Uncharted Territory Equals Learning Experience

We LOVE cloth diapering. It saves us SO much money and it is SO easy. However, it does not come without an occasional complication. Sometimes those complications are figuring out which diaper is best for your baby, what the best night time solution is, fabrics your child is sensitive to, etc. However, we hit a new issue for us. Monkey was diagnosed with a bacterial infection on her bum. Now she is being treated with Bactroban. I am aggravated at myself and aggravated with how it occurred. Most importantly though, we have learned and are moving on. So, I thought I would share my learning experience so you don't need to go through the same thing!


First, it is important to note that staph, just like yeast, is possible at any time so what I am going to tell you is a wise routine to perform on a routine basis. Once a month would be ideal.

When I get a used diaper from a friend or swap board, I ALWAYS run it through my wash with my homemade laundry detergent. I assumed that since I was using hot water and my detergent had oxyclean in it, it was being disinfected. I was SO wrong. My apartment complex regulates the heat of the hot water so it doesn't get hot enough to kill yeast, staph, and other evils ... nor does oxyclean disinfect. So, here is my new routine that will be performed at each wash until the staph is cleared up, and then once a month afterwards.

Disinfecting:

Method #1 -

Boil your diaper or insert. Even better ... hang them in the sun to dry afterwards and let the sun burn all the ickies off of them

Method #2 -

Tea Tree Oil (the method I am going with) put into the washer when water is filling. Make sure you get the GOOD stuff. It is a disinfectant. Fill the washer with hot water, put in a couple tablespoons, and then load the diapers. If your washer has an extra rinse cycle ... use it.

Method #3 -

Hydrogen peroxide ... use like tea tree oil but wait for the agitator to start to activate the peroxide. Then add diapers. Again, make sure you run an extra rinse.

Method #4 -

Bleach ... this is the method I used but won't next time. Bleach LINGERS in clothing so unless you have the time to run a bazillion rinses after the wash, don't use this method. However, you can agitate the diapers (especially by hand) in extremely diluted bleach water .. a little bleach goes a LONG way. Using more doesn't make it work any better ... just makes getting it out that much harder. Then wash as normal, with extra rinses. I even did 2 rinses before starting the wash. I just feel like I can still smell the bleach in the diapers.



So ... any questions? Ask me, if I don't know them, I will find them out!