Washing failure :(

[tiggercats]

Dirty after rinse and wash

I've collected a load of cloth nappies from my mums, the majority are prefolds, but I thought I'd try anyway.

The nappies worked fine, even with my newbie folding, but LO has a runny tummy from teething, so 3 nappies in 90 mins and I gave up.

I'd used paper liners that caught some of the offending green poo. I put the nappies in a bucket yesterday (dry), then this morning I gave them a rinse in the machine followed by a 30 degree wash with about 1/4 a normal dose of persil small and mighty. The machine finished and the nappies are still dirty

What am I doing wrong? Do I need a higher temp or more detergent? This was a load of only 3 prefolds, 1 fleece liner and 1 wrap. If I have to wash nappies at a higher temp, the shortest wash cycle is over 2 hours (useless machine). The 30 degree cycle I used wash just over 1 hour.

 

[Laughing Girl]

I was told that I should only use 1/4 of the detergent I would normally use in a wash........I tried this and washed at 60 degrees and the yellow poo stains came nowhere near off. That said, I did a wash today with the normal amount of detergent and although stains still didn't come out, I hung them out on the line and they are pretty much white again from sun bleaching!

 

[TattiesMum]

I always used to pre-soak mine - Napisan in the nappy bucket for 12 hours and then a boil wash in the machine with the normal amount of detergent.... the old fashioned way LOL.

Mine were old fashioned terry towelling squares - they did 3 children being washed like this and are still sparkly white and currently in use as feeding cloths for my grandson.

Granted that neither Napisan nor boil washing are as environmentally ideal as we would like these days - but it is still more env friendly than disposables

 

[xerinx]

I get the odd nappy that sometimes comes out a lil stained but the next time i was it the stains go so i dont really know what to suggest. But i do wash at 50 and i know a few ladies on here use vanish bars on theirs if a bit stained.

 

[Karb]

I tried washing at 40- but too many stains- now do a 60 wash with a pre wash- only occasional stains now

 

[mommyof3co]

Are they actually dirty or stained? We wash all diapers on hot...we can't set the exact temp on our machines it's just cold, warm or hot..and I do hot. If that doesn't work try letting the washer fill up then shut it off with the diapers in there...put in some bleach or oxyclean and let them soak a bit. Drain it them do a wash on hot.

 

[Kota]

Tigs - if I get a pooey nappy I shower rinse the worst of it off before putting it in the dry pail., then rinse wash, then wash on 40 with 1/4 of the detergent, then rinse again. very rarely do i get left with a stain this way, If I do then the sun will get it out.
Worst case get a 'vanish' bar and rub that on it before the next wash and it should all come out sparkly clean.

 

[dippy dee]

i always sun bleach mine hun and if not then as kota says a vanish bar does the trick xx

 

[tiggercats]

Thanks all, they are soaking in napisan overnight. The amount of washing time these have had counteracts the good from keeping the dispoasables out of landfill

 

[CocoaOne]

I washed my first lot of nappies the other day (just a 60 degree wash) and they came out so yellow and stained! I was gutted. Hung them on the line (we haven't got a tumble drier) and within 2 hours all the stains had gone, I could believe it. This time I'm going to do a prewash and see if it minimises the staining

 

[Kota]

cocoa was there a poo filled nappy in with them? I did that once with an unrinsed poo nappy and got the same yellow staining, has definitely stopped happening since I started doing a prewash rinse.

 

[CocoaOne]

There were a lot of pooy nappies! I BF, so just dry pail and chuck the nappies in the machine when I've got a load (usually 2 days worth at the mo). I tried washing the poo off the inserts with the shower head but it just seemed to spread it about! Lol

Got a load on now and set a prewash, so I'll see how they come out in the morning

 

[Lisa1302]

I would say it may be a combination of the very small load and poop being dry - I find a small load like that doesnt wash well because the stuff doesnt get knocked around the machine so much - it tends to stick the edge and just go round and round!

I wash all the poop off my nappies when its fresh, so they are pretty much clean when they go in the bin, I find the longer I leave the poop on there the harder it is to get them clean in the machine - so I imagine the poo was fairly dried on if left overnight in a dry bucket.

 

[Vici]

I agree with Lisa - small loads never wash as well.

I rinse my nappies under the tap in the bathroom and have a small nail brush for the bits that stick on. They then go in the wash on a 40 (60 about once every 3 weeks) with a small amount of bold. Don't be tempted to add more detergent as although this may work in the short term - long term it will affect the absorbancy. If they have stains on them, it doesn't mean they're dirty - just hang them in the sun and you will be positively amazed xx

 

[CocoaOne]

Well the prewash worked well - only one insert was a bit yellow. And that was on a 40 wash. I use about 50ml of Bold (use a plastic measuring jug I got free from some detergent company). We live in a hard water area so 50ml is a quarter of the 200ml they recommend for a heavily soiled load.