To soak or not to soak?

I am a tad confused about whether nappies need soaking or not. From what I gather, pockets etc don't need soaking, you just rinse the pooey ones, chuck em in a dry bucket and then chuck em in the wash. Right?

I am starting off with prefolds and covers though, do these need soaking? Esp with newborn poo? Maybe I need one bucket for soaking the prefolds and a dry one for the covers??

Any advice greatly appreciated! TIA

its entirely a choice thing. some people soak all their nappies others dry pail... a lot of people find it easier to just rinse pooey ones and chuck them in a bucket till wash day. it could depend too on how anal you are about cleaning and how often you wash your nappies and how you want to wash them.

With my prefolds (when I had them) if it was a pooey nap then I would rinse and put in a bucket with some napisan or something similar, mainly cos it seemed the right thing to do IYKWIM. Had a thing about getting the poo out!

Now that i'm mainly using itti bittis I rinse the poo off at the time and leave it in a bucket with no water until washing time.

We are breastfed only so still having the runny yellow poo at this stage, so I will have to see what happens when he starts solids.

Thanks everyone for your advice! Sounds like I can do whatever works for me which is great!

I have been using prefolds since my wee girl was born 12 weeks ago. I rinse the prefolds and put in bucket of napisan then every second day I wash the nappies with a little persil sensitive. I find that drying them in the sun is the best and chespest bleach!!! White as when you bring them in even if there was still a poo stain when you hang them out. Covers if not pooey then I give wee rinse under warm tap and put them on the line, otherwise if dirty I wash in the machine. I have 5 covers that fit at the mo and find that I have to rinse and dry after use or I get behind and run out. As soon as I have taken nappy off she has nappy off time under her play gym and I sort the nappy straight away or else I end up with a pile in the laundry tub - very unappealing!!

Ella wrote: Please ignore my ignorance, but ... What is dry pale??? If you don't soak, don't you get poo in your washing machine?

Dry pailing is a method where you don't soak your nappies/wipes - you simply rinse off any poo (if it's solid you can tip it into the loo, if not then you can just rinse into the laundry sink) & then stick the dirty nappies in a dry bucket (lidded) until you're ready to put a load in the machine. Then you just put the machine on a cold rinse cycle first & then a normal wash with detergent. It's SO much easier and less yucky than soaking

Ella wrote: That makes sense. However the nappy will be wet after you've rinsed it (or if it just has wees in it). Can they be kept like that in a dry bucket for a few days? Or do you have to wash whatever is in the bucket every day?

The nappies are fine for up to a couple of days in the dry bucket - however I prefer to do a wash once a day, but that's just a personal preference. Heaps of people only wash every 2-3 days. You can always line your bucket with a washable bag so that you throw the bag in the wash too if you prefer, or just use a hanging tote bag instead of a bucket.

angel4 wrote: i personally prefer soaking - i rinse soiled nappies to remove all poos and then soak in nappysan. I can't stand the smell of nappies that have been drypailed. Then i just tip the whole bucket (including soak water) into washing machine and wash - not extra powder or anything. Because the nappies have already been well rinsed before i soak them. I find this works great!! I have prefolds and covers.

I'm sure that regular soaking in Napisan isn't recommended for a lot of MCN's though because it can deteriorate the elastic? I also think the the smell of nappy-soaking water is WAY worse than the smell of dry-pailed nappies