Good idea to watch out for brighteners, but I’m not willing to mail order laundry detergent, and have been using a detergent with brighteners for almost 3 years and 2 kids. No issues, though it will certainly be one of the prime suspects if we end up with recurrent rashes.

Very interesting. I hate how much crap is added to things that is supposed to make our lives better… we don’t need all of these added chemicals!

Also – I just bought three more Thirsties covers – they are my favourite!

This was great! Thanks!

Thanks for this post, very useful!

Great information! I love my Thirsties covers!

I got lucky and found All free and clear AND with no optical brighteners at oir base commissary, of all random places. Cant find it in our regular grocery store though. Strange! Thanks for the post!

I have always used vinegar to wash my diapers, it’s the best all natural cleaner, gets out stains, cleans it great, and is CHEAP!

Should note though that vinegar is for the actual cloth diaper, not the cover. Arm and Hammer Essentials is great for the covers.

Thanks for the info! I am always cautious on the additives because my 16 month old has sensitive skin, my husband has psoriasis & we have a new baby arriving in June that I obviously don’t want to have any additives in its clothes.

I live in the middle of nowhere, and the detergent supply in my town is limited, so I’ve been using a detergent with optical brighteners. So far no problems, but if I were to find a detergent locally without, I’d probably switch!

I use Charlie’s Soap for all our laundry, not just diapers. We’ve never had any problems with stinkies, and everything smells super clean.

I’ve been using a variety of different laundry detergents. Its hard because nothing is really available where I live. And I don’t want to pay the expense to order it online. Part of the point of cloth diapering is to save money. Glad to know that brighteners are just a concern for the health of the baby more so than because of the damage to the diapers. Looking forward to the rest of the items being dissected.

So that’s why laundry detergent is sometimes used to decorate white clothing for “black light” parties, very interesting. I’m very thankful the blog posts you guys (er, gals) write here at Thirsties. As a soon-to-be cloth diapering new mom, it’s really great to be able to get so much great information in one place. Thanks for all the great information and I truly look forward to continuing to read this blog for the duration of my cloth diapering journey.

This is so helpful! Thank you so much!!

The first chart is especially helpful — thanks for the link!

Very interesting. I never knew how brighteners work, but now I have one more good reason to stay away from them. Thanks!

Great post! Thanks so much for the information.

Like others have mentioned, it’s hard to find cloth diaper detergents locally. I ended up with one (Trader Joe’s powder) that has brighteners, but otherwise rates high according to this site:

http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/detergentchoices.htm

I wish there were more choices that you could buy in a normal store and didn’t cost a zillion dollars.

Wow! I didn’t know this! Thanks for the links!

I agree with everyone else. I wish there more of a choice locally that you could buy. I really think a company should come out with a detergent that is safe for cd in the local grocery store. They would probably make a fortune

I use country save on my cloth diapers and most of my other laundry partly for this reason but also because I and my kids have very sensitive skin and can’t use any laundry products with fragrance. Before I started cloth diapering I used Tide Free and Gentle, and I will occasionally wash my diapers with it if they don’t seem to be getting as clean with country save.

This is really good information. Until I started using cloth diapers on our new baby I had no idea that mainstream detergents had so many unnecessary additives in them. We are now making better informed choices on all our cleaning products.

I appreciate this post. The only problem I find is that you stated to follow the manufacturers info and many have their own detergent recommendations. I have several types …ok MANY types of cloth diapers and if I followed all directions for washing word for word, I would have 10 detergents and be washing 5 different loads just to clean the diapers. I wish there were a standard set of directions for most but I understand the reccomendation.

Good to know!

I think I’m a little more unsure about selecting cloth diaper-safe detergents after reading the list on diaperjungle.com than I was before. Some of the detergents that are created with babies in mind got low ratings, and some detergents that have higher diaper-safe ratings have caused rashes in some cases. Plus, Borax received a higher diaper-safe rating, but I thought I read elsewhere that Borax isn’t a very good choice for cloth diapers.

This is great! Cant wait to start CDing in two months!

Hey, glad to see another Trader Joe’s user here. I thought I was the only one. I’m also all for more choices in mainstream stores. Not a fan of mail ordering detergent.

Had no idea brightners had an effect on CD’s sure am glad we make our own laundry detergent!

all the crap they put into seeming begnine products is shocking

Great info, thanks!