photo by Allison Hanlon Peterson
Stripping? Umm, what? Simply put, stripping (in this sense) means you’re removing the buildup of detergent or diaper creams from the fibers of your cloth inserts. With time, despite your best intentions and care, you may find that your cloth inserts aren’t absorbing as well as they once were. The culprit is most likely detergent build up, or diaper creams, if you’ve been using them (which really, you should not be with any cloth diaper). This happens with all cloth diapers and is easily remedied by stripping your cloth diapers. Stripping also helps when cloth begins to take on an ammonia smell. An easy test to see if your inserts need to be stripped: put the cloth insert into the little gPant pouch and slowly add a cup of warm water. Let it rest for at least one minute. Gently place the palm of your hand on the water (to simulate the flesh contact from baby). If the water pools on top and doesn’t absorb even with the pressure from your hand, it needs stripping. Here’s one method on how to strip your cloth:
- Before stripping, you may need to pull apart the 4 layers of fabric, as they may have become stuck together with detergent.
- Boil on the stovetop for 30 minutes, then wash without detergent after boiling.
- Check your laundry rinse cycle. If there are suds in the rinse, then the diapers still have build up. Repeat boil until a rinse cycle runs clear of suds.
For thicker buildup you may want to add a bit of a de-greasing agent to your strip routine. Good old fashioned Dawn dish soap (the blue stuff) is great at tackling stubborn build up on cloth. Hand-agitate the de-greaser directly into the cloth inserts and then wash on hot (no other detergent). Check your rinse cycle for suds. Once the cloth is free of suds, you should be free of build up and back to peak performance.
Do you have hard water? Hard water makes laundering difficult in general, but can be particularly troublesome for cloth diapering, since it’s hard to wash out detergent with hard water. You may want to add a water softener to the hot part of the wash, to keep your diapers soft and absorbent.
*tip* If you want to use a diaper cream, use flushable gCloth liners on top of your cloth inserts. Not only will the liners prevent the cream from caking to the cloth fibers, but they’ll also do the dirty work of catching the bulk of baby’s solid messes (aka, poop). Check out the video to see gCloth liners at work.
What about bleach? I understand chlorine isn’t best for delicate bottoms and that it can also break down fabrics quickly. Is bleaching ever recommended with gCloth or not? I can’t find the “official” word. I throw a little bit in each wash (less that the bottle recommends by about half). Is this a no-no? I don’t do this with the liners or pants, just the cloths. So to bleach or not to bleach?
Well, first I want ask you why you want to use bleach? Is it to kill bacteria? Or to keep materials looking clean & white?
For germs & bacteria, hot water is key. If you still get an odor perhaps just a touch of ammonia can neutralize odors-whether this is recommended by gdiapers-I don’t know.
If you are wanting to keep the cloths looking clean & white I would highly recommend adding Borox to you wash.
I emailed and asked that, too. I believe it was either Gillian or Heather replied and said that non-chlorine bleach is okay, but not necessary.
I’ve found the best bleach is the sun….just hang wet diapers or inserts in the sun. After a few hours, stains and stinkies are gone! It even works inside through a glass window for those that live in cold weather.
When doing a normal wash with these diaper cloths, which “diaper friendly” detergent should i be using? any recommendations on which one?
Check out this detergent chart. They know they’re stuff. http://www.diaperjungle.com/detergent-chart.html
Is it OK to use Borax to help strip the diapers if they smell like ammonia? If so, how often should I use it? Or, does Dawn do the trick just fine on it’s own?
J
This seems like a silly question but I have to ask.
I was attempting to strip my gCloth by boiling them. I have been using them for 9 months and they smell like ammonia really bad when wet. I put 24 of my 60 gcloth into 2 of my largest stock pots, filled them with water, and put on the stove to boil for 30 minutes. The problem I had is that they float to the top and I doubt those ones sitting above the water are getting stripped. Am I doing something wrong? I filled the pot about 3/4 full with diapers and covered with water – I have 60 gCloth to strip and it would take me about 3 cycles of boiling to get them all done. Do I have to put fewer diapers in each pot? Am I missing something obvious about this process?
Thanks!
Did you ever get a response? I have similar questions about boiling, and feel completely clueless.
I have the same question. Mine are floating too. I did try putting a lid on the pot to see if it would help keep them in the water, but that didn’t help. Would love to know what I am missing here.
Based on everyone’s comments, I tried the following, which seemed to help reduce the puffiness / floating issue :
– I filled the pot 1/2 full with water, boiled it, and then added diapers so that the pot was 3/4 full after adding diapers
– I found that when I partially covered the pot (leaving a crack for steam to escape) and turned down the heat (but still allowing the water to boil), the inserts had less air and more diapers were submerged in the water.
– I still stirred the pot a few times just to make sure all parts of the diapers were submerged at some point
– I also boiled the diapers a bit longer than 30 minutes (about 45) just in case it needed it
Hope this helps! I know I’ve learned a lot from reading through everyone’s entries.
I am stripping my diapers again at this very moment. I have had this problem (floating) in the past…so this time I filled a smaller pot 1/2 with water, a double handled pot that sat on the edge of the larger pot, to weigh them down. Seems to be working plus I only did 6 diapers per pot, it is annoying to do them in such small batches but mine dont ever seem to “strip”!!! Then I will use dawn and a run thru the machine on hot and we will see. I hope it works this time because I am sick of doing all of this and it not working. I have changed detergents and stop using diaper creams so fingers crossed!!!
Would adding vinegar to the water help?
I read a few places that you have to bpil the water and then add yhem one at a time to keep from boiling over or floating. This isnt my personal experience but again is something I have reaf anf will consider when stripping outs today…
I put a small towel across the top to make them sink more, worked great!
We’re in the process of stripping our g clothes right now. We’re now on our second boiling cycle since the first didn’t get all of the buildup. Our son has been getting rashes from what our pediatrician believes is ammonia buildup in the inserts so we’re hoping this takes care of it. Has anyone else had to strip their inserts more than once?
I have Jim. I also have hard water and the inserts are not very soft and are stained. any suggestions on how to remove the stains and make the inserts soft again?
How about getting the odor out of the liner? I am going to begin stripping the liners, but I’ve noticed the plastic liners are retaining some of the smell, too.
How often is it recommended to strip? Thanks Gdiapers. Want to keep my inserts in good condition.
I’ve recently had very stinky diapers in the morning. Overnight, my son wears a gcloth and grefill combo. We stripped the cloths just 2 weeks ago, but the smell has come back even worse. I don’t have the time to strip them every couple of weeks. Is there any other solution?
I also had a problem with stinky cloth inserts and just did not have the energy to do the boiling. I would even notice a subtle lingering odor when taking my diapers out of the washing machine. My HE front loader has a sanitary/stain setting that uses “extra hot” water. I tried that today after doing a regular load of all my cloth inserts and didn’t use any detergent. My washer also allows me to add extra water to a load and I did an extra rinse as well. And I waited an hour between my regular load and sanitary load just to make sure I had enough hot water. They came out fabulously and stink-free! So much easier than boiling! I do prefer good ol’ sunshine in the summer an plan on using this method only when I start to notice the lingering odor. Hope this helps!
I recently had a problem with my cloth diapers and was trying to figure out why. I used to use Country Save to wash my cloth but then decided to start using my homemade laundry soap to save some money. Well, after doing this for about a month and a half they all of a sudden started leaking everywhere. I couldn’t figure it out. So after searching the web, I found a wonderful blog call http://www.afarmhousefull.com where she talks about not using regular detergent because the soap is the usual cause of buildup. She has come up with a homemade cloth diaper mixture to put in when washing cloths. I’ve used it and I’ve got to say NO MORE BUILDUP which means NO MORE STRIPPING unless they start smelling like amonia. I learned in the summer that hanging them out to dry and then fluffing in the dryer for 10-15 minutes was great. No smell and no stains. But alas it is now winter and my dryer does all the drying. Hope some of this info has helped:)
Hello I am new to g diapers and was wondering how to clean the plastic snap liners and cotton gpants. are they safe to use in the regular wash with regular detergent and fabric softener? with the cloth liners I use a chemical free detergent. thanks for your help.
Yes, you can use “regular” detergent and fabric softener on both the cloth covers and plastic liners. I keep mine in a separate hamper and always toss then in whenever I do a cold or warm wash of clothes. Just be sure to hang dry the plastic liners and dry the cloth covers on low. Save your more expensive “free” detergent for the cloth inserts!
I’ve stripped my cloth inserts but they are still leaking. There was no detergent residue after I boiled them or in the hot wash. They still aren’t absorbing any pee at all. They are only 2 months old. I use borax and baking soda to wash them. Any suggestions?
We just recently started using gcloth and I can’t seem to get the snap-in pouches clean enough. They still stink after being washed several times. I don’t want to go too hot with them, but what else can I do to get the stink out?
Just want to give a suggestion for ammonia build up. I noticed this after a month or so of using gcloths, and my son was getting terrible rashes. Even a freshly wet diaper would reek of ammonia. I googled it, and found that adding a 1/2 cup of vinegar can be used in the prewash cycle to neutralize the ammonia. Vinegar is an acid, and ammonia is a base, so chemically, it makes sense. It also worked! I made a custom cloth diaper cycle now on my HE washer to add as much water throughout the process as possible (HE washers typically don’t use enough water for cloth diapers), to really rinse the pee (source of urea, which the bacteria turn into ammonia) out as much as possible. I do a cold rinse first, then use my custom cycle that has a prewash, extra wash, and extra rinse. The washes are in hot water. The vingar seems to help keep them white, which is also a bonus. I don’t use the vinegar every time, just once in a while. I think it can be hard on the rubber seals etc. in the washer, so I try not to get carried away. I’ve never done the boiling thing.