Laundry Advice

We recommend washing your nappies everyday (at most every second day). Washing regularly helps to prevent bacteria from building up, mould from developing, and fabric from deteriorating.

 

If using barrier creams, ensure you use a liner to protect your nappy fabric. Cream can become clogged in your nappy and cause it to repel urine and leak! You can use reusable or disposable liners.  Be sure to wash the reusable liner separately from your nappies.

 

Front loaders use less water than top loaders. If using a front loader; you may need to run your nappies through an extra rinse to ensure they are properly cleaned.

 

Never use bleach as it will compromise the waterproofing, elastic and bamboo in your nappies. Use of bleach will void your warranty. It can also cause rashes.

 

Never use fabric softener on your nappies. Fabric softener coats the fibres of the fabric, causing them to repel.

 

Vinegar may cause breakdown of the components of your nappy. So only use it sparingly. 

 

Our laundry detergent recommendations:

  • Rockin Green Laundry Detergent
  • Bosistos Laundry Powder or Liquid 
  • Biozet Attack Rapid Laundry Liquid
  • Earth Choice Laundry Liquid (in the white bottle with blue lid, not the clear bottle).

We have used these detergents and like them.  These detergents do a good job of cleaning the nappies.  

 

Type of Water: soft or hard

This will affect how well the detergent will work for you. Hard water reduces the effectiveness of your detergent making it harder for your nappies to get clean. You can find out whether you have soft or hard water by contacting your local council. In general, if you wash your nappies according to the detergent manufacturer’s instructions and the nappies come out still smelly, you may have hard water. Try boosting the amount of detergent you are using, or add a water softening agent, or try a different detergent. On the other hand, if your nappies are coming out soapy you may have used too much detergent. Give that load another rinse to get the excess suds out. Reduce the amount of detergent you use for the next load.

 

Laundry Instructions

  1. Flush Flush solids into the toilet.
  2. Dry Pail Give the nappy a quick hand rinse under the laundry tap before storing in a dry nappy bucket. This will minimise staining, cut down on smell and stop potential fabric damage from acidic wee.
  3. Pre-rinse Once you have enough nappies for a wash, run your load through a cold pre-rinse cycle in the machine. This gets rid of any excess urine or soiling before the wash cycle.
  4. Wash Put your nappies through a normal/long wash cycle on cold (up to 40°C), with the amount of detergent recommended by the detergent manufacturer for your load size and water level.
  5. Dry Line dry for best results, or tumble dry on low heat. Shells and covers should only be air dried (preferably in the shade or in the sun for a short period of time), not tumbled dried.

NB It is best to launder according to manufacturer’s directions.

 

Drying Nappies

Hang nappies sideways or flat to avoid stretching the elastics. Sun is your best friend. It’s a great stain remover and sanitiser. But too much sun can deteriorate elastics and PUL. So my suggestion is to give the nappy enough sun to kill the germs and fade the stains then move them into a shadier spot to dry.

 

Tumble drier

Inserts and prefolds can be tumbled dried on warm or hot. Shells on the other hand should only be tumbled dried on low, and only when necessary, because tumble drying can damage the PUL layer and the elastics.