Diaper Washing Day

I washed my diapers today and am a little nervous about it. Yeah, technically they’re Little Guy’s diapers but since I’m the one who loves them I get to call them MINE. Since I wash diapers about every other day it’s usually not a big deal, but today I used a different detergent – that’s why I’m nervous. Detergent choice is a big deal when washing cloth diapers. You can have the perfect washing routine but if you use the wrong detergent, like one with built-in fabric softener, your diapers could be ruined. Or at least really messed up for a while. Just a little pressure there, right?

For the past three years I’ve been using Arm & Hammer Free on the diapers and it’s worked really well for us – the only time I’ve had stinky diapers is when I was lazy and didn’t wash them for 3-4 days. I hadn’t been looking to switch detergents, but when I was doing research for my diaper detergent page I discovered that Arm & Hammer makes a more environmentally friendly detergent with plant based surfactants: Arm & Hammer Essentials. I mentioned to Teacher that I wanted to try it and the last time he got groceries he remembered to buy some. Yep, not only does he do all the grocery shopping, he remembers things like this. He’s SUCH a keeper!

I tried the detergent on our clothes first and really like it although it’ll take a while to get used to the scent. We’ve been using unscented products for years because when I’m pregnant I get queasy from strongly scented products. The Essentials isn’t strong so I think it’ll be OK, but I do plan to contact Church and Dwight Co, Inc (makers of Arm & Hammer) and suggest they make Essentials unscented.

When the diapers came out of the dryer they looked as clean as usual, and didn’t have much of a scent to them. But only time will tell if the Essentials will work as well for us as the Free did. Cross your fingers with me that it does!