Cloth Diaper Stain Removal

Good morning Ladies,

I've had several conversations about CD stain removal, and I thought the best thing would be run an experiment with before/after photos. I live at 40°N latitude, and I did this in July. I used sunning, Oxiclean, and a Dawn dish soap scrub as my stain removal methods.

TL;DR: just lay them out in the sun, or a clothesline. Seriously, easy, cheap, and most effective.

First, the level of stain we're talking about. All newborn EBF poop stains. These are the before pictures, inserts and pocket diapers.

For the sun challenge, I laid damp, clean diapers and inserts stain-side up on the deck rails. I left them for two hours around noon, and the flipped the inserts.

Perfect, and no effort required. I'll do this again when it gets cooler, just to see if it's still effective. But no reason not to try!

Next up is Oxiclean, an enzyme-based brightener that is readily available here in the US. I soaked the diapers and inserts in the Oxiclean solution for about 6 hours, and then washed them.

Pretty good. but not as good as the sun.

Third, the Blue Dawn scrub. If you try this, make sure you rinse VERY well. This is supposed to be great for removing diaper cream residue, and it did. But it wasn't great for stains.

It did ok.

TL; DR: Just use the sun. Quick, cheap, and easy.

Good luck!