If they look clean and smell clean they are clean enough.

I have never heard of anyone getting sick from laundry that wasn't disinfected before they wore it.

Information from: http://www.charliesoap.com/pdf/Diapers.pdf

4) CharlieÂs Soap will remove a lot of the bacteria in a diaper during the normal wash. But for the safety of your baby, we recommend you follow some sort of disinfecting routine. Since no disinfectant is perfect for each customer, we recommend you contact your diaper manufacturer to see which method they suggest.

Hanging diapers outside in the sun also kills bacteria. Hot dryers are also sanitizing.

-Grainlady

Unless they have some sort of an infectious and/or contageous disease, I would wash them and go with that. That's what I've done all my washing life. Occasionally on whites I'd add some bleach and there's a lot of other things you could add if there's a concern. Borax comes to mind, Pine Sol, Simple Green, etc.

Percarbonate/Perborate bleaches have some disinfecting properties, though not as strong as chlorine. Studies have shown that the mechanical action of laundering is generally enough to disinfect common household laundry. Much like the mechanical action of washing your hands is what removes bacteria and sends it down the drain. HTH, Todd

Using bleach for your son's t-shirts and underwear won't hurt your cloth diapers if you aren't washing them together. If you are washing them together, it's not a good idea at all.

It takes much less chlorine bleach to sanitize a wash load than it does to whiten or remove stains. That said, unless someone in the home has an infection, you can wash on HOT, rinse twice, and hang things out to dry in the sun.

Impetigo, yeast infections, scabby bug-bites, or poison ivy all call for better sanitizing. Some are contagious and some make skin more open to infection. MOST of the time, however, this is not a problem in a family's wash.

What I have to carefully sanitize are my dish towels and dishwashing cloths, because I use them instead of paper towels. I use a lot of them over the course of a day, so I wash them alone or just with white bath towels. I wash them on HOT, with 1/4 cup chlorine bleach, rinse an extra time, and I prefer to hang them in the sun to dry. We buy the big packages of white bar cloths at Lowe's and use them first for cloth napkins, then for kitchen towels, and when they get really worn, for cleaning rags.

ammo810, Clorox bleach used like Chambleemama states, should not harm anything. I have a Duet which is the same as your washer and I've found using about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of bleach with whites, insures that any nasties are gone. I add the extra rinse option when Clorox is involved.

Plus it has kept my machine free of odors or mildew that is mentioned so often. My washer is 7 years old and is like new and out of the carton fresh. Clorox is often viewed as bad, but it really has many redeeming traits, when used properly.

Thank you all for your follow ups. Glad to hear the my detergent/washer may be doing a good enough job and that I can use the power of the sun to do the rest if need be. Thanks again, I appreciate it!

I asked Taylor at CS once about using bleach to kill germs in the laundry and he said that 1 Tablespoon would kill the germs in the load.

I also read an article that GE Laundry had and they said if you had to go to a laundromat and was worried about germs use 1/4 cup bleach in the load. It would kill all the germs and could also be used in colored loads when diluted properly.