Guess what? Suds don't mean excess detergent!

6 years ago

I've been researching detergents lately as my husband and I are expecting and plan to use cloth diapers. I watched some videos on youtube of moms using the likes of crunchy clean, rockin green, charlies soap and loads of other brands with similar ingredients. They would do loads of 30-60 diapers with a quick rinse, 1 tbsp or in some cases 1 tsp of detergent with a cold or warm setting. These women would then instruct their viewers not to use hot water because the PUL on the diapers would be destroyed ( ugh, so not true. I always washed mine on sanitize ) and that they couldn't be put in the dryer. Some even claimed cold water cleaned better with natural detergents and didn't require rinsing. After watching these videos, I started looking at the use of regular detergents on cloth diapers and came across this site called fluffloveuniversity.com It basically obliterated the detergents manufactured specifically for cloth diapers, like Charlie Banana and Crunchy Clean because they didn't even contain surfactants... just washing soda, baking soda and salt. There is a very comprehensive list of over 300 domestic and international detergents, their suitability for cloth diapering and why they are or are not recommended. Very insightful. As I continued to read, I found a link within their page that argues that suds are not a sign or excess detergent or detergent not being rinsed and I, for the moment, just can't accept that. Im interested to know what you all think.. especially you Mama!

http://www.fluffloveuniversity.com/sourced-science/suds-and-bubbles/

Featured Answer

mamapinky0

6 years ago

Andi....unless its water bubbles from the water being stressed...its excess detergent. .detergent residue..it is going to require one of two things to set off suds..surfactants, (detergent or soap) one of these will need to be in the rinse for there to be suds which means proper rinsing was not established. Some of these sites amaze me with what they put out there. I disagree with them Andi, what do they think suds in the rinse Is a sign of? Pure malarky.

As for diaper washing, you know the routine since you've done it..a cool prewash with a bit of detergent than a HOT HOT HOT wash followed by extra rinsing. There is no way a surfactant free detergent is going to clean and remove the ammonia from dips..which will cause the poor babys skin to blister...probably more so than detergent residue.

ANDI.....a BABY!!!!!! How absolutly wonderful!!! Congratulations. When will this miricle arrive? Oh, I'm so happy for you and that husband of yours.

By the way its a good time to stock up on STPP.....in the next to last rinse for the diapers it will sequester the hard water minerals, any soils remaining, and any detergent residue and prevent them from redepositing onto the diapers. LOL

I'm so excited ....a new Baby for our Andi.

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Comments (8)

Cedric Owens
6 years ago
That doesn't seem to make scientific sense. If they're not air bubbles, then they're caused by some form of cleaning agent. If you continue to see those "suds", then they're still being caused by some form of cleaning agent, which means they're still in your materials. Just weird for them to say otherwise.
Jody
6 years ago
1 tsp of detergent hardly seems like enough. I use more than that when I wash stuff by hand.

I love the fluff love university detergent index.
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Guilty!!! I am one of those people who probably put too much detergent in. I am having trouble finding a happy medium. I put less, then water in wash does not feel like there is any in there, and no suds at all,and clothes do not smell as clean, so next time i add more,see few suds, but clothes feel stiff and coated. It is hard to tell if i use enough when you open the washer and see maybe 1 1/2 cups of water. When i did towels, there was no little pool of water but towels were soaked. I have pretty soft water, and have tide, borax, clorox 2, purex, liquid tide, liquid tide with bleach. used all of them, still not there yet.
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rococogurl
6 years ago
I would go to ewg.org and see which products are recommended for cloth diapering.
larsi_gw
6 years ago
A baby!!! Congratulations Andrea!!!! So excited for you. Of course....HOT or Sanitize for washing cloth diapers. I sure do prefer Pamper's or Huggies though!!!! They hold in bad events SO much better!!!!!
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Cedric Owens
6 years ago
Larsi, don't sleep on Earth's Best. They're some of the best "green" diapers that perform as great as Pampers at the same price.
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Original Author
6 years ago
Cedric, thats what I thought. I've soaked things in powder detergents that required multiple rinses... even after the first few my hands still got that slick/slimy feeling one gets when touching powder detergents with wet hands so obviously there was still some detergent in there...

Jody, it really grosses me out! 1 tsp for a full load of diapers?! I dont know where these people get these dosages from!

Mama, I definitely rinse the bajeezus out of my diapers! I almost always used Tide w/bleach powder and every now and again Id switch it up with Tide w/bleach liquid or even Wisk. I would add 3 extra rinses (6 total) and by the time they were done, there wasn't even a hint of fragrance to them.

Thank you! Baby Donaldson is due early next year! Can't wait to find out what it is... Im really hoping for a boy, they seem to be easier to deal with than girls. Thats assuming I live through the morning sickness, I've never been this sick before.. its horrible!
jujufull
6 years ago
When my babies wore cloth diapers (a million years ago LOL), I presoaked them in a pail with warm water and borax, then washed them in HOT water with Ivory Snow powder detergent, used vinegar in the final rinse, with an extra rinse every time. One of my babies had sensitive skin, and this kept him free of irritation.

I also dried them outdoors on the clothesline as much as possible, because sunlight is so good for them - kills bacteria - then let them toss in the dryer on Low heat for a few minutes to soften them.

Congratulations on your pregnancy! :-)

Guess what? Suds don't mean excess detergent!

mamapinky0

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Cedric Owens

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Guess what? Suds don't mean excess detergent!

mamapinky0

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