Lil Miss (our third child) is our first cloth diaper child. She is currently a little over 4 months old and we have been cloth diapering now for at least 2 months (maybe slightly longer… I didn’t purchase new born cloth diapers because I expected a big baby like my first two. Unfortunately, big she was not!)

We have used the same washing routine since day one and have not had any stains, smells, burns, etc. that I see commonly referred to when using cloth diapers.

I have also had many ask what our wash routine is, so here it is.

We use pocket diapers so I separate the inserts from the diapers and place them all into the wash (I wash diapers and inserts together, but remove the insert from the diaper so they wash separately rather than together.)

Cycle #1

is a hot wash/cold rinse cycle on “heavy” or “extra heavy” depending on my mood and the amount I am washing. (On average, we wash 20ish diapers PLUS inserts per load and wash roughly every other day to every two days.) NO DETERGENT!

Cycle #2

is a hot wash/cold rinse cycle on “normal” using Tide Free and Clear liquid detergent.

Cycle #3

is a cold rinse. NO DETERGENT!

For drying, we typically dry ours in the dryer on low heat. It takes 2-3 cycles of drying time on low heat to get them dry, but we have had no issues.

If you live in a location where you can hang dry them outside and have a clothes line, that works too. Unfortunately, I do not currently have a clothes line, but it’s on my to-do list!

Do you have a cloth diaper wash routine that works great for you? Please share it in the comments!