Washing and caring for MCNs....

My fluffy mail should be here today and I'm pretty excited, just wanted to get your top tips for caring for the nappies.
I have read a bit and from what I can tell these are the main things I need to remember with a few qs....

* Don't use fabric softener( what if I use it for other washing? Will it stay in the machine and wreck them??)
* Use a long normal cycle (Should I use the cycle that has a soak option? I normally wash in warm water - is that ok?)
* Dry pail and rinse off poo into toilet using an old knife or something. Should I rinse the poo as well before pailing?
* Dry on the line in sunlight or on the clothes horse. Is there a certain way to peg/hang them?

That's all I can think of for now - anything else I've missed feel free to add!! :D Did I mention I am excited! Just ordered some bubblebubs foamy wash with a bottle and am going searching for wipes now too! How many wipes do I need for full time use??

Tan - everyone probably does it a little differently - this is what we do -

1. We rinse all wet nappies when we are having a shower of a night time - then chuck them in the pail. We did dry pail, but my bamboo nappies are deteriorating so my kids must have horrid pee or something.

2. We use a little squirt for the poo - then rinse with little squirt - then dry pail.

3. Wash every 2nd day with a pre-wash using cold water, then normal wash using warm/hot water.

4. Sometimes I use liquid - sometimes nothing at all.

I use fabric softener with my clothes washing and it doesn't seem to affect it. I do wipe it out though if it looks a little dodgy before putting nappies on.

Can't answer wipe question - I still use the disposable :redface:

ETA - I hang my nappies lengthways and peg that way - and inserts pegged over clothes horse any old way.

Ta Mel hun. Do you mean you rinse with you in the shower??

yup - by hand. easier on the old back and gets them rinsed better.

Just chuck it in a bucket here. No rinsing. We use a little squirt to squirt off sticky poos and then dump it in the bucket.

At night I throw them in the machine (usually every 2nd night) and use the timer so that it's all ready & washed by the time I get up :) This way I don't care how long the cycle is. I let the machine rinse them out with a prewash, then a normal 30 degree wash with only a little bit of powder. Sometimes if I feel like it I get it to do an extra rinse at the end.

Hanging them, I just hang them whichever way keeps them hanging flattest if that makes sense. I think it's recommended to vary where you peg them tho, so it doesn't cause too much wear in one spot.

Fabric softener, don't know, coz I don't ever use it (wrecks the machine).

Wipes i can't answer either, coz we use disposable.

I've done a few strip washes with a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid, but only if they get a bit stinky - usually due to a rainy week or something where they're not getting enough sun. Helps freshen them up again.

HTH!

How exciting Tan :D

On the fabric softener, I'm not sure as I don't use it. I also use Enjo and was told by the consultant that you needs at least three washes after a fabric softnener wash to get rid of the residue from the machine :dunno:

Before I got a LS I kept a roll of toilet paper in the laundry and scraped the poo off with a teaspoon onto it and then flushed it away. I'm finding that newborn poo doesn't LS off too well so I have been washing them as they are but with an extra pre wash with hot water and they come up beautifully. I figure it doesn't use more water to do that because I'd be LSing just about every nappy ATM.
Calebs poo is a different story though ;)

When you peg them, lay them long ways across the line, not folded over. This helps to preserve the elastic as the nappies can be heavy when wet and the elastic will be under stress a lot.

You can never have too many wipes ;) Can you sew or do you know someone who can? They are dead easy to make!

Aah yes - with newborn nappies... they just get chucked in teh bucket and go into the machine as is. Then I definitely use a prewash cycle.

Raven - omg - i had never thought about the stress on the elastic! I've got so many nappies set aside as useless coz the elastic has gone :( I don't know how to fix it either. I dunno if it was the hanging tho, i think it was more using the dryer (not that I used it THAT much) and also the occassional strip wash I did with vinegar that trashed the elastic. Don't do that anymore tho.

Just spoke to mum and we are going to make some wipes. I'm probably getting waaaay ahead of myself seeing as they aren't here yet (darn you Australia Post) and I haven't even used them but I am SO tired of the waste in this house. We try to be as green as we can and this amount of sposies is doing my head in. Mum thinks I will get sick of the washing, but how hard is it to chuck the machine on of a night and hang them out? Not much different to the loads of clothes I have to do every few days.

Yeah there's nothing to it. I would get sick of it too if we still did all the soaking and rinsing and stuff. But it's no different to a load of clothes these days.

Yay Tan!

We do this:
- rinse wet and pooey nappies with little squirt, then pail. I have the same problem as Arimeh with disintegrating bamboo nappies (although only one type).
- wash every second day on a cool (30degrees) long wash, with extra rinse, and half the recommended amount of detergent (Aware Sensitive). No fabric softener, no optical brighteners or fillers, no enzymes and no fragrance. It's not just fabric softener that should be avoided, it's also the enzyme and brighteners that can damage nappies - mostly by leaving residue that inhibits absorbency, but also it isn't great for PUL or elastic.
- hang on a rack longways (PUL pockets I hang folded because there's so little weight in them and they are almost dry coming out of the machine. I don't peg nappies or pockets, just inserts. But I hang on a rack, which lives on the balcony in the dry season and in Euan's room in the wet, so I don't need to worry about nappies blowing away.
- wipes - I use one wet wipe each wet change, and two for a poo. I have a dry cloth which is used to dry his bum, and gets changed every few changes. I just use super el cheapo wash clothes from Best and Less, although I do have a few nice WAHM made wipes which are sherpa one side and quilters cotton or cotton jersey the other side - these are my favourites by far but the wash cloths do the job. But like Raven said - they are easy peasy to make if you sew.

TANSTAR -

for cloth wipes, measure the size of the facewashers in your linen cupboard.

cut out one layer thick flannelette from spotlight
cut out one layer thick cotton terry towelling from spotlight
overlock the two layers together - voila - you have a wipe

repeat dozens of times. with two bubs, i think you would be needing say 50 to start with. also depends if you wash once per day, or once every two days (how many cloth wipes you need on hand).

For washing the nappies, we little squirt the nappies as soon as they are off her butt, so the worst of it goes down the loo immed, a sopping nappy gets put in the "drypail", then when drypail is full, we transfer that bucketload to the the washing machine (using gloves). Put the machine onto "baby cycle" and the machine does the work for you.

baby cycle on our front loader machine, equates to
- pre-soak and wash (great for avoiding stains)
- wash
- long rinse (great for getting detergent residue out)
good spin cycle, which means nappies have less water in them when it's finished, so they dry faster.

we use a clothes horse indoors, don't use any clothes pegs, but do up snaps on one side of nappy, so they don't fall off the clothes horse.

some hints to keep your nappies in good shape and looking good for longer:
- use the laundry tabs on your aplix nappies
- if you ahve white nappies, wash them SEPARATELY first few times, otherwise you will get lint on all the other nappies
- i put polar fleece nappies in a laundry bag, fleece collects lint really easily
- nappies with dark outers, dark inners, i also put in a sep, laundry bag

Buy a gentler wash detergent to wash teh nappies with, why?
- to avoid nappy rash on your child
- to avoid making the nappies less absorbent
and use half the amount that you normally would.

Example of a gentler wash detergent?
- ecostore
- aware sensitive by planet ark
Both in supermarkets

i buy laundry bags like this - find "dustmite pillow protectors", pack of 4 at places like kmart, these work MUCH better than traditional laundry bags, which are mesh, adn have poxy zips that disintegrate in two weeks.

You have a great attitude, you want this to work, so it will.

you have great online resources, lots of MCN mums on this forum, nappycino and ozclothnappies forums too. you are not alone.

without a washing machine, without a little squirt, i prolly would whinge about washing mcn.

but with a washing machine and a little squirt, it's not that hard.

having a routine in place - which takes a little time to work out what suits you and your home - makes it alot easier.

NAPPY BUCKETS - you can get a nappy bucket from target that has four snap down things (a pretend lock) that is toddler safe. $16 mark.

we use TWO nappy buckets - one is in the toilet room, ready to have teh latest nappy thrown in there, after i've little squirted it.

the other one, is upside down, drying in teh bottom of the bath tub - from when i did the last load of nappies (daily) and left it there to dry (i rinse the bucket after emptying it into the washing machine).

The LIttle Squirt is wonderful, i would not be without it (got mine 2nd hand, if it broke tomorrow, i would be buying a brand new one immediately.).

I'm still fairly new to MCN's too, but here goes... (I'm probably doing it wrong!! :lol: )

*Dry pail wet ones, clean off and dry pail pooey ones
* put them through a deep rinse in warm/hot water
*put them through a full cycle ( warm wash, cold rinse) I also use Aware....
*hang all on the line, sideways for nappies so theres no drag
* every 3rd or 4th wash I put a small amount of vinegar in the deep rinse, so once a week maybe? It takes the ammonia smell out, and sometimes I can still smell poo too, and it goes as well....

I have Za in night nappies and Kane full time, and I only wash every 2nd or 3rd day.... and I actually enjoy washing, hanging and bringing in my goegeous nappies!!!! ;);)

Good luck, you'll love it!!!! :D

Ohhh how exciting! I totally agree with the waste issue, 2 in disposables is terrible isn't it!

Are you just starting with Izzy in cloth or James too?..It's sooo easy when they are older (not that I'm saying it's hard when they are younger, just more poos to deal with then!).

Not sure if you are planning on using liners or not, but I was going to say that I use flushable liners a lot of the time for my DD (plus a fleece liner underneath that if the poos are icky) and they are brilliant! Makes cloth VERY DH friendly too! (Must add though, that I found that some brands of liners are a bit crappy).

Was also going to say we don't rinse the pooey nappies here, we just scrap or 'flick' (:lol:) as much of the poo off as possible then chuck it in the bucket.

Oh, and the washing thing..it's easy!..although sometimes I must admit I do wash them in the evening, then forget about them and they sit in the machine all night :doh: I think the thing is, that it feels good to be reusing something and not being wasteful and those good feelings overcome the the any negativity you feel from doing the chore of washing!!! :lol:

Have fun!

Sounds like I need a LS too! Poor DH he has NO idea how obsessed I am already and they aren't here yet :rofl: I spend more time on nappy sites than BB right now and that's saying alot! Needless to say my wishlist is growing steadily! Thanks for all the advice girls sounds pretty simple really!! HURRY UP FLUFFY MAIL!

ETA: What is Aplix??

Aplix is the heavy duty velcro that they use Tan :)

Hi Tan - I'm also a newbie, so what everyone has suggested already sounds pretty good.

One thing I use which I dont think has been mentioned, as I dont have a little squirt (yet), when we have a yuk poo, I bought a cheap egg flipper thing which I use to scrape the poo off onto a bit of toilet paper, and then that goes down the toilet

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but applix is the velcro tabs on some nappies.

PURPLE MAMA - you have all bases covered, but VINEGAR is to be used very sparingly, and not very often on MCN. i forget if it's the elastic or the PUL that it messes up, but i would encourage you to STOP using the vinegar as often as you are using it.

you will invalidate your MCN warranties also, many brands say in the warranty NOT to wash with vinegar.


APLIX is the industrial version of VELCRO.

unlike VELCRO, APLIX is engineered to withstand repeated washings, like MCN get.

when you go to buy APLIX, you will also come across TOUCH TAPE, and HI TECH 2000, and also HOOK AND LOOK.

at spotlight, you are most likely to encounter VELCRO

to buy APLIX and the other types, you go to the MCN making sites e.g nappiescovered, nappyworks, tiny toosh, wrigglebots, fairyfabrics, bubba earth.