If you follow my posts, you know that I am a big fan of Tide and OxiClean. I have tried many other detergents and that combination seems to be one of the only ones that gets my cloth diapers clean and keeps them that way. That is what works for me. What works for you could be totally different. I really think you should use whatever detergent works for you and your family. The biggest piece of advice I can give you about washing cloth diapers…keep it simple. Since I do love OxiClean so much, I knew I had to try the new Oxiclean Laundry Detergent when I heard about it.
Background info
We have an old-school top-loading washing machine, hard water and toddler pee and poo. I pre-rinsed like normal. I used one pak of the OxiClean Detergent in a hot wash and followed with my usual cold and then hot rinse. No bubbles remained and everything smelled good. I dried as usual.
How do I feel about Oxiclean Laundry Detergent? I really wanted to love it. I really wanted it to work. Unfortunately, my daughter’s red bum told a different story.
Besides using Tide and OxiClean Free and Versatile Stain Remover on my cloth diapers, I also use Bac Out when needed. For stains or as an extra ammonia fighting agent in my prewash. The thing with Bac Out is that it contains live enzymes that actually ‘eat’ the source of what is causing odors and stains. You have to be careful with enzymes because if they aren’t completely rinsed out they may cause a rash on your little one.
This is because when your baby ‘goes’, if any trace of the enzymes still remains on the cloth diaper, they will actually begin to work to break down the pee or poo while it is still on your baby. The result usually looks like a bright red rash, something similar to what an ammonia burn might look like.
One of the ingredients that helps OxiClean Laundry Detergent attack stains and smells so effectively is enzymes, specifically proteolytic enzymes. They work in much the same way the live enzymes work in Bac Out.
What I think happened with us is that the enzymes had not been totally rinsed away (even with the two rinses). I tried it on my next cloth diaper wash a few days later and had the same results. Both times Sophia was left with a red bum. I could be wrong about the enzymes being the cause of the redness. Either way, it was not working as well as Tide does for us.
Please remember…and this is important! It didn’t work for me but that doesn’t mean that it won’t work for you. What you are washing, how often you are washing it, what washing machine and which water type…and the detergent all play a different role in getting your cloth diapers clean safely and effectively.
Final Thoughts
If you find something that works for you… great! That is the most important thing. Always do your own research and use what is best for YOU and YOUR family. Click here to read more on whether you really NEED to use cloth diaper safe detergents.
That being said, even though OxiClean Laundry Detergent didn’t pan out for my cloth diapers, I really do love using it on our clothes!
Have you tried the new OxiClean Laundry Detergent? How did it work for you?
Jenn is a long-time cloth diaper educator and a passionate small business advocate. She has worked in the reusable diaper industry for over a decade, helping millions of families via her websites All About Cloth Diapers, Thinking About Cloth Diapers and Cloth Diaper Geek as well as hundreds of small businesses during that time. Her goal always to provide simple, reliable information.
Venee says
Hello,
I tried oxiclean with several washes and then my daughter developed a chemical burn. Some them, I’ve washed the diapers 3 times without soap and stripped twice with Grovia Mighty Bubbles. She is still getting a chemical burn within a day of foobg back to Cloth diapers. Do toy have any other suggestion for how I might get the enzyme out?
Molly says
I haven’t tried regular oxiclean detergent but I tried arm and hammer with oxiclean and surprisingly it worked great for our sensitive skin peanut. It is my best solution so far
lisa says
Although my diaper washing days are long, long behind me, I still have to do laundry. I love OxiClean. I use the powder in the wash and to clean my floors and bathroom. A little goes a long way making it well worth the price.
Camille says
My son had chemical burns from Method and also from Tide. He seems to be much more sensitive than his older sister. I started to correct the problem with Rockin Greens detergent and Funk Rock for hard water…we have VERY hard water. And I also have a top loader. I’d first do a cold load with no detergent then a hot load, sometimes soaking it all night long. That worked. I don’t have any synthetic diapers, except for the lining. I use bamboo or prefolds with woollies. I then proceeded to make my own detergent using some oxyclean, washing soda, baking soda and borax. He has never had a problem since. The recipe is a common diy recipe when googling cloth diaper detergent recipes. I am SOOOO thankful to have found this. It felt so bad to think that after everything I’m trying to do to help eliminate the exposure to chemicals, that he was still severely reacting. It brought me to tears many times until God brought the answer for me. I just kept thinking that if my son reacted so much from these detergents, can you imagine how much WORSE he would be in plastic diapers??? He’s never had even one of them on, so I can’t say, but I can theorize…. And be thankful.
Camille says
I got my prefolds from Green Mountain and in their pamphlet on diaper care, she states that for whatever reason, it seems that everyone has to change their detergent methods every 6 months or so. That little bit of info helped SO much! So, I just hunted for another solution as opposed to continually beating myself up over it. And it’s also made me poised to look for the next detergent solution once this one stops working. It sounds like that once you try another detergent solution for a few months, you can go back to the other one that was working…different detergents clean at different rates and different things. And since pee and poop is a multi-faceted wonder of salts, old blood, toxins, hormones, etc. It would stand to reason that not ALL of it would be cleaned out with one detergent regimen for their entire use.
Jennifer Reinhardt says
Very good point Camille! Thanks for sharing it!
Jennifer Reinhardt says
I’m so happy to hear that you found something that worked! What a blessing :)
Quita says
I haven’t tried the new regular OxiClean laundry detergent, but I do use OxiClean baby and haven’t had any issues so I thought that might be my next choice when I need to buy more detergent. I use the OxiClean Baby during my 99 minute soak cycle along with Charlie Soap before I rinse and spin followed by a Heavy Normal wash cycle on hold with a cold rinse followed by an extra cold . Is it possible to break the amount in half?
Jennifer Reinhardt says
Do you mean the cycle or the detergent?
Becky F. says
If you have hard water you do not want to do extra rinses at all. When you do extra rinses you are just adding more hard water mineral deposit to your diapers. Do an rlr soak and then try the detergent again with some borax or calgon
Jennifer Reinhardt says
Hi Becky, Most of the cloth diaper industry would agree that we all need 2 rinses to get the soap out. Unless you have the hardest of hard. An extra rinse won’t hurt anything. My water was once that hard…and it wasn’t really clear more like the color of the minerals in it. But now we are just on the lower end of the hardness scale.