Is it time to strip? Strip wash we mean!

Strip washing is sometimes needed to "reset" your cloth nappies. It is a more intensive wash than your normal routine and should not be needed regularly. If you find that you are needing to undergo a strip wash often, then it is more than likely an issue within the wash routine.

Why would we need to do a strip wash?

You may need to do a strip wash for many reasons, the most common being a build up of ammonia in the nappies, or detergent residue build up. If you have purchased second hand/ pre-loved nappies, it is always recommended to do a strip wash before use.

Ammonia Build Up

If your machine is over filled, not enough detergent is being used or something as simple as the machine is not putting in enough water, you could end up with a build up of ammonia in the nappies as they would not have been washed effectively each time.

Signs that your nappies may have a build up of ammonia:

• Smelling when wet.

• A urine or ammonia smell when the nappies are clean.

• A strong smell as soon as baby wees (hard to diagnose this one if your baby is teething or a first morning wee)

• Redness/ blisters when the nappy is removed.

• A persistent nappy rash.

• Cloth nappies appearing to "repel" water - this can happen if using liquid detergent.

Luckily, all of these issues are easily fixed with a simple strip wash. We had found this method to be the most effective and also will not invalidate your brand warranty.

Detergent Build Up

Modern washing machines are very water efficient and use far less water than machines used to. Whilst this is great for the environment, this can cause issues for ensuring your cloth nappies are cleaned properly. Washing detergents are also a lot stronger than they used to be. Mix stronger detergents and less water and you'll find it is harder to ensure all detergents are rinsed off fully, which will then leave a residue on the nappies.

How to strip wash:

1. Load the nappies into the machine. You will need to ensure that the machine is no more than 3/4 full at the beginning of the cycle.

2. Your first wash will need to be a rinse cycle only, with no detergent! If you machine doesn't have a specific rinse cycle, then a quick cool wash will be effective. This is to ensure that they are nice and wet already, so should prevent the inserts absorbing further water in the main washes.

3. Wash using a full dose of detergent (always refer to the packaging recommendations, as well as your own washing machines water input/ machine size), wash at 60 degrees on a long cycle - approx 2.5-3 hours.

4. Run a second wash at 40 degrees on the longest possible cycle as above with NO detergent this time.

5. And finally, run another rinse cycle (or quick cool wash) with no detergent, as you did in step 1. If you see any bubbles in the machine, you will need to put the nappies through a further quick rinse until you don't see any more.

How to prevent the need to do a strip wash:

As mentioned earlier, the need for a strip wash is only there to solve a particular issue. As long as your wash routine is efficient and doing it's job correctly, then you should not need to do a strip wash.

The most common issue to cause problems are detergent dosages and ensuring the machine is loaded correctly. Try to make sure that you do a nappy wash every 2-3 days. Nowadays, nappy stashes are larger than they need to be, which results in users pushing a nappy wash to longer than 3 days and then struggling to get them clean enough, which then results in experiencing ammonia build up.

Always ensure that you complete a machine wash, at least once a month. If your machine is not clean, how can it possibly wash nappies, or any clothing, correctly? This could be doing the longest, hottest cycle (up to 90 degrees). You will also need to ensure that the filters on the machine are cleaned - you'll be surprised what you find in the machine filter.

If you are experiencing any problems, even after undertaking a strip wash, send us an email on info@ourlittlecherubs.co.uk with details of your normal nappy wash routine, and we will do what we can to help you get the best out of your machine, whilst also ensuring your nappies are cleaned correctly.