Firstly I started with my two mouldy wipes. Both looked about the same.
The first wipe went into a solution of vinegar. It was pretty strong. About half vinegar and half water. It sat and I watched. For over 24 hours I watched as absolutely nothing happened. Now, I don't know if the vinegar killed my mouldy friends but left their stained existence behind (I am not a biologist and do not have the equipment to check the 'vital signs' of mould). What I do know is, my wipes still looked awful with bit black dots everywhere (it does look worse than the first picture due to being wet and really showing the extent of the mould).
So I decided to try a natural eco soaker and Napisan. I soaked each wipe for 24 hours. Once again - nothing happened. There didn't even appear to be any fading of the staining.
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| Eco Soaker |
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| Napisan |
I decided I would wash them in between this and the next test to ensure that nothing had worked. Sure enough they emerged still stained.
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| Before bleaching, after previous attempts and a wash cycle |
Next I decided it was time for the big guns. I pulled out the bleach. I put probably 1/8 cup of bleach and 1 litre of water. I soaked... and I watched. Within a couple of minutes I could see changes.
And then 15 minutes later...
And another 20 minutes... Pretty much gone.
The second wipe I spot treated. So I poured the bleach directly onto the bamboo terry. It went brown, then clean.
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| You can see the mould immediately went brown as the bleach hit it. |
I got a much thorough and even affect from soaking. I think it would also do less damage to the fabrics as its more dilute (however more widespread). Here are both wipes below. The cleaner one on the right is the one I soaked, the left was spot treated (only in one section).
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| Both wipes after treatment (left spot treated just in the top right cnr, right was soaked) |
In neither bleach treatment was my minky affected. So the colour lasted through the bleaching process. It didn't take long to treat, I ensured I ended the soaking as soon as I was happy with the affect, and I washed thoroughly and rinsed too.
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| Minky unaffected by bleaching |
I am led to believe that Milton will work as bleach does, because it is a mild bleach. You may want to try milton before your household bleach if you have some. It is still applying a bleach to your nappies, just a very mild form.
I am VERY hesitant to recommend using bleach - we all know it is a strong chemical. It will also void warranty on your nappies due to the effect it can have on the fabrics and components.
BUT, if I had mould stains all over my nappies I would deem them useless until I could get those marks off. So to me, even if it shortened the life of my nappies (and its difficult to determine by how long or how much), it is worth rescuing them from sure death and getting whatever use I can.
So... Remember:
- Try to avoid mould. Mould loves moisture, lack of sunlight and warmth (humidity).
- The quicker you get onto the mould the better. In my case the mould was quite set in and had covered a lot of the fabric requiring longer soaking and less affect from the milder treatments.
- Try using the sun to bleach them if the stain is mild. I do think tougher staining will require a very strong attack to get them working again. You may get some results on very mild surface staining.
- If you resort to bleach:
- You are voiding your warranty (this is the last resort and only as a way to continue further use of your otherwise destroyed nappies).
- Only bleach for as long as you need to lift the stain (from a few minutes this could be working)
- Use diluted bleach - water it down A LOT so it has the least affect on your fabric while still attacking your mould stains.
- Ensure you wash well and rinse after treatment - get all that bleach out!
- I recommend if you had mould on covers (with waterproofing and elastics) to spot treat very carefully as soaking the PUL & elastics should be avoided if possible.
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