Stripping

There is a term in the cloth diaper underworld (as that is what it is) that is referred to when diapers need to be cleansed of diaper cream or detergent build up, fabric softeners, cured of repelling and the like. This process is called stripping.

The purpose of stripping is to "strip" the diapers clean of anything and everything that might be inhibiting their function and getting them back to the most pure and original form--cloth plus nothing.

Some people are lucky enough to get their routine right the first time and never have to strip. In my humble opinion, stripping should be a solution to a problem, not a regular event. If you don't use diaper creams, use only as much detergent as is needed, rinse thoroughly and don't use any other additives or weird combinations then there should be no need to strip.

But we all know that life is not that simple. There is always those times when the husband unknowingly slathers diaper cream all over your baby's butt without putting down a liner. Your mother decides to be helpful and does a load of diaper laundry complete with fabric softener. A softener sheet was accidentally left in the drier with your diapers. It happens. And that is why stripping was invented.

While visiting my family in Wisconsin I had the rotten luck of using way too much detergent on my diapers. I got most of it out while I was there but unfortunately there was still some that needed to be stripped out upon my return home.

There are as many different "stripping" recipes as there are wash routines and detergent choices. You also want to make sure you understand why you are stripping in the first place.

For instance, if you have detergent build up you want to strip detergent out of your diapers so it would be foolish to add soap or detergent to your strip when soap is exactly what you are trying to remove.

When stripping things like softeners you will want a stripping agent that can cut through the additives and effectively strip them from the cloth. The favored stripping agent is Dawn Original dish detergent.

The amount of Dawn needed is minimal. A good rule to follow is to use the least amount and add more later if necessary.

Another general rule is that while stripping the hotter the water the better. Many people (myself included) boil a pot of water on the stove and add that to the washing machine first before the diapers and the regular hot water that the washing machine can provide. Hot, HOT water seems to work better at cutting through minerals and build up.

Thankfully, I've not had to strip much but I'll share the stripping experiences I have had.

Diaper Cream:
My husband and I bought six brand new BumGenius 3.0 pocket diapers, I prepped them and as it was a Saturday my husband was kind enough to do most of the diaper changes. During one such change I went into the nursery to discover that my husband was slathering on diaper cream without a liner. I asked him how many changes he had been doing that for and he replied with, "Ummm, all of them?"

I washed all of the diapers immediately but I could see the diaper cream stuck in the suede clothe of our beautiful, brand new diapers.

I got out an old toothbrush and my dish detergent. I put just a drop of Dawn on the toothbrush and went to work on the buildup. Once I could no longer see it I returned all of the diapers to the washing machine and washed on hot with no detergent until no suds were seen in any rinses.

To test the diapers to make sure all build up was gone I took a tablespoon of water and poured it on the area where the cream had been built up. It absorbed nicely meaning that all of the build up was gone. If any build up were present the water would bead up and roll off.

Detergent Build Up:
This happened when I used too much detergent in soft water.

The only thing to do in this case is rinse, Rinse, RINSE.

Again, hot water helps break through the build up so I boiled a pot of water, poured it in my washing machine, added the diapers, set my washing machine on "Hot" and "Super Wash" with an extra rinse and let it go. That effectively rinsed my diapers three times, once with hot water and twice with cold.

A quick glance during either of the rinse cycles will tell you how effective your strip is. If there are still suds repeat until there are no more suds.

There are a lot of great resources when it comes to stripping. One of my favorites is Pinstripes and Polkadots. She has a lot of fabulous information when it comes to stripping.

Now I'm off to check on my final rinse cycle to see if I stripped all of the detergent from my diapers.