They are clean and odor free ... just stained? Unless people are going to be checking the whiteness of your baby's diapers and sneering at you, I fail to see a problem.

Keep using them until the kid outgrows them, then retire them to cleaning rag status.

Way to go on bringing home a healthy baby that you will love forever and cherish always.Your life and all that goes with it are ranking very high on the Richter scale right now where emotions (and hormones) are concerned.

Every first Mom wants the perfect picture of how things should be. And that is truly understood. You have been through a lot here, right?

You are learning many things as is your husband. Right or wrong he tried to help by doing laundry. I must applaud him for wanting to help.

In the long term stained but clean diapers are just fine.
Allow yourself and your husband a break.

As long as they smell clean, use them. Your child will not be in diapers forever. And they will make good cleaning rags someday. Ignore the stains if they are otherwise clean. And use some cute patterned plastic overpants so you don't have to look at them. P.S. Congratulations on the breast feeding! You are saving money on bottles and formula, it's best for baby's health and the bond between you two, and it will help you lose the pregnancy weight.

In years past we used cotton diapers and each time they were soiled they were rinsed in cold water (in toilet if #2, in sink if #1). The rinsed diapers were put to soak in pail of water with about a cap full of Liquid Bleach until time to do laundry. Wring/squeeze water out and toss in washing machine. The bleach will keep diapers nice and white. (Do not use strong solution of bleach or it will weaken the fabric.)

I prefer to put diapers through a second rinse session in the washing machine to remove as much detergent residue as possible. If your baby does not have a problem with rash it might not be necessary to do the second rinse session.

To avoid irritation from dryer sheets or liquid softeners I used vinegar in the rinse dispenser. Vinegar will help get out more detergent residue from the diapers.

I do not know about the new fancy washing machines whether vinegar would be o.k. or not. In older style top loading washing machines it works great and my Maytag top load machine is about 20 years old and still going strong, no damage from vinegar. My machine is clean as a whistle, no soap scum anywhere. Vinegar keeps soap scum out of the machine and clothes.

My late MIL said to boil whites in dish-washing detergent. I no idea if that works.

My grandmother hung all the white goods outside on a sunny day.

Coincidence: seven minutes after my above post I inadvertently clicked on Sunlight bleaches and disinfects.

Hey!

Thanks for the tips. It was difficult to tell if the diapers were only stained or if the poop was baked in and they were not clean. Obviously, I was more concerned with the latter, since I put a Thirsties cover over the top, so no one but me would ever seen a stain. But I did wash them and lay them out to dry in the sun. Wow! That is amazing. Every stain came out!! The prefolds I bought were unbleached indian cotton. After a trip in the sun, the entire fabric was much lighter than before. Much easier and safer than using bleach, which I feared may irritate baby's skin.

:)
Thanks so much!!

Clorox liquid bleach helps whiten white cotton diapers. Once the bleached clothing is dry, the bleach is inactivated.

Krissie gave good advice. Here is how I did cloth diapers.

I rinsed them out of any poop in the toilet. Then I put them to soak in the covered diaper pail. I hand wrung them out and put them into the washing machine, and ran a pre wash and rinse. Then I ran a wash cycle with detergent and bleach. Then I ran them again in an all water cycle and put them in the dryer. I had no problems with any staining.

Do be sure to avoid using fabric softener as that will decrease the absorbancy of the diapers.

Oh, and I would also use white vinegar in the rinse water too.

When I was little we lived in my Grandmother's house. My Grandma ran a boarding house (she was a poor widow who took in renters ("boarders") , provided a private bedroom, meals, room cleaning and laundry and boy, she did lots and lots of laundry. For any stains, she'd wet the item, lay it on the grass in the sun and pour lemon juice on the stain. Left it for hours. Then she'd re-wash and hang to dry outdoors. Her treatment got every stain out, rust, blood, mud, food, whatever. She swore the sun, acid from the lemon and chlorophyll from the grass would get out any sun. And line-drying makes everything smell good.