For the past two years of our cloth diapering journey, I have been through alot of trials with our chosen advocacy. We experienced almost everything from leaks, ammonia smell, my youngest even experienced rash despite using cloth. Using cloth diapers in our modern and fast-paced time entails a lot of dedication. There will always be setback and challenges along the way that will always want to make you give up and choose the easy way out.
My friends often would ask me how I survive cloth diapering my youngest without the hassle from it and in this post, I will be sharing with you several ways on how to properly strip cloth diapers and my fail-proof way of doing it.
What is stripping? Stripping is basically the process of removing all the residue that build up in the cloth diaper over time through washing. There are three ways of stripping that I have tried so far which basically depends on what I want to remove from my diapers.
Hot Water Method. This is the easiest way to remove the excess laundry soap from cloth diapers. This is the easiest way because I just put all the clean diapers in the machine, wash with hot water, run it three times without soap and then line them dry.
RLR Method. RLR is a laundry treatment for clothes that removes laundry residue, removes ammonia smell and makes the cloth diapers smell fresh again. You can get the RLR laundry treatment at True Value stores at P75/ pack and at some online resellers in Shopee (Please note though that price may vary). This method doesn't totally work for us though as this is just effective to those that have hard water. The chemical component will make the some water elements push it back to the cloth diapers so others would say it will make harm than good with them. If you have hard water, then this process is for you.
DL Dishwashing liquid and Bleach. This so far is my holy grail for stripping my diapers. It addresses all that needs to be addressed: ammonia, laundry residue and diaper leaks. This process is so easy to do and products used are only found in our home.
Note: I use anti-bacterial dishwashing liquid and gentle bleach for stripping.
Steps:
1. Prepare the mixture. Use 5ml of dishwashing liquid and 5ml of bleach. Fill the pail halfway and dilute the mixture in the pail and mix it, expect the water to sud and you can now put your inserts. Soak for 30 minutes. Note: Do not soak it longer.
2. Remove inserts from the pail and soak the shells for 10 minutes. Do not soak it longer as well as some shells may cause delamination.
3. Rinse in machine for three cycles without laundry soap until the water has no longer soap and bubbles.
4. Line dry.
For me, this is the most effective way of stripping our cloth diapers. It also removes the stubborn stain that sometimes sun drying and oxiclean cannot. Please note that the diapers I strip are mostly pocket type, flats, Hybrid fitteds and AIO's. No noted delamination issue and our microfiber inserts are still in perfect working condition.
Note: Strip only when necessary.
How do you strip your diapers? Have you tried these? Please share them at the comment box below.
