Now, if I saw that headline, I would be like, “What? Of course it is!”. But in the case of using homemade laundry detergents, it is not always best for your diapering products. Below is a list of typical ingredients found in homemade laundry detergents:
Bar soap
Fels Naptha Soap
Liquid castile soap
Borax
Oxygen Bleach
Vinegar
Washing Soda
Now, you say, those are all natural ingredients. Yes, we love natural ingredients, but these may not be recommended for good reasons. What diapering products you are washing will determine which ingredient cannot be used.
Pure Soap: Bar soap, grated soap, Fels Naptha soap, Castile soap:
Pure soaps can deteriorate lamination, creating tiny pinholes and rendering the waterproofing useless. Pure soaps can also coat diapers, making them repel rather than absorb.
- Do not use on any diapering product.
- Do not use on covers, or diapers with components such as elastic - especially hook and loop fasteners. May be used on prefolds and inserts without elastic.
- May be used sparingly on diapering products, but not recommended for every wash as it is harsh. Thirsties recommends a treatment not more than once a month to preserve your diapering items.
- Do not use on diaper covers, pail liners, diaper duffles, or any diaper with lamination or elastic.
- May be used on prefolds and inserts without elastic.
- We do not recommend adding Washing Soda along with a detergent as an additive.
- Allens Naturally Liquid*
- Arm and Hammer Essentials
- Country Save Liquid
- Mountain Green Ultra Baby *
- Planet Delicate Laundry Wash Liquid
- Thirsties Pre-Wash and Super Wash *
- Vaska
- Allen’s Naturally Powder*
- Country Save Powder*
- Planet Powder*
- Rockin Green: Soft Rock, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, or Funk Rock *
Thank you for this information! I was contemplating making the homemade soap for my regular clothes Not my cloth diapers. However after reading this I think that using the homemade soap even for our family laundry may only be safe for all cotton clothing, since so many materials are synthetic and may have elastic. Thanks! All good to know info !
Rockin’ Green (www.rockingreensoap.com) makes a fantastic cloth diaper safe detergent. It was developed with cloth diapers in mind. What’s great is that there are three different formulas for Soft Water, Regular Water, & Hard Water.
Thank you so much for the post! This is a topic I’ve been digging into lately, as I just posted on making homemade detergents (http://paddedtushstats.com/2012/03/19/homemade-laundry-detergent-recipes-based-on-different-watermachine-types/). Do you happen to know any research sources that give info behind the harm of these ingredients?
I can’t help but be slightly annoyed by this post. I think there is a lot of misinformation that circulates around the cloth diapering community concerning cloth diaper care and best practice, and a lot of it is self-propagating, and not always very scientific. Many, many mothers use homemade detergents with wonderful results, and many mothers use the detergents listed above with horrid results, and vice versa. I think it all depends on the detergent recipe, water, washing habits, diapers, etc. While I do not think this post was written with any mal-intent, I will point out that most powdered diaper safe detergents will include sodium percarbonate and sodium carbonate (oxygen bleach and washing soda), including the detergents of two other well respected diapering companies, bumgenius and grovia. Obviously they would not offer products that they believe would damage people’s diapers. All that said, I think it is unfair to demonize the above ingredients and try to scare people away from homemade detergents, which can work wonderfully for some.
Hi-
I don’t use my homemade detergent on my cloth… but I use Charlies… I haven’t had any issues so far… but I don’t know what the ingredients are, is that a product that y’all have found non detrimental to the thirsties products
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