CHARLIE'S SOAP-CLOTH DIAPER DETERGENT

I want to share with some mommies about our new arrival laundry detergent from US. This is Charlie’s Soap (they use the word “soap”, but it is soap-free) This is my favorite - it’s the most cost-effective of these specialty detergents.

Some moms are concerned using new detergent on their baby, you rest assured with Charlie's Soap and is safe to use on your baby cloth diapers and clothings. Our Charlie's Soap Manager has sent an email to answer our questions that we are concern about.

We know Charlie's is such adifferent beast and often the transition from something else to Charlie's can be a bit tricky. I'm sure this can solve your problem if you'd like to take a crack at it. It's a lot of info, but it has helped many people in the past.

1) Did you use a double dose of the Laundry Powder or Liquid with a few old rags to clean out your machine before starting your diaper load? Without this step, especially if you're switching back and forth between Charlie's and another detergent, your first load of diapers gets coated in residue left from the previous load done in Brand X. The Charlie's knocks loose all that residue and uses itself up in the process. Then the residue sticks itself to your diapers with no more Charlie's to clean it off. The best bet is to wash all your clothes in Charlie's, but if you don't do that, you MUST clean the machine before your diaper loads.

2) Did you use the full scoop of Powder or the full ounce of Liquid when you washed your diapers? The rule of thumb is to use less detergent when washing diapers. This is out there because the other detergents simply don't dissolve and don't rinse. Everybody knows this, so they say to reduce residue, use less. Well, Charlie's is incapable of leaving a residue (if the water isn't extremely hard...little whiterocks under all your faucets...or your washing machine does a halfway decent job at rinsing...some just breath moist air on the clothes and call it a rinse cycle!) and since diapers could be considered heavily soiled, using less Charlie's Soap causes more problems than it could conceivably cure. If you have hard water, you need to use a heaping spoonfull of the Powder since it has water softeners that help the Powder dissolve and help it do its job. You may also consider a secondary water softener like Borax or oxy bleaches containing sodium percarbonate. The best would be phosphates. If your water is fine, still use the full tablespoon of Charlie's because otherwise, the soil and bacteria just aren't coming out.

3) Did you dissinfect? Charlie's doesn't kill bacteria. In fact, they think it food. That's why the product is so biodegradable. While it can get rid of a whole lot of the bacteria in a normal wash after the diapers have been prepped, it only takes a few to cause horrible skin problems or at the very least stink issues. So what you need to do iskill the few remaining bacteria. There are many methods, including the dreaded B word, chlorine bleach. Be careful to follow the care instructions of your diaper before using the chlorine bleach. Eventhough it is the best dissinfectant, it can harm some diapers. Of course, you only need like a tablespoon of bleach. But if you don'twish to use that product, there are others. Borax and oxy bleaches release weak dissinfectants into the water that, when used in concert with the Charlie's to remove the bacteria first, can kill many of the bacteria that are left. No bacteria equals no rash equals no stink. You can also sun and use super hot water during the wash, but the hot water doesn't kill all the bacteria and the sunning only kills the bacteria in direct sunlight.

No detergent can kill bacteria alone. Those that do have such additives. Bleach is fine for most clothing if you're only trying to kill bacteria. That's because you only need an eye-droppers worth, about 15 ml in a full washing machine. This is enough to change the water to kill bacteria but not enough to do any damage. Plus, we'd rather see the damage done to the bacteria than the baby! When using only about 4 us tablespoons (60 ml?) of Borax, there shouldn't be any damage at all. Keep in mind that Charlie's Soap will clean a lot and probably get rid of 99.99% of germs, but that 0.01% can still cause problems. You must kill that which didn't get washed away for the sake of the baby.

4) Had these diapers been washed in another brand prior to use with Charlie's? If so, depending on your water, it can take 2-4 loads to remove old detergent residue from them. The Charlie's starts to strip the old detergent residue out and then the cycle ends. At worst, these detergent residues get brought to the surface of the diapers and thenthe child gets put in the diapers loaded with detergent residue from months of washing. Yes, if that happens, they will break out. The Charlie's is gone, but it has pulled months worth of junk up to where it can touch skin. A few more prep washes removes all the offending residue and now you have fresh diapers to use and clean.

Check out these links for everyday diaper washing methods that might fit your schedule. .

http://www.wickeez.com/wickeezcare.htm. http://www.babycottonbottoms.com/cloth_diaper_washing.htm. http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/washing-diapers.htm.
http://www.fuzzibunzonline.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=8. http://www.kellyscloset.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=1.
http://www.seattlediaper.com/product_index.php?name=helpful_info.
http://www.blueberrybaby.org/diapercare.shtml. http://www.thenaturallifestore.com/pages/productcare.php.
http://www.sunshinediapers.com/cloth-diaper-university/choosing-a-detergent/

Regardless of how, with ours or with another brand, I hope your problems get solved and you and your baby are taken care of. If you'd like to talk to me directly, just call the number below. I'm usually the one that answers.

Sincerely,
Taylor SutherlandOps Manager, Charlie's Soap
336-548-6035 PH
800-854-3541 PH
336-548-3626 FAX
http://www.charliesoap.com/

I have contacted another person to verified this issue, she is Yvonne from Hong Kong to proof that Charlie's Soap is safe for you and your baby. She is a Hong Kong Certified Natural Healers. She used to live here in Malaysia more than 5years and she has her own experiment room for the natural products that she used to make such as skincare and bodycare. All her products has been certified by our Malaysian Health Government. She has acknowledge that Charlie's Soap is using all natural ingredients such as washing soda, sodium silicate and coconut oil. When coconut oil mix with sodium it will comes out suds, then when washing soda mix together it can clean out the stain, smell and dirts. She said what people mean by Charlie's Soap can't disinfect, all natural washing powder has less disinfect coz it doesn't contains chemical agent. The best disinfection is direct sunlight and dryer coz of the heat. Direct sunlight means that every part of the diapers has to be sunning, the side which not under the sunlight also tends to build up bacteria.

Some online stores recommend to put dettol or tea tree oil into the cloth diapers to disinfect when washing it, actually dettol has a strong chemical agent that caused baby rashes if long term using it and tea tree oil will blocked the absorbtion of cloth diapers, it will repel water later especially on PUL Diapers. And some online store teaches the customers to add baking soda for wash and vinegar for rinse. I have received 2 customers told me that they are doing it every week. Now they found out that their baby having terrible diaper rash. If you continued using the baking soda and vinegar and you didn't rinse enough, the bacteria will build inside the diaper. So do you mean is the the baking soda or the vinegar are the culprit?

When you add on anything, as long as you clean it thoroughly then the cloth diapers will not tend to build up bacteria. Always dried under the direct sunglight or dryer coz of the heat. Please take note that when you add on any disinfect agent or dried under sunlight, it only can disinfect at that moment. Once the cloth diapers has wind off, our surrounded area is full of bacteria and will stay on to our cloth diapers and clothes unless we have a temperature room or wardrobe to put our cloth diapers or clothes.

I hope this clarifications is enough to help those people who has misconcept about Charlie's Soap. Thank you to those customers who fully support and trust on Charlie's Soap.