After ensuring a good fit, wash your new pocket shell in warm or hot water with very little detergent, rinsing well. Machine dry on hot for 45 minutes to an hour to reseal the sewing holes in the PUL.
Do not stuff your pocket diapers while hot. Stretching elastic while hot can put unnecessary wear and tear on the diapers.
We don’t recommend overstuffing your pocket diapers. This can compromise fit. In addition, it is hard on the diaper’s seams.
Pocket Inserts, Fitted Diapers, Simply Nights, and other absorbent fabrics
After ensuring a good fit, wash your new diapering items in hot water with very little detergent, rinsing well.
It will take about 8 washings for your absorbent fabrics to reach maximum absorbency. Organic cotton may take additional washings to wash out its natural oils. Prewash & dry items until they no longer repel liquids when water is dripped on dry fabric.
AIOs
After ensuring a good fit, prewash your new diapers in hot water with very little detergent, rinsing well.
It will take about 8 washings for your internal absorbent layers to reach maximum absorbency. Organic cotton may take more washings to wash out its natural oils. Prewash & dry items until they no longer repel liquids when water is dripped on dry fabric.
Be sure to dry your diapers on hot to reseal the sewing holes in the PUL.
When you put your diapers on baby, check through the legs to be sure that no absorbent fabrics are visible. Very Basic All in One diapers are cut and sewn in a way that encourages the waterproof fabric to roll in around the legs to prevent leaks. However, sometimes the elastic can be stubborn and attempt to force the inner fabric out.
All Diapers
Do not use diaper creams with diapers that have athletic wicking fabric, as it is very difficult to remove from the fabric.
When prewashing your items, use the same rules that apply to your regular washing routine: very little detergent, additional rinsing until no bubbles appear in your rinse water, no fabric softeners or dryer sheets.
If you like to line dry or dry on low on a regular basis, you’ll want to occasionally dry pocket shells, AIOs and covers on hot to re-seal the laminate in the PUL.
General Care:
Between Washings
When diaper is poopy, shake waste into toilet. Rinsing is not necessarily required, however to minimize staining and, um, chunks (sorry), you might try a Mini-Shower Diaper Sprayer (it attaches to the toilet and works great). This is a nice-to-have for diapering and minimizes the chances of finding raisins and corn in your washer when the diapers are done (but hey, at least they are clean raisins, right?). Breastmilk poop diapers, no matter how messy, can go straight to the bin without rinsing. Expect them to stain. Sunning them can get the stains out, but generally the stains go away over several washings. I try to get the breastmilk poop diapers into the wash as soon as I can, and I do a hot prewash instead of a cold one, and this really helps with staining.
Used diapers should be stored in a dry bag. We recommend a standard trash pail (such as a flip-top foot-pedal can) lined with a reusable PUL pail liner. These are convenient because they can be tossed in the washer along with the rest of the diapers.
Diaper covers can be hung to dry and reused between washings if they are not soiled or don't stink.
Wash Day
How often you do diaper laundry depends on how many diapers you have and how long you feel comfortable letting them sit in the pail. I do diapers every other day with 2 babies in diapers. When I just had one toddler in diapers, I did wash every 3 days..
Run all your diaper products together through a cold wash/soak . Let your diapers soak an hour or two, whatever is convenient for you (the more diapers you have in the washer and the less frequently you do the diaper wash, the longer you will need the diapers to soak). Our machine is a top loader that works like a front loader, so we don't have a soak cycle. I run a cold express wash instead, and I add my detergent (1 tablespoon) in this cycle.
Wash your diapers in a hot cycle using about 1/4 to 1/2 the recommended amount of detergent. Using too much detergent will lead to build-up on your diapers, causing them to hold stink and repel liquid. Not enough detergent will not get diapers clean enough. In our own wash routine, we don't use any soap during the hot cycle, because it's already been added during our cold pre-wash.
Run at least one extra rinse.
Dry your diapers. How you dry them is really your prerogative. If you use the dryer, I recommend drying on high heat. It's not necessary to baby your baby's diapers! PUL was meant to withstand very high temperatures. The PUL used here at OBB Diapers has high-quality lamination, and will not bubble or separate from the fabic. Waterproofing properties are actually maintained better by using high heat than they are by using low heat or hang drying.
