinses and even an extra spin. It is a real bummer to find out that this voids my Thirsties warranty. Over a year I’ve done it once and it was extremely effective after my little man had a serious virus. The reason I chose the bleach method was because it was the recommended method by another brand of diapers I use. Why are one manufacturers suggestions so vastly different from another that it would void the warranty?

I very rarely use chlorine bleach, but do keep it in the house b/c it’s recommended for doing a tub clean on our washer. Not sure why, but I do it when the washer starts smelling a little funky.

Thank you so much for the thorough explanation of each additive/ingredient and WHY it isn’t supposed to be used. I’m completely new to all this and would have probably ruined my diapers if I hadn’t read this first! Off to find some cloth-friendly detergent!