what to wash terry flats in ?

[babyamore]

should you use napisan ?

washing powder (front loader) ?

should you soak ?

vinegar or bi carb soda in rinse water ?

I read somewhere about soft fluffy towels the natural way using the last two.

[jessicas_mamma]

Napisan? - I don't, no need for it, I wash nappies every second day

Washing powder? - Can't comment as I have a front loader, I use amway laundry concentrate, only need the tiniest amount of it for nappies.

Soaking? - I don't soak flats, just dry pail em with the rest of my nappies, never had any stains or mould, again washing every second day.

Vinegar? - I would only use vinegar in the rinse cycle if there's no PUL in the load, apparantly vinegar's not good for PUL. If I was just washing flats I would use vinegar in my rinse but most times I've got fitteds and aio's in the load and I don't put vinegar in with the elastic nappies. And yep I put vinegar in the rinse cycle of my towels, I don't think it makes mine heaps softer, maybe just a bit but I think it's cause I need new towels

[babyamore]

thanks I will washing (or DH ) every day so all the better if we don't need to soak 0 but what about watery Bf poos - one of ny boys doesn't eat much and so nothing solid - will it stain the nappy leaving it all day.

I will do the vingear - I would wash flat nappies alone anyway atm -
I will have a dozen a day - intending to use a mixture of flats and AIO's when the ones I want to try come in stock -plus someone wonderful is letting me try ones her boy has grown out of.

[ColdCloth]

I know that most people don't soak any more and dry pail instead, but I must admit that I'm still a soaker (and we don't have any water restrictions where we are). I don't use napisan, but a herbal soaker. It comes in a big bucket and one bucket lasts around 3 months. I think it works out to be slightly cheaper than napisan. I scrape all the poo off into the toilet and put all wet and soiled nappies into a bucket of water which has a scoop of soaker in it. Every morning I rinse the nappies in cold water and put them in the front loader with some detergent which I buy from the local organic food shop. If the nappies are particularly ikky I'll do a warm wash, but mostly I do cold. I sometimes put vinegar in - I'm not convinced it helps soften the nappies but it seems to remove poopy stains really well. Then I fill the nappy bucket up with cold water and add a scoop of soaker and its readyy for the next 24 hours worth of nappies. I hang them in the sun to dry. Actually the best way I've found to soften them is to twist them up and beat them up a bit before I fold them - its good exercise too!!!

[babyamore]

thank you for these hints

[RockMel]

i didnt know vinegar affected pul ill have to stop washing with it!!!

[my_fallen_angel]

no need to soak them as the napisan affects the absorbency of the nappy.

just use the normal washing powder you use but not as much maybe half the amount you would normally wash your clothes in with your nappies and just do a hot wash

[jessicas_mamma]

Originally Posted by RockMel

i didnt know vinegar affected pul ill have to stop washing with it!!!

That's just what I remember reading somewhere about using vinegar so I'm not sure if it's true or not. I know some ladies on here use vinegar I guess if your PUL's ok then it's not doing any harm to them