Caring for your nappies

Caring for your nappies and covers.....

Our nappies are fine to use in tumble dryers. Please use cool or warm cycle only. The hot cycle is not recommended as it will wear out your nappies quicker. Line drying recommended.

Wash nappies 3 times in warm or hot water prior to first use to remove residues left behind from fabric manufacture. In the first wash, simply use half a scoop of detergent. In the second and third washes no detergent is required.

Now you can begin using your nappies on baby! Please note that hemp nappies don’t reach their peak absorbency until they have been washed approximately 10 times. Therefore, their performance improves with more use. However, bamboo is ultra absorbent right from the beginning.

When baby needs a nappy change, clean baby’s bottom as per normal. If the nappy has been soiled, rinse into a bucket and then tip bucket contents down the toilet and flush. To make life easier though, we highly recommend a nappy sprayer. It is a sprayer device that attached to your toilet to enable you to spray the mess of the nappy directly into the toilet without you having to get your hands dirty.

Nappies that have only been peed in do not need to be rinsed (unless you want to. It can be a good idea to rinse nappies if baby is experiencing very strong teething pees as the ammonia in urine is quite a strong chemical and may degrade nappies if they are left too long in the bucket)

Put nappy (either rinsed or un-rinsed) directly into a dry nappy bucket. We do not recommend soaking your nappies in any solutions, particularly those that contain bleaching agents, as it will directly affect a nappy’s lifespan. If you prefer to soak, then soaking in plain water is okay.

Once the bucket is full (generally every second day) simply put the nappies into your washing machine and set your machine to do a rinse cycle. Once the rinse cycle is completed you can wash your nappies. We recommend washing in any temperature up to 60 degrees. Hot water is okay occassionally for extra sanitising. Never use fabric softener at any time as it will leave a residual coating on the fabric of your nappies, affecting absorbency and promoting smells.

If line drying your nappies: to keep nappy elastic in best condition, try pegging your nappies on the line ‘horizontally’ (like you would a bedsheet) rather than ‘vertically’. This way, the weight of the wet nappy does not stretch the elastic whilst drying. Alternatively, drape nappies over a clothes horse instead. If tumble drying your nappies use the cool or warm setting only.

Remember the sun is wonderful for bleaching out stains and sanitising your nappies!

Wool covers require some extra care. In order for your wool cover to perform its best, it needs to be ’lanolised’. Lanolin is the natural oil found in wool that helps to keep sheep dry in the rain. The wool needs to have this lanolin replenished every couple of weeks to maintain its leak proof abilities. The best product to use during this process is ‘Lansinoh’, which is sold at chemists. It is the purest form of lanolin available and is completely natural and hypoallergenic.

Lanolising is actually a very easy process! Simply fill a bucket or sink with about 5cm of very hot water, than add a pea-sized amount of pure lanolin and mix to melt and disperse. Once the lanolin is melted and evenly dispersed throughout the hot water, add enough cold water to make it luke-warm then submerge your cover and leave to soak for around half an hour. It does not matter if it is left longer- some people choose to soak overnight.

When you are ready to remove the cover, do not rinse it, just squeeze out the excess water by hand. Following this, roll your cover up in a towel to remove as much moisture as possible, and then hang your cover in the shade to dry.

BeeHinds wool covers only need washing every few weeks! (Providing they are not soiled and have been lanolised well enough). When you change your baby’s nappy, hang the wool cover to air dry until you next need to use it again (it is best to alternate between covers when using wool). The lanolin in the wool neutralizes the urine, meaning your cover is ‘self-cleaning’! You only need to wash your cover if it becomes soiled, stinky or dirty, or when it requires re-lanolising. If your baby is a heavy wetter with very strong urine, you will probably need to lanolise more regularly.

Baby BeeHinds wool covers are fully machine washable, on the gentle cycle. Make sure you only use cold water to wash in (you could wash them in with your clothes). If you prefer, you may choose to wash by hand in luke warm water using soap flakes or wool wash (ideal). These are nice and gentle on the natural fibers of the wool. Once it is clean, rinse well under cool water, lanolise, and then hang in the shade to dry.

Do not soak your wool covers in whitening or soaking solutions

Enjoy your nappies! You’ve done a wonderful thing for your hip pocket, you baby and your environment.