breaking in prefolds, laundry questions

[octobersweetpea]

When washing brand new prefolds (un-dirtied) for the first few times - should I use detergent, or just plain water?
If yes to detergent, how much? I plan to get some Sun. We have a high-efficiency washer, so I suppose I'll even have to halve the recommended amount.
Anything else I should know?
(New at this, can you tell? )
Thanks!

[imommy]

When I was my prefolds I did a hot wash/cold rinse and used about 1/4 of the rec. detergent amount. I washed, dried, washed, dried and continued for five total cycles. They were pretty absorbant after that. HTH!

ETA: The last three washed I didn't use detergent, just hot washed with cold rinse and then dried on hot.

[upstategirl]

That's about what I did as well. Just wash them about 6 times and they should be good.

[octobersweetpea]

Ok thanks.
So by 1/4 of the recommended amount, do you mean what is recommended on the bottle, or what you mamas typically use for a load of dirty diapers (I thought that was less?)?
How much detergent do you use for dirty diapers typically?
Sorry, I'm sure this has been discussed a million times...

[Tyrity]

I usually do about a 1/4 of what's recommended on the bottle and that works great for us, but others may do things different

[octobersweetpea]

Ah, I see.
Thank you!