Wool Diaper Care Guide: How to Wash, Lanolize & Care for Wool Diaper Covers

Welcome to the Magical World of Wool!

Wool care may feel intimidating, but once you get the hang of it, it is very low maintenance!  This guide will walk you through the following topics (click the bulleted item to jump to the section):

• How to lanolize your wool (including brand-new wool)
• Day-to-day wool care 
  
• How to properly store your wool 
• Recommended wool care products
• Real parents' wool care routines and tips (included throughout--click HERE if you'd like to share your own wool care tips!)

If you're brand new to wool, you can learn more about the amazing benefits of wool HERE and you can learn why it's one of the best options for nighttime diapering HERE.

Affiliate disclaimer:  This blog article contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of these links, I may earn a small commission at no cost to you.  This helps keep my business running so that I can continue to offer free resources to families like yours!

How to Lanolize Wool Diaper Covers

This video here gives an overview of the process.  Or, you can scroll down to read the full details.

What is lanolizing and why do I need to do it?

Lanolin is the natural wax made by sheep, and it is the key ingredient to making wool diaper covers magical. "Lanolizing" the wool means you'll soak your covers (and possibly also your Chappy-Nappies) in a lanolin bath.  When the wool diaper cover is coated in lanolin, this causes the fibers to become water-repellant so that your diaper does not leak.

Urine also undergoes a chemical reaction when coming in contact with lanolin, transforming it into nothing but salt and water.  When you leave your woollies to dry after a day's use, the water evaporates and the wool is fresh and ready for use again the next day!  This makes wool a very low-maintenance diaper cover:  As long as it is not soiled with poop or dirt, it can be hung to dry between wears for up to four weeks before needing to be lanolized again.  Wow!

Brand new wool needs to be lanolized at least 2-3 times to fully coat the fibers before first use. New wool has a bit of a "break-in" period where it won't perform optimally until it is properly lanolized and the fibers have felted. "Felting" is the process of tangling and locking loose fibers together to form a dense, sturdy fabric that holds liquids in, and is achieved from the physical agitation of wearing, washing, and handling the wool. Basically, the more you use it, the better it performs.

Materials you'll need to wash and lanolize wool include:

• Solid lanolin
• Wooden spoon, popsicle stick, or chopstick
• Microwave-safe cup
• Water
• Wool wash
  
• Big mixing bowl or other container for soaking the wool
• Ice
• Towels for rolling/drying
• Drying rack

I'll go into details below on what brands of lanolin and wool wash I recommend for washing wool, but if you want to jump right to my recommended wool care products list, you can click HERE.

Step One

Use the wooden popsicle stick (or spoon, chopstick, etc.) to scoop about 1 tsp of lanolin into the microwave-safe cup.  I use a wooden utensil when I do this so that I can safely leave it in the cup while microwaving. 

Add about 2 cups of water; I use an old 2-cup glass measuring cup for microwaving.  Microwave the water and lanolin until the lanolin is melted (about 3 minutes).

Step Two

Add half a capful of wool wash (more on this below) and stir until foamy. 

Step Three

Add ice cubes to the hot liquid in the big bowl until the water cools to a tepid temperature.  "Tepid" is about the same as lukewarm, or baby bathwater temperature.  You want it cool but not cold, warm but not hot. 

Finally, add another cup or two of tepid water so that you've got enough liquid to soak your wool. It's important to lower the temperature of the lanolin emulsion slowly with ice cubes and match the temperature of any water you add at the end.  Claire explains why:

“If there is a large temperature difference the emulsion will break, the lanolin will float in white chunks in the water instead of mixing in, and you will have to restart with a new batch because the lanolin will not properly coat all the wool fibers. In a pinch, I have lanolized with a slightly broken emulsion when little pieces of lanolin floated to the top and it was ultimately fine.”

Step Four

Add the wool and squeeze gently--you don't need to scrub, and wool fibers are delicate (especially when wet!).  Then you're going to leave it to soak for about 2-3 hours (let brand new wool soak overnight). 

If you're lanolizing wool Chappy-Nappies (crotchless pants) or wool longies (long wool pants that can be pulled over a cloth diaper and used as both a diaper cover and pants in one), you don't need to lanolize the whole garment.  Just soak the "wet zone" in the lanolin bath. 

Insert the the upper portion of the pants (from the waist belt down to the upper thighs) in the lanolin bath but leave the legs dangling out.  See the section on Day-to-Day Wool Care below for how to clean and maintain wool pants between lanolin baths.

Step Five

After soaking, do not wring the wool!  Instead, lay the soaking-wet wool onto a towel, roll up, and squeeze gently.  This protects the delicate fibers and prevents your wool from becoming stretched out or deformed.

Finally, lay the wet wool flat to dry on a drying rack or metal/mesh table.  Wool can take a while to dry; I usually tried to lanolize my wool first thing in the morning on a warm, sunny day and let it dry outside. Periodically turning and flipping the garment can help speed up the process and help it dry evenly.

Be careful of direct sunlight!  It works like magic to remove baby poop stains, but it can also bleach the color out of your wool (if it's dyed) or even colored plastic snaps.

If there are no warm, sunny days in the immediate forecast, you can also dry your wool beside a crackling fire!  This is typically what we'd do when lanolizing our wool in the winter.

A tip from Claire:

“It’s okay if [the woollies] are a little or even very tacky when dry. The lanolin will rub into yours and babies skin and be super nourishing for the first few wears and then it will fade.”

Day-to-Day Wool Care

Unless your wool is soiled with poop or very dirty from being outside, you may hang your wool to dry after a full day's (or night's) use and re-use again the next day without washing for up to four weeks.  This makes wool very low-maintenance!  Once a month, repeat the lanolizing process to refresh your wool.

But what if it gets poopy or dirty?

If your baby's poop gets on the wool, you'll want to spot clean immediately with a bit of wool wash and tepid water and then hang to dry before resuming use.  If your baby has been playing outside in a wool diaper or chaps and the wool is dirty, pour a half cup of wool wash into a bowl of tepid water and add the wool.  Gently massage the wool to rub away the dirt and leave to soak for about 15 minutes.  Then lay flat to dry.

Annie's routine for poopy wool covers:

“ my baby has explosive breastmilk poo so i have to wash the covers frequently ... i wash them using this "no-rinse" wool wash:  [CLICK HERE for Annie's suggested product, which is sold in Australia. Similar USA-based products suggested below]

it's great because it has extra lanolin in it so you are naturally conditioning the nappies each time you wash them. my trick to using it with soiled wool nappy covers is a 4-step process:

1. prepare wool wash and soak dirty covers in the solution for 15-20 mins, then agitate with your hands

2. use a small stain brush (like this one [Australia] or this one [USA]) to physically brush out any poo that has not lifted out via the agitation

3. repeat steps 1-2.

4. squeeze out excess water gently, roll in a towel to get out any more excess, and dry out of direct sun, but still in the sun. you have to dry outside to get the UV to erase the yellowish poo stains themselves. it's magic!"

How can I prevent poop from getting on my wool covers?

Ideally, poop would never touch your wool covers so that you never had to spot clean them and could just hang to dry every day without fuss.  Although this might seem like fantasy, it's actually possible to avoid poop on your wool! The following are some great suggestions:

• Use wool at night:  Although newborns can poop all day and night, eventually they do stop pooping at night.  We used a single wool cover (Disana brand) as our nighttime diaper for all 3 of our kids (over a fitted diaper). I only ever needed one wool cover because my babies quit pooping overnight pretty quickly, so we'd just hang the wool to dry before the first morning poop and lanolize once a month!
• Try Elimination Communication:  Babies as young as birth can start using the potty!  This is the best way to keep poop off your woollies--try to get poops into the toilet first. All 3 of my babies were fully "poop trained" by about 2-3 months old, meaning we almost never had any poopy diapers at all from that point onward.  You can read more about Elimination Communication HERE. 
• Pick well-fitting diapers:  Although EC is my top suggestion for keeping poop out of your wool covers (and I also suggest choosing your wool covers so that they assist with EC as well), some parents can't or won't do EC.  In that case, I recommend a well-fitting fitted diaper underneath your wool diaper cover that will hopefully keep poop well-contained.
  

Claire's thoughts on Elimination Communication & wool diapering:

“The wool doesn’t act completely waterproof in the case of very big pees. Instead it completely and entirely contains any moisture to the point that even if you can feel it it doesn’t transfer to your clothes for example. This is very supportive to elimination communication because you develop a feel for temperature changes and you know when your baby has a wet diaper very quickly. 

 

You can lanolize large wool blankets to use under towels or prefolds. These make great natural fiber options for protecting the mattress or lining the changing table/portable changing mats."

What about stains?

For baby poop and spitup stains, sunlight is your friend!  The sun will bleach them away, but be careful of direct sunlight as it can bleach away the color from your wool.

For extremely tough, set-in stains (like mud or grass on undyed wool), you can try applying a tiny drop of plant-based detergent (like Seventh Generation Free & Clear) straight to the stain, massage it in gently with your fingertips, and let it penetrate before washing with wool wash. Claire (quoted above) uses Fels-Naptha bar soap for stains, but she does warn that this can strip away the lanolin, so use sparingly.

Alternatively, you can try diluted 3% hydrogen peroxide, which is safe for wool in low concentrations (unlike chlorine bleach, which dissolves wool) and acts as a mild oxidation agent to lift tough stains.  Mix 1 part 3% hydrogen peroxide with 2 parts water, dab onto the stain, and let it sit for 15 minutes out of direct light.  Then rinse thoroughly.

How to properly store wool

If you need to store your wool garments for an extended period of time without use, you'll want to make sure you store them correctly to avoid damage from pests and moisture.  Start with clean wool and ensure it is completely dry before storing.

Breathable storage bags, like cotton, linen, or canvas, can prevent trapped moisture but are easier for pests to penetrate.  If you'd prefer to store your wool in an airtight container, such as a Ziploc bag or storage bin, ensure your wool is fully dry first and consider adding a silica gel packet to absorb humidity.

To protect against pests, be sure to dry in a cool, dry place (avoid basements or garages) and add a couple cedar blocks.  Refresh your cedar blocks when the scent starts to fade by sanding the blocks slightly.

Recommended Wool Products

Read on for detailed descriptions of recommended wool products, including wool garments I recommend and wool care items.  Or, CLICK HERE if you'd like to jump straight to my list of favorites and start shopping!

Solid Lanolin Brands

If you have lanolin on-hand from breastfeeding (many nursing mothers use it to treat chapped/sore nipples in the early weeks of learning to breastfeed), you can use that to treat your wool!  Brands I've used successfully for both nursing and wool care include Lansinoh and Medela.

If you'd prefer to buy in bulk, this jar of NOW Solutions brand solid lanolin lasted me basically the entire time we used wool diapers for kids 2 & 3! 

Lanolin Treatments

Most wool wash is infused with lanolin (see next section on wool wash).  Regular washing with lanolin-infused wool wash can help maintain a good coating of lanolin, but a proper lanolin bath will be needed if you're hanging the wool to dry without cleaning for weeks at a time. Instead of using solid lanolin to create an emulsion as described above, you can also try lanolizing with a special lanolin treatment, according to Annie:

Annie's strategy for lanolizing:

“when my wool diaper covers/chappy nappies arrive, i lanolise them twice using Disana's lanolin treatment - this is a german product that is basically a pre-emulsified lanolin solution... I just follow the directions on the Disana bottle for diapers... i re-lanolise with the disana treatment whenever i think the wool needs it, if it seems less absorbent or smellier, etc.”

That particular brand is available in Australia (click HERE), but the following are some similar USA-based treatments you might consider (click on the bullet to view the product).  These treatments all include lanolin and can be added directly to tepid water to lanolize your wool without melting and cooling.

• Bumby Wool Emulsified Lanolin Blend
• Sheepish Grins Liquid Lanolin Oil

Wool Wash Brands

My go-to brand for wool wash that I used for almost a decade was the Eucalan No-Rinse Wash.  I always favored the unscented variety, as my family has always been sensitive to fragrances.  In addition to cleaning and lanolizing my wool diaper covers, I also use it to wash hand-knitted wool sweaters (courtesy of my wonderful Mother-in-Law!) and other garments. 

Other great options for lanolin-infused wool wash that have been recommended to me include the following (click on the bullet to view the product):

• Outback Gold Wool Wash
• Woollykins No Rinse Felting Finishing & Wool Wash (Australian product recommended by Annie above)

You can use the above-suggested wool wash brands both for lanolizing and also for spot cleaning poop or dirt from your wool.

Claire's spot-cleaning routine:

“I wash when my wool is visibly dirty from spit up, food or poop, or when the lanolin has become neutralized and it starts to look like there are salt rings forming around pee spots or whenever pee is not airing out of the diaper but instead leaving a pee scent even when fully dry. I do not usually wash dirt because it will usually shake out/air out and the wool is naturally antimicrobial. I try to wipe off anything like food or spit up if I can as soon as it gets on the diaper." 

Recommended Wool Diapers

If you're doing Elimination Communication with your baby, you'll want a cloth diaper that can open easily when it's time to go potty.  Flappy-Nappies® brand wool diaper covers are adjustable diapers designed to pop open like a flap!  They come in undyed and hand-dyed varieties in multiple sizes from newborn to big kid.  They are paired with 100% organic cotton snap-in pads, which are easy to swap out if they get wet or soiled.

If you're looking for powerful leak protection for nighttime diapering, your best bet is the Disana wool diaper cover paired with cotton fitted diapers underneath.  I used this combination with all 3 of my babies at night, and it was the most reliable and leak-proof option I tried (even compared to disposables!).  You can read more about why wool is a superior choice for nighttime diapering by clicking HERE.

Other Wool Accessories

You might consider the following items for wool care and storage (click on the bullet to view the product):

• Laundry stain brush
• Horizontal drying rack:  This kind of drying rack has mesh shelves on which you can lay your delicate wool items flat to dry. THIS one is freestanding and THIS one can hang.
• Cedar blocks for storing
• Breathable storage container, OR
• Airtight storage container and reusable silica gel packets

That's about it!

I hope that this guide was helpful.  If you have tips for wool care or product recommendations that you don't see here, please feel free to contact me!  I am always updating my resource pages and would love to include what you have to share.