Surprisingly, many parents who embark on the journey of cloth diapers are surprised when they find that many of their diapers are left with less than attractive staining on the inside.  Whether this is because a well meaning article online or parent told them they don’t stain (this is true sometimes in the case of newborn poop, but not always….) or because they assumed everything would wash away clean, the realization is frustrating.

Every stage of poop comes with different stain risks.  To date, after 22 months of cloth diapering, I have only had 1 stain (caused by poop) that I could not get out.  These are my tips for preventing and removing stains.

Prevention:

• Always Pre-Rinse in COLD Water before you add a hot wash when there is poop involved.
• If you suspect a poop is coming, throw in a fleece or flushable liner.  This not only makes clean-up easier, it keeps poop from hitting your diaper directly.  This is more for children on solids than newborns.
• If you are so inclinined and you know that your baby is going to poop, put them on a little potty or potty insert on your toilet.  Abstinence is the best prevention!
• Once your baby is eating solids, having a diaper sprayer will be a lifesaver.  Use this to spray as much debris off, leaving little chances of the stains setting in while waiting for wash day.

Treatment:

• Newborn poop has long been thought to never stain.  This statement is misleading because often a diaper comes out of the washer covered in a light shade of yellow.  For most newborn (EBF) poop just ignore it and wash a few more times.  It should come out in a few washes.
• Sunning is the number one stain treatment.  (I have an old post on the Miracle of Sunning with before and after photos) Lay your diapers flat in the sunlight for a few hours while damp or wet.  Dry works too but better when wet.  9 times out of 10, as long as the stain has not been set in, this will only take one session.  More stubborn stains may take a second sunning.
• Sunning not working?  You might have a food based stain from something your child ate.  Try adding a squirt of lemon juice topically to the diaper, then lay in the sun.  This has gotten a few very stubborn stains out for me.  You need to re-wash your diapers after a lemon treatment before using them on your baby.
• Last Resort: chlorine bleach.  I have never used bleach to treat a stain, but incidentally, when I have used it during a stripping some diapers with stains that I had not had the chance to sun out came clean.

Other tips:

• Not all poop is created equal.  I have an exhaustive list of the different stages of poop that you may find helpful.
• Newborn poop manages to get into every nook and cranny.  Especially if you have a diaper with gathered gussets on the inside, like a Rumparooz or Thirsties, you might notice that most of the poop has washed out minus in those crevices.  There is no way to sun this since it is in those hiding spots.  Don’t worry, I never had a permanent stain in these places.  A few washes and it all came out.
• Toddlers can eat some colorful items which in turn, leave colorful stains: think blueberries.  Even blueberry stains have come out for me after sunning.
• The only stain to remain for me is a mystery.  I wish I knew the food which caused it but I don’t.
• Unless you are terribly concerned about the resale value of your diapers, don’t get your panties in a knot over stains.  I used to religiously fight stains and sun my diapers at every chance (which is rare living in Syracuse, NY).  Now, I am happier not being so worried about stains.  Usually, they resolve themselves after a few washes.  If not, who cares?  He is just going to poop in it again at some point.

Photo Credit: Stevec77 from Flickr

Up until this week I have never had a stain on any of my cloth diapers.  Then the unthinkable occurred!  I removed my diapers from the washer to put them in the dryer and I noticed 2 shells and one insert had horrible poopy stains on them.  Oh no!  I knew that sunning was supposed to be the cure for diaper stains, so I put the damp and stained items on the back patio.  I am on vacation so North Carolina has a lot better sunlight than New York.  I left to eat lunch with a friend and came back a few hours later.   This is what my diapers looked like when I left.  (I forgot to take a picture of one of the shells)

A Smartipants Microfiber insert and a Fuzzibunz shell

This is what I returned to!

Insert, FB shell, and Smartipants shell

Is that amazing or what?  One thing to note is that I bought the Fuzzibunz used.  There is a wicked stain that was already there (the black one) that didn’t come out all the way.

So how can you do this to your own diapers?  I usually take the stained diapers directly from the washer to the sunshine.  I lay them out in an area I know will have many hours of full sunshine.  Once they are dy (and stain free) I bring them inside.  Sometimes, if I feel they have been soiled outside by something, I wash and dry them again with my next load.  Otherwise I toss them in thew dryer to soften them up.