Best detergent for cloth diapers

I can remember myself 7 months pregnant with my first baby, standing in the laundry detergent isle at my local Walmart, staring at the massive wall of options before me.

I had always just bought what was cheap and didn’t smell terrible, I had never bothered to check what was in it.

So trying to find a cloth diaper safe detergent was very overwhelming, but 3 1/2 years and 3 kids later I have found what works best for me.

The best detergent for me to use with my cloth diapers is Gain Original powder, it cleans well, smells pretty good and isn’t extremely expensive.

However than doesn’t necessarily mean that Gain Original powder is what’s best for you.

If you are interested in learning more about cleaning cloth diapers check out my article ” Do cloth diapers make the house smell”

Do you need a special detergent for cloth diapers?

No, you don’t need a special detergent for washing cloth diapers.

Most people seem to really like Tide, Gain and Seventh Generation, but you can pretty much use whatever you want as long as you keep a few things in mind.

• Must be a Detergent not a soap
• Cannot contain any fabric softener
• Can be scented as long as baby isn’t allergic
• Make sure it’s safe for your washing machine

There are a few cloth diaper specific detergents such as Rockin’ Green and Allen’s Naturally.

While these are more eco friendly detergents, they are more expensive and don’t necessarily do a better job cleaning your cloth diapers.

Your decision here kinda depends on why you are cloth diapering, are you cloth diapering to save money? or are you cloth diapering to save the environment?

If you are cloth diapering to save money than just pick up a cheap detergent that doesn’t have fabric softener, scent boosters or a scent your baby may be allergic to.

Luckily the cheaper stuff tends to have less extra stuff in it anyway.

Now if you are cloth diapering to be more eco friendly than maybe one of the more natural detergents is the one for you.

Is liquid or powder detergent better for cloth diapers?

I personally would start with whatever you are used to using, if it doesn’t do the job, change it up.

I don’t really think one is better than the other, there is some debate about whether or not one is better to use in hard water than the other.

I really think it just comes down to what exactly is in the hard water, not how hard it is.

Each different laundry detergent is made up of different things, and each of those recipes are better at removing some things than others.

Once in a while I can’t find the Gain powder that I usually use so I will get Tide powder instead.

After the first wash in Tide my cloth diapers seem way cleaner than they were getting before.

Then after I run out of Tide in a month or so and switch back to Gain I notice the same thing.

So it isn’t that one detergent is better or stronger.

Gain is a great detergent that does an awesome job cleaning my clothes and cloth diapers, but there are certain minerals that it has a harder time removing.

Tide is also a great detergent but it also has trouble removing certain minerals.

So lets say Gain has trouble removing minerals A & B, well slowly over time in hard water that contains minerals A & B those minerals are going to build up.

Now lets say Tide has trouble removing minerals C & D but has no problem at all removing minerals A & B.

So you start washing in Tide and it removes the build up A & B, but after a little while C & D are gonna start to build up.

Then you switch back to Gain and C & D get washed out.

Now there are probably some minerals that both Tide and Gain have trouble removing but I haven’t had any problems so I’m not really worried about it.

So which is better for hard water? no idea, I use powder because somehow liquid detergent always ended up getting all over everything in my laundry room and that annoyed me.

And I mainly use Gain because it is cheaper and smells better to me than Tide, and also seems to do well in the particular mineral mixture in my hard water.

The only real difference I could see between powder and liquid detergent is that the liquid would dissolve into the water quicker, but not by much.

Why can’t you use soap with cloth diapers?

Soap needs to be used in hot, soft water and even then it doesn’t rinse out super well.

Soap also can leave soap scum on your cloth diapers with can cause them to repel pee, which would be less than awesome.

Many homemade “laundry detergents” are actually soaps, their main ingredient is usually a ground up bar of Fels-Naptha, Zote or Dr. Bronners soap.

Now I have heard that if you do get soap scum build up it can be removed with vinegar or washing soda, however both of these are kinda hard on cloth diapers.

The only real problems I’ve ever had with my wash routine was when my oldest got a really bad rash while I wash using Soap Nuts, which shockingly enough are a soap.

At the time I didn’t know you had to use hot, soft water with soap and (even though it’s in the freaking name!) I didn’t realize Soap Nuts were an actual soap.

It would have been a lot easier for me to know that if I had known that soaps are natural and detergents are man-made.

Resources

Link to fluff love university’s detergent index at fluffloveuniversity.com

Link to Gain original powder on Amazon.com

Link to Tide original powder on Amazon.com

Link to Soap Nuts on Amazon.com