Preparing  For Use

Please pre-wash your Drybees cloth diapers before use. Wash your diaper in warm water with a reduced amount of detergent. You may dry your Drybees Cloth Diapers in a low dryer, or outside on a clothesline.  Wait until diapers are completely cool before stretching, pulling on, or stuffing diapers or you can ruin your elastics.  DryBees Pockets, Night Times, or Hybrid AIO's are all washed the same.  Brightly colored night time diapers should be washed separately the first time because some of the outer fleeces do bleed for the first wash.  Washing brightly colored laminated diapers in extremely hot or boiling water may cause these diapers to bleed or delaminate.  Generally, this is a guideline for international customers as their washing water tends to be much hotter than what we use in the USA.

Microfiber inserts can be washed right along with your diapers.

Bamboo Diapers should be prewashed two times or more for best absorbency before use.  Bamboo fabric should be handled more gently.  Do not stretch while wet or fresh out of the dryer.  When line hanging Bamboo diapers hang so you are not pulling in the direction of the stretchiest part of the diaper (ie, hang sideways for diaper and soaker)

Storing your Dirty Drybees Cloth Diapers We recommend you store your diapers using in a dry pail until wash day. The "wet pail" method has been shown to be a drowning hazard for young children so we only use and recommend the "dry pail" method.  The wet pail method will also drastically reduce the lifespan of your diapers.  All you need is a trash can, diaper pail or wet bag or a combination. We recommend using a Wahmies pail liner inside of a diaper pail or kitchen size trash can.  Even if your favorite retailer does not carry wahmies pail liners they will be able to special order one for you. Simply dump any solid waste into the toilet and put into the diaper pail where they will wait until wash day.  Using a diaper sprayer attached to the commode can help spray any stuck on poop off the toilet. Remember that liquid breastfed poops don't need to come off the diaper. They are extremely water soluble and will wash right off in the washer.

Washing your Drybees Cloth Diapers

Washing your Drybees cloth diapers is very easy.  First, fold back your laundry tabs. This ensures that you won't find the dreaded "diaper snake" after you wash your diapers.  Take care the first few times to match up the hook and loop carefully until your diaper tabs "learn" where to fold easily.   Next pull out the inserts. Finally throw it all in the washing machine. Choose the warm water level that will completely cover all your diapers and use a reduced amount of detergent.   Using water that is too hot or boiling can weaken the bond of the laminate to your outer fabric.  You can use a second rinse to ensure all of the detergent is rinsed out. Please tumble dry on your diapers on the low setting of your dryer or outside on a clothesline.  Using a hot dryer can cause the lamination to stick together and pull apart.

Tips and Tricks

• Avoid using Free and Clear, baby detergent, detergents with optical brighteners, or cold processed (natural) soap based laundry detergents. These can leave a residue that builds up over time causing stinky dipers.  A heavy smell of urine after your baby pees is an indication that your diapers need to be rinsed more completely. If this happens use a full amount of detergent to wash away any residue and then do several additional rinses to remove all traces of detergent.
• Avoid WAHM formulations as many of these are hand made in the home and the percentage of ingredients can vary widely. They also do not contain detergents to actually wash your diapers. Many also contain Borax which can destroy PUL. We can share with you this statistic from our customer service manager and confirmed by talking with other cloth diaper manufacturers "96% of all returns are from customers using Country Save, Charlie's, or one of the many new WAHM cloth diaper formulas" If you are looking for a specific recommendation, we have had great personal success with Tide, Arm & Hammer, and Gain. Additionally, we have not taken back any diapers for returns that have used these detergents. 
  
• If your Drybees Cloth Diapers get a stain, simply lay them out in the sun, and the sun will bleach away your stains naturally!
• Never use bleach or excessive chlorine on your diapers as this can weaken the bond of the laminate to the outer fabric.  While bleaching your diapers may work the first 20 times it is doing damage to your diapers and is not recommended.
• If your diaper suddenly starts leaking then it is usually a.) you need more absorbency or b.) you need a better fit.   What fit good and was enough stuffing yesterday can change overnight as your baby grows and develops and may not work today.  If your insert is not wet at all then you need to re-evaluate your washing routine as your baby's urine is being blocked by residue left in the fabric.  Unless your diaper is leaking straight out the middle of the diaper it is not defective, it is a growing baby that needs adjustments in his diapering routine.

 

~~*Also remember there is no hard and fast rules for cloth diaper washing. What might work for you may not work for others. The water in your area plays an important role in diaper/laundry washing.*~~