The following content is a from a guest writer. All opinions expressed are their own and may not reflect our opinions and recommendations.
While choosing the detergent for your baby’s cloth diapers, you need to be extra careful. Baby’s skin is very sensitive, as a result, a simple miss choice of product can cause an allergic reaction and serious issues. That’s why, when you asked us what detergent to use for cloth diapers– we found the answer for you.
There are several types of detergents that claim to be the best ones. But you can’t fall prey to their sweet words because you need to pick the safest baby detergent for your kid. Hereby, we are going to share a few considerations and an overview of the detergents that you can look at for your baby’s safety.
What Detergent To Use For Cloth Diapers?
Picking up the detergent for your baby requires a few things to take into consideration. First of all, you need to use the detergent depending on the fabric type. There are three types of detergent available to use for cloth diapers, such as:
- Natural detergent: these are the best picks if you don’t want to take any risks while choosing your diaper laundry detergent. Natural detergents are best for your baby’s cloth diaper as they contain no harmful chemicals. Some of the natural detergents are fragrance-free as well. As a result, no toxic material will come in contact with your baby’s cloth diaper making it safe for use.
- Homemade laundry detergent: this detergent is a complete DIY solution. You can prepare a homemade laundry detergent using available substances at your home. Just washing soda and borax lets you have the perfect DIY homemade detergent to clean your baby’s cloth diapers. As you’re making the detergent on your own, there will be no worries about its safety.
- All free and clear cloth diaper detergents: here is the third type of detergent that you can use for deep cleaning. These detergents especially work when you want to wash poop stains containing diapers. As these detergents ensure all free and clear features, you can get stain-free plus amazingly clean cloth diapers after washing. These are also safe for a baby’s sensitive skin. However, still don’t forget to check the ingredients before you purchase.
After suggesting the most popular cloth diaper detergents for your baby, we must talk about another topic. When you are on your way to pick a detergent, you need to know about your region’s water type.
Depending on the mineral type, the water can be soft or hard. Hard water contains more minerals. Therefore to clean the cloth diaper in hard water properly, you need to pick up a good detergent that can deal with hard water.
Usually, using more detergent in hard water is recommended. Because the detergent tends to get attracted more to the hard water than to the cloth while washing. As a result, using more detergent will help you have a better cleaning. Whereas, you can use less detergent while cleaning the cloth diaper with soft water.
If your area has hard water, you must pick a detergent that has the cleaning power of surfactants. In this case, you can use commercial detergents for your baby’s cloth diapers. But make sure to clean those properly with clean water after washing. Otherwise, the detergent may irritate your baby’s skin.
How to Choose a Cloth Diaper Detergent?
While picking up the cloth diaper detergent, you need to consider a few things for better cleaning and also for your baby’s safety. Here are the considerable factors:
- Fragrance-free or not: sometimes, fragrance-containing diapers can irritate your baby’s skin. It’s better to avoid diaper detergents that are scented. However, even if you pick one, make sure that it doesn’t irritate your kid’s skin. A better alternative to the scented detergents will be an essential oil.
- Ingredients: this is a must consideration to look into. You need to check out the ingredients and notice if there’s any harmful substance or not, even if the detergent claims to be all-natural. We always suggest using natural detergent when it’s about your baby’s cloth diapers. Those detergents do not contain any harmful ingredients to irritate sensitive skin.
- Safety requirements: always check out the safety requirements shared by the manufacturers. If your baby has any special skin condition, this is a must thing to check.
- Usage of surfactants: surfactants are the main ingredients that clean clothes. But excess usage can harm your baby’s skin. However, if your area has hard water, use more detergent to clean the cloth diapers. But in this case, make sure to rinse and clean the diaper using clean water properly after washing it.
Can I Use Bleach on Cloth Diapers?
We all know that bleach can be very effective in killing bacteria and viruses. But it’s not a wise decision to use bleach in your baby’s cloth diapers. Usually, cleaning the cloth diapers with a good detergent and then rinsing it properly is enough for cloth diapers. Again, many cloth diapers are not tolerant of bleach, as a result, you may ruin the quality of the diaper if you are not entirely sure.
Wrapping Up
Already you know everything about what detergent to use for cloth diapers. Obviously, your child’s health is the first concern that you should have. And a bad detergent can impact that, especially when the detergent is not good for the cloth diapers.
Therefore, choose the detergent wisely. You can also prepare homemade detergent to avoid all the chaos while cleaning the cloth diapers. We have suggested everything considering all the necessary factors. Hopefully, you can leave a sigh of relief now. You don’t have to worry about skin rashes or other allergic reactions anymore!
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.
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