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How to Get Stains Out of Cloth Diapers

Cloth diaper stains don’t have an effect on the use of cloth diapers, but they certainly can be unsightly. Here are some tips and tricks on how to get stains out of cloth diapers and tips on how to avoid them completely!

cloth diaper with stains on drying rack outside

Stains are inevitable when you’re using cloth diapers. I won’t go into details, but I think you know why.

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No matter how hard you try, at some point your cloth diapers will get stains. While they don’t necessarily hurt your diapers in any way, they can be quite unsightly and I don’t blame you at all for wanting to get rid of stains on your cloth diapers!

There are a couple methods to help rid of cloth diaper stains that we’ll go over. It’s important to keep in mine what type of cloth diapers you are using. For example, you’ll treat stained prefolds much different than you would stains in a pocket diapers.

Stained Cloth Diaper

It’s also important to start slow and move up in the methods of removing stains from cloth diapers. In fact, I’ve often found the less invasive, more natural stain removal methods work better than jumping in with bleach or something similar.

Here are the top 6 methods to remove stains from cloth diapers:

  1. Sun – Harness the cleaning and bleaching power of the sun.
  2. Lemon Juice
  3. Homemade Stain Spray with Hydrogen Peroxide
  4. Vinegar
  5. Stain Stick
  6. Bleach
cloth diapers on drying rack outside in sun

Use the sun to remove stains from cloth diapers. People have been using the sun to help remove stains from fabrics for centuries and that’s because it works! You’ll likely see normal cloth diaper stains disappear with just a few hours of sunshine. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Wash your cloth diapers like normal.
  2. While they are still wet, lay them flat or use a drying rack like this one [40,000+ Amazon reviews!].
  3. Leave them outside to dry in the sunshine for about 2-3 hours. If it’s wintertime and too cold, you can just put them in a window that gets lots of natural direct sunlight!

If you have a more stubborn stains, you might want to add in lemon juice while sunning your diapers.

That’s right – a little lemon juice will not only help speed the sunning process, but it will also make it more effective on tougher cloth diaper stains. I’ve found that freshly squeezed lemon juice works better for me, but I’ve also had success with bottled lemon juice when I don’t have fresh lemons.

squeezing lemon juice on cloth diaper insert to get rid of cloth diaper stains

You can use straight lemon juice or even mix it with a bit of water – your choice.

If you have a really stubborn stain, you may want to repeat the sunning process over a couple of days.

After you do this lemon juice process, be sure to wash the cloth diaper very well, with a couple of extra rinses in your washing machine. I simply put whatever I sunned with my other dirty diapers from the diaper pail and wash like normal, with an extra rinse or two, just to be sure all the acidity is gone.

cloth diaper stains before sunning and after sunning

You can also use the same process and make a homemade spray of hydrogen peroxide and water or even vinegar and water. If sunning and lemon juice don’t work for your cloth diaper stains, I would suggest trying one of those combinations. It definitely also just depends on what you already have in your cabinet!

If you’re looking for even more help with cloth diaper stains, you might want to try a little elbow grease and this Buncha Farmers Stain Stick. I haven’t used it personally, but there’s a significant amount of reviews and it looks promising.

The last resort I would go with is bleach. Bleach isn’t always my last resort. I use bleach when I’m washing used cloth diapers, but even then only sparingly and only on cloth diaper inserts. Bleach can definitely ruin your diaper covers and the PUL outer that so many cloth diapers have.

Washing Used Cloth Diapers

So you definitely you can bleach inserts, but we’re talking cloth diaper stains in this post and often you’ll find that the stains aren’t usually on the cloth diaper inserts, but on your diaper covers.

Even if you do use bleach sparingly, you don’t want to use it a lot – so you’ll need an alternative to use more often. Sunning and lemon juice are that alternative and the best part? It’s free, natural, AND effective!

Tips for Avoiding Cloth Diaper Stains:

There are definitely ways you can try to keep cloth diaper stains at bay. One of my BEST tips for how to get stains out of cloth diapers is to use a diaper sprayer regularly. Then, you won’t even have them! You can buy a diaper sprayer or you can DIY one – directions are in this post!

Another easy way to avoid cloth diaper stains is by using disposable or reusable cloth diaper liners. These liners go right up against baby’s skin, which means the stains, if any, would be left on them instead of your diaper. You can literally make these for PENNIES and they’ll save you so much time and elbow grease when it comes to diaper stains.

I would also recommend washing your cloth diapers more often to avoid stains. I suggest washing at least every 2-3 days and having an extra wet bag for your cloth diaper pail to help with laundry. This also means you don’t need as many diapers if you are washing more often, so great for the budget too!

If you’re curious about my cloth diaper wash routine, I share all the details and my process in this post. I always utilize extra cold water rinses and like to wash my diapers in warm water, being careful to avoid extremely hot water that could damager your diapers.

Lastly, I suggest one of the techniques that I shared for how to get stains out of cloth diapers to actually avoid them in the first place – line drying in the sun!

It’s a bleaching technique that has been used for generations because it works and it will naturally bleach your cloth diapers to look as good as new in most cases!

Whether I have cloth diaper stains or not, I love to line dry outside. Not only does line drying your diapers save on your energy costs, it helps keep stains at bay, make your diapers last longer, and honestly, it’s just really fun to see cloth diapers hanging on a line… or a drying rack in my case.

cloth diaper insert on drying rack in the sun

I love this drying rack because it folds up neatly for storage when I’m not using it.

I line dry all of my covers and AIO’s. That’s the reason that if you go through my stash right now, you won’t find many stains – line drying your cloth diapers in the sun will help erase any light stains that you may get from time to time.

And it doesn’t have to be sunny – it’s probably best not to let your diapers dry in the rain – but mine have been out in cold, cloudy weather or just sitting by a window inside if it is raining.

I don’t typically line dry my inserts for a few reasons:

  1. They tend to get crunchy when line dried.
  2. Heat/Dryer doesn’t hurt them at all, like it can PUL.
  3. I don’t have a ton of room on my drying rack!
Sun Cloth Diapers to get rid of cloth diaper stains

There is no reason for you to deal with yucky stains on your cloth diapers – especially when you can harness the power [and frugality] of the sun with a little added booster of lemon.

While cloth diaper stains won’t effect the absorbency of your diapers, they aren’t the prettiest thing to look at. Now that you see how easy it is to remove cloth diaper stains, or avoid them altogether, you’ll be stain free in no time!

This post was originally published in February 2013.

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Tuesday 1st of October 2013

[…] Have Cloth Diaper Stains?  Try these Methods. […]

Seattle IT Consulting

Sunday 15th of September 2013

My babygirl used cloth diaper for a year and there is no stain in her stash :). I wash daily and if its poo I hand wash it ASAP using water spray and dishwashing liquid soap. Then line dry outside. HTH

Lindsey

Tuesday 24th of September 2013

I never thought of doing that - although I'm pretty lazy when it comes to washing! Ha. Good to know that's a great way to keep stains at bay too, though! Thanks for sharing!

Isra {TheFrugalette}

Friday 15th of February 2013

We used to have the sprayer, it works amazingly well. As long as I rinsed them right away it worked great!

Jennifer "Momma Trauma"

Friday 15th of February 2013

I love sunning our diapers (when I clothed at least). It's amazing what the simplest things will do.

Kim

Friday 15th of February 2013

I love sunning not only my diapers, but just about all my clothes! It is amazing how well the sun works! Thanks for all the great posts!