Berkeley Parents Network: Getting Mildew out of Clothing

Berkeley Parents Network

Getting Mildew out of Clothing

Berkeley Parents Network > Advice > Household Management > Getting Mildew out of Clothing

Mildewed diapers
Preventing mildew in diaper wraps
see also: Advice about Mold and Mildew
related page: Storing Baby Clothes for the next baby

Mildewed diapers

December 2002

I was just wondering if anyone knows of a way to get mildew/mold (whichever it technically is) out of cloth. I managed to ruin half of my cloth diapers by letting them ''presoak'' for too long. I've tried vinegar and water and ammonia and water and neither worked. Also, would using ammonia be too harsh since it's a diaper and will be next to baby's sensitive skin? Or would all the ammonia wash out in the laundering process? Please help! This is even a stumper for my mom! (And I thought she knew everthing!) Thanks! Sarah

Oxyclean. It's amazing stuff. It even gets mildew out of brightly colored clothes without making them fade. You might have to use a lot and soak them for a while, but the mildew will come completely out. I regret all the things I ruined with bleach before I found Oxyclean! susan

I think I remember once having that problem with my diapers when they soaked too long as well. Since it's not sunny out, it's hard to let them dry in the hot sunshine. Aside from that, I have bleached my diapers a few times (also after a bad diaper rash that was yeast related). I am a big believer that vinegar is great at a maintenance level, but for big jobs, I always resort to bleach (or another strong equivalent). There is also the guarantee that nothing will live through that. After bleaching (gently), I wash more than once before using them (I smell to make sure that the bleach is gone). We have had no issues with our daughter's skin reacting to the daipers. The diapers have also held up just fine to the abuse (we have been using the same ones for 2 years now). As for soaking, we only soaked in the beginning, and have found that it is far easier to use a ''dry'' pail. We do the diapers about once every 4 days and they clean up fine (sometimes there are stains, but they fade). For smell control I sprinkle in some Borax occasionally. Freyja

Washing things in bleach will take mildew out. Sherri

Preventing mildew in diaper wraps

May 2000

I'm using a couple types of diaper covers: Biobottoms, which are wool, and Litewraps which are rubberized polyester or something. I can't figure out how to store them before washing them so that they don't get mildewed. I've tried putting them in a dry dirty diaper cover box without rinsing them, but there is still enough moisture that they get mildewed after two or three days while waiting to get washed. I've tried filling the diaper cover box with a non-chlorine bleach solution and soaking the covers before I wash them -- it didn't get rid of the mildew that was already there, and it turned the wool ones yellow. I really hope the answer isn't that I have to do the wash more frequently. Thanks, Alysson

we store our diaper covers in a small dry diaper pail. we do wash them about 3 times a week. we don't soak them. try not rinsing them out. just wash off the poop from the sections that are poopy and try to get the excess water out before putting them in the pail. if the wool ones are really wet i drape them over the top of the pail to dry out some before putting them in the pail. (actually, if they just had urine on them, sometimes after a day of airing out, they smell fine and don't need to be washed anyway.) hope this helps. Sternhickey

Rinse the dirty diaper wraps in the toilet. Then put them in an open bucket of cold water. It helps to fill the bucket with the non-toxic stain remover Mother's Helper or Mother's Miracle (there are others out there, I know -- it's the kind with enzymes and a very light fragrance). You can also use this bucket as a way to pre-rinse the clothing that soiled with spit-up, poop, etc. Once you have a small laundry load and depending on your tolerance for having this bucket around, throw out the water from the bucket into the toilet, wash the contents with hot water, and line dry. You may have to do laundry more often. Unfortunately, it goes with the diaper wrap turf -- at least when the baby's very young and soilding the wraps a lot. As the baby gets older, you can reduce the number of laundry loads. Jane

I have the Gerber EZ covers and the cotton covers which have one laminated side. I've never had a mildew problem with diaper covers. I did have that problem with breast milk spit up though. The towels and receiving blankets used to clean spit ups would be covered in mold after a couple of days in the hamper. So I let the towels air dry before tossing them in the hamper. It worked. I'm not exactly sure how you use the cloth diapers, some people do not use pins or use snappi claws to hold the diaper in place. If you just fold the diaper and let the cover hold it in place, the cover is probably catching a lot more pee and poop then it has to. So, if you are not pinning the cloth, I suggest you trying doing that, or maybe change the type of covers you use. The Gerber EZ covers are inexpensive and very effective. Marian

We used to soak them covered in water. But there would be a slight mildewy smell pretty often, especially if they were not COMPLETELY covered. Our best routine was to rinse them out, then put them in the diaper pail, completely covered with a solution of water and BORAX (you can get it at the drug store in the cleaning supplies section). This seemed to reduce the mildew to a minimum. Be forewarned, though that the borax is pretty hard on clothes--I found it wore our clothes prematurely when I tried to use it exclusively instead of a non-chlorine bleach. Good luck! Dawn

My ad selling wool Biobottoms in "excellent condition" was apparently the reason for this request. Reading through the responses I see that there are a couple of things we did that probably made a difference.

1. We never re-used a cover immediately. If a diaper had only been peed-on we hung it next to the changing table and used a clean--or dry--one. Every couple of days we washed all of them--usually based on getting poopy stuff washed asap.

2. We washed all covers and diapers every couple of days--but there were never enough for a full load. According to the cover washing dogma from Biobottoms, the agitation is less effective if the covers don't rub against something. So we always added heavy things--bath towels or bath mats.

3. We used Tide liquid. According to Proctor and Gamble, powder is better on dirt and liquid is better on grease. Breastmilk makes greasy (not dirty) poops. Also, after many questions on my part, I gleaned that using Tide (vs. Dreft--the P&G "baby" product) would be just as safe on a newborn's skin.

4. We also added Borax as a fake anti-bacterial (because we don't use bleach)--and we did a double-rinse (not to get bleach out but to get stray poop off). Did I say we have this awesome programmable hit the buttons and don't come until morning washer?

5. But here's the best laundry tip: according to Consumer Reports, Tide is great laundry detergent. The one way to boost its cleaning power is not additives--like Biz-- but to leave your clothes in the washer with the Tide for a long time--as long as overnight.

6. The best cleaner I have ever seen for already mildewed clothes is soda ash (lots of brand names).

Sojeila

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