Cloth Diaper Detergents Leaving Chemical Burns? Fact or Fiction?

Cloth Diaper Detergents Leaving Chemical Burns?  Fact or Fiction?

Can a cloth diaper safe detergent leave chemical burns or is it an Urban Legend?  I set out to find the answer with regards to some popular cloth diaper and cloth diaper safe laundry detergents and the information I dug up was interesting and eye opening to say the least.

You can't do much cloth diaper research at all before you come across the topic of cloth diaper safe detergents.  "Use XYZ but not ABC.  ABC left chemical burns on my babies bottom."  It gets a little hairy, how do you choose?  There's a lot of conflicting information online.  Some manufactureres even put select detergents on their list of detergents to AVOID, in fact some go so far as to say that if you use THAT detergent you will have VOIDED your cloth diapers manufacturer warranty!

I decided to ask the experts, the manufacturers of the detergents themselves.  And when I say manufacturers I mean the families who personally created the product and who manage and oversee their production.  I personally interviewed the owners of the companies below and have the FACTS, their answers, to share with you all.

Eco Sprout Soap
Owned by Jared Edwards & Family

Can Eco Sprout Soap burn a baby's skin?

Eco Sprout detergent will not cause a "chemical burn".  I believe this term has caught on because of reports of what was happening with disposable diapers. In those cases, yes...a child could react to the chemicals within the diaper causing a burn-like rash.  Thus, the description "chemical burn".  Our detergent does not have any chemicals in it and would never "burn" a child's skin.

All detergents, however, can cause skin irritations.  Much of the time it is due to miss-use of the product. With cloth diapers, irritations can occur when the user:

• uses too much detergent with too little water (causing a build-up)
• uses too little detergent with too much water (causing an ammonia build-up)
• if the child just has a sensitivity to one of the ingredients in the detergent

Sometimes even the minerals in a person's water can react differently to the detergent being used and then re-deposit back onto their diapers causing a rash.

"We try our very best to create an effective, safe, gentle, chemical-free detergent that is tested extensively and used on our own children before production." -Jared Edwards

Charlies Soap

Owned by Taylor Sutherland & Family

Charlie's Soap is a textile scour, a product that is designed to prep fabrics for treatments, cleaning all the way to the core fiber and leaving zero trace residues. 

Can Charlie's Soap used as directed or as misdirected, burn a baby's skin?  

There is no chemistry in Charlie's Soap that can interact with skin on this level.  In nearly 20 years of exposure to workers to our full strength cleaner (a root of our ultimate laundry products), there was not one incidence of burning skin or even irritation.

Charlie's Soap, as tested by Clemson University, has proven 100% rinsability.  Because Charlie's  soap rinses 100%, there is no residue to mask or cover missed bacteria, bile or waste.  In the case of missed bacteria and/or waste, stink and burns can occur.  A baby's sensitive skin can react almost instantly and a burn can occur.  It is not the Charlie's Soap that caused it, it is what the soap missed.

Why would Charlie's miss waste, bile, bacteria or other debris?

• Poorly performing washer
• Overloaded washer (washing too many things at once)
• Too little water used
• Hard Water
• Too little detergent used

Proper rinsing, proper dosage, and disinfecting can help you perfect your cloth diaper wash routine.

Rockin' Green Soap

Owned by Kim Webb & Family

Can Rockin' Green Soap cause burns or irritations?

There are usually two causes of irritation according to Kim Webb, CEO of Rockin' Green. 

The first is leftover product in the diapers. This is usually due to insufficient rinsing, which can be compounded by thicker diapers or HE machines and not enough water to rinse them properly. The ingredients in Rockin' Green are designed to rinse clean, and not bond to fabric. So if your cloth diapers are being rinsed properly, there should be no product left in the fabric to cause a problem.

Rockin' Green goes an extra step and uses ingredients that are designed to help minimize the chance of irritation even if a sufficient rinse isn't available, but the best course of action of course is to make sure that you are using the correct dosage with plenty of rinsing on the back end of your routine.

The second cause, and perhaps the most common cause of diaper rash and "burns" have to do with ammonia. When urine is left in the diaper (either from insufficient rinsing at the beginning of your routine, not enough/too much soap, lack of hot water...etc) it will quickly convert to ammonia which can burn babies skin.

My Summary:

In general, especially with cloth diaper specific detergents which are designed to be used on the most sensitive skin, baby's bottoms, precautions have been made to ensure that detergents are made to rinse clean.  With the feedback from my three experts, the common problems arise when cloth diapers are not getting rinsed properly, too little detergent is being used or when you're attempting to wash too many cloth diapers at one time.

It's generally not the detergents that burn the baby's bottom, it's what's getting left behind on the diapers from improper washing.

I hope this better helps you understand how cloth diaper detergents are supposed to work and what the reasons could be if you're detergent isn't working for you.  I also REALLY hope you'll think twice before advertising publicly that XYZ brand has burned your little ones skin.  Keep in mind that these companies are owned and operated by families who care about providing the best product possible to you and they take great care not to produce anything that would harm anyone.