Your brand new wool cover. Please bear in mind that wool is a natural fibre and some natural variations may occur from one cover to the next, especially with the very untreated covers. Some wool covers seem to benefit from 2 or 3 lanolin treatments when new to build up the water resistance. Do this over the 1st 2 or 3 weeks of use, then you should find you can go up to 8 weeks before the next treatment. If you do find a brand new cover seems to leak, try lanolising a few times, but allowing a few uses in between the treatments. This seems to work the lanolin deeper into the fibres, and helps the felting process, which also aids water resistance. See below for lanolin treatment details.

Washing. You only need to wash your wool wraps when they get dirty with faeces, or if they seem a bit smelly. This should only be about every other week or so, more frequently with a newborn, since they are more likely to get faeces on the wrap. Wool wraps are best washed by hand in plain white vegetable or olive soap. White vegetable soap is available in most supermarkets and is not expensive. Olive soap is available from wool wrap suppliers and specialists. You can also use a wool shampoo, but soap helps the wool to retain it’s water-resistant properties a little better.

Just rub the soap over the wrap in luke warm water, or even just the dirty bit, then rinse. When washing the whole wrap, it is a good idea to finish off with a little white vinegar in the last rinse. Wool prefers slightly acid conditions, and hard water especially, is quite alkaline. Just a tablespoon is enough. If you have a child who soaks most of the wool overnight regularly, then a 10 minute soak in vinegar water before the wash can be beneficial to the wool. Some wraps can be machine washed in the wool cycle, but only at 30 degrees, check the label and also your washing machine instructions, as some older machines still do a wool wash at 40 degrees.

After washing, spin the wrap on a very gentle spin in the washing machine, or roll the wrap up in a dry towel to remove the excess moisture, then hang to dry away from direct heat. Never put a wool wrap on a radiator or in the tumble drier, or it will shrink and felt. This is not bad in itself, as felted wool is very leak proof, but it won’t fit any more. The airing cupboard is fine to dry the wraps if you are in a hurry, but in general, allow 24 hours for them to dry fully if you have washed the whole wrap. It is also best not to dry wool in direct sunlight as this can also cause shrinkage.

Lanolising. Every 3 or 4 washes, you will need to add some more lanolin to the wool wrap to keep it’s waterproof quality. You will know this needs doing, as the outside of the wrap and baby’s clothes will start to feel slightly damp when the nappy has been on a while, such as overnight. With an older child, you may find the wrap is smelly even when dry, this is when you should lanolise, even if the wrap isn’t yet starting to leak. A bed wetting 4 year old may need the woollen wrap lanolised every 10 days or so. Some wool wraps seem to benefit from 2 or 3 lanolin treatments when new to build up the water-resistance. Do these over the first 2 or 3 weeks of use, then you should find you can go 8 weeks or so before the next treatment.

Wash the whole wrap in soap, as above then you can use one of 2 methods to relanolise the wrap.

You can buy wool cure solution from the wool wrap supplier, this may look a little expensive, but a 200ml bottle will last about a year in normal use, so it is in fact very economical. You need about 1 teaspoon of wool cure to 1 litre of water (cool or lukewarm), a good way to do this is in an old ice cream tub. Use luke warm water to soak the wrap from 10 minutes to 8 hours in the solution, overnight is good. No need to rinse, just dry as above, after washing.

The other method is cheaper, but a bit more work. Buy some pure lanolin from your chemist, it should be about £6.00 for a 500g tub. This is more than enough for 2 ½ years use. After washing the whole wrap, set it aside. Make a soapy water solution with about 1-2 litres of luke warm water and either 2 tablespoons of soap flakes or pure soap (rub it round in your hands until the water has a good lather, or grate.) Make sure you have a good lather. Then scoop out a little in a cup and add a level teaspoon of the pure lanolin. Heat in the microwave (or you could use a little boiling water) until the lanolin has melted. Pour this back into the soapy water. The water should go very milky in appearance. Now soak your wrap in this solution for 10 minutes to 8 hours, as above. Dry as above.

While this may seem like a lot of bother, remember, you only need to wash every other week or so, and lanolise once every 4 to 8 weeks (depending on how much you use the wrap). Compare this with most other wraps that need daily washing, and you’ll see that wool is actually low very maintenance.

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