Monday, May 6, 2013

Preparing New Cloth Diapers

While reading about prefold diapers, I learned that you have to pre-wash them before use.  Now, you probably would do that anyway, but the number of times you have to pre-wash them depends on the type of diapers you get.

Unbleached Cotton
I got cotton unbleached prefolds.  With the unbleached cotton, I had to do 4 pre-wash cycles before they were ready to use.  I washed them with Rockin Green in extra hot water.  They shrink quite a bit.

Size 1 diapers.  On the left is a brand new diaper.  On the right is a pre-washed diaper.  They shrink a lot.

Size 2 diapers.  Left - brand new diaper.  Right- pre-washed diaper.

Left - size 2 diapers, the pre-washed diaper is on top of the new diaper for comparison. Right- size 1 diapers, again stacked for comparison.


From what I have read, the reason you have to wash the unbleached cotton so much before using it is because cotton has some natural oils in it.  You have to wash out those oils or the diapers will not be very absorbent.

Bleached Cotton
I have not tried this, but from what I've read, bleached cotton only need 1 pre-wash.  Probably to shrink it down and of course make sure it is clean for baby.  The bleaching of the cotton strips away the cotton's natural oils, so you don't have to do it.

Hopefully that is helpful.  That is about all I know on the subject. :)