Cloth Diaper Question/issues

It sounds like you have a new baby. If so doctor's tell
you not to give them water. That's exactly what your baby needs. You will be amaze at the result. When you don't drink water your urine will smell as well. In the mean time try soaking them in vinegar & baking soda first. Concerning the diaper rash because they are cloth diaper you need to change him more often. the best thing for the rash during the day let him get lots of air. Take a piece of plastic and place a towel over it he needs air and the best thing to use is vaseline. Try it.

post this on diaperswappers.com and they should be able to help you

Contact Bottums Up diaper service. They use an eco-friendly solution and it's healthier for the baby because they can wash the diapers more thoroughly than you can with their huge hot water fancy systems designed just for diapers. http://www.bottomsupdiapers.com/

The service is as cheap as buying disposable diapers every week, or cheaper depending on the disposable diapers you buy. I have used the service for 8 m and have been very happy with it. It's convenient, easy, and sanitary.

Here's the deal: vinegar, bac out, etc. work fine with prefolds but with the fuzzibuz and BG ---look out world!

Do not use vinegar or bac out with BG. The vinegar is most likely the cause of your problem. I've been using BG for 15 months and have only had 'smell' issues once --I was using too much detergent.

This is what I do: I use Tide, do a prewash, hot wash, cold rinse, extra cold rinse (the white setting on my HE machine, plus a prewash). Then, on the BG manufacturer's recommendation, about once a month, I throw in a tiny amount of bleach. I was using expensive all natural stuff, but stopped because it just didn't clean as well as the Tide. Also, the cloth diaper company I get my diaps from recommends the HE Tide. It does a much better job of cleaning the diapers.

I have no issues, no bad smells, nothing. The key is to follow the manufacturer's recommendation, and not use vinegar or bac out with the material of the BG and Fuzzibunz (I used Fuzzibunz for the first 4 months of my daughter's life and never had any problems either). I know that many people swear by vinegar and bac out, but not with these all-in-ones. They literally make the diapers stink.

One other thing I wish someone had told me: if your diapers start to leak (due to build up from butt cream), you strip them with regular Dawn. Just a tiny amount, and then a bunch of rinses to get it all out. I use butt cream against the manufacturer's recommendation and have no issues, just so long as I strip them with Dawn from time to time. I think I've stripped them twice in the last 13 months.

Good luck!

back in the day.....as in before disposable diapers were common place ......cloth diapers were the norm. I was a cloth diaper user with my older children and followed my mother's lead as to how to care for them. I had a rather large covered bucket (trash can, 5 gal paint bucket with a lid,"rubbermaid" style storage bin) that I filled about 1/2 of the way with water and 1/2 cup of boric acid powder. After each diaper change, I placed the wet diaper (or soiled after rinsing in the toilet) into the solution in the bucket, This helped neutralize the odor. When my eldest developed sensitivities (really bad diaper rash), the doctor recommended that I wash his diapers in regular detergent with 1 cup of baking soda, rinse then boil his diapers in a boric acid and water for 10 minutes, wring them out, and dry them on the line rather than in the dryer. the result was very stiff diapers, but no smell and clear skin on the baby......a lot of work to be sure. Since at that time (the mid 70's) disposable diapers were both terribly expensive, poor at absorption and filled with very strong perfumes they were not an option. My grandmother suggested that I add water (yes, plain water) to my son's daily intake....she stated that his urine was too strong meaning he was a bit dehydrated and this was why his diapers smelled so much like ammonia.....so I made a point to give him just plain water along with his bottles everyday....this helped a whole bunch! Throughout his life he has required more water than his siblings....Grandma knew best.

Try drying them in the sun.

Rinse them well after baby "goes" and let them soak in a bucket of baking soda and cold water until you do your washing.

I find Borax works wonders!!! If you can do a prewash cycle with both detergent and Borax and then the regular cycle with both, then you should be good.
Good luck!

Sun dry and leave them out there, it also gets rid of any stains, the sun bleaches them naturally. To rid yourself of rashes naturally use lard and burnt flour on his bottom. My children were allergic to A & D ointment and others on the market. These are natural and totally work. Burnt flour is frying flour slowly in pan until brown and cooling thoroughly than apply just like powder over the lard. (shortening works too in a pinch)

I use Bacout by BioKleen. http://biokleenhome.com/products/household/general

I squirt a little on the dirty diaper and throw it in the pail. I wash every 2-3 days in hot water, with the BioKleen laundry detergent and a few drops of pure tea tree oil. I do an additional cold rinse and always hang my diapers to dry. The dryer really seems to lock in odors so I have only used it in emergent situations.

My diapers have never once had even a slight ammonia smell. I got some hand-me-downs from my sis-in-law that had the ammonia smell and I soaked them in a bucket of the Bacout overnight and then washed them as I usually do and they are fine now. It truly is a miracle product and it is environmentally friendly. It actually got dried, 2 day-old red wine out of a white shirt!

In regards to the previous poster, I have a bunch of BG diapers and have always used BacOut on them. I am not sure why you wouldn't. And I would certainly never use a product like Tide on cloth diapers - the buildup of chemicals from a product like that adds to the long term breakdown of the fibers. Any diaper store or website will tell you its best to use a more natural product like Charlie's or Biokleen. They do not leave the same kind of residue on the fabric that the more commercial brands do - which also can greatly effect absorbency. I don't know what kinds of detergents are compatible with an HE washer, though, so perhaps only certain products will work for you. Good luck!

Hi, A.. I feel your pain. I had my son in 1976. He couldn't use disposable diapers. Back then there was a diaper service that dropped off and picked up. I'm not sure if they still offer diaper service, if not you can try odo ban. They sell it at the sams club. Just make sure as with anything you read the label. Hope this helps. Oh, by the way the way i found the diaper service was through a baby magazine that I'd subscribed to back then.

All the ideas that other people have posted sound great! Hear is what I have tried that works really well! I use solumel and presoak for 5 min. prior to washing and then ad one capful of it with my detergent. It takes the odor out and it safe,effective, and inexpensive! I use it for poopy diapers and other odors! Hope that helps!

I "strip" my diapers once every month or so with Oxy Clean. I use a biodegradeable detergent so that they dont get filmy. When washing I do a cold rinse, a hot wash, cold rinse with vinegar, and then another cold rinse. You could try hang drying them in the sun, it should help.

We used fuzzibunz for 2 children and had an HE front loader, so I'm familiar with the problem. Seems to be inadequate rinses and vinegar alone will compound because ammonia and vinegar are both acids. 2 things I found helped - extra rinses and strip wash once a week. I always washed diapers separate from other laundry, used Tide (recommended detergent) with no additives, no softeners, etc. Soak, wash with liquid Tide (1/3 of recommended amt, practically 1-2TBS as I was using HE stuff!) on white's cycle with built in extra rinse. Then I'd do an extra double rinse. And sometimes another double rinse if I was still seeing suds. Once a week, I'd do a strip wash -- run the soak cycle with 1/4 cup of baking soda, use a small amount of Dawn (1 TBS) for the wash cycle and vinegar as softener for the rinse cycle. Then another round of double rinse. Drying in the sun as some suggested is also good for ridding odors and stains. Good luck!

I was told not to use Tide because it causes residue build-up which could cause the amonia smell. I use Charlie's soap and I use a couple drops of Tea Tree oil in the rinse cycle before washing. This was recommended from the store where I purchased the diapers and I haven't had problems. You could buy Tea Tree Oil at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. I've been using Fuzzibunz for almost 2 years.

Hi A., Try adding 20 Mule Team Borax or just plain baking soda during the washing cycle and be sure to rinse well. You can also put fabric softener in the rinse cycle. I suggest Ultra Downy Simple Pleasures Vanilla & Lavender Scent. Then rinse again.

I used a diaper service when my son was in diapers. It was great. Otherwise, have you tried using oxiclean? Soak them for a while in oxiclean and water prior to washing, then add a scoop to you load. I add oxiclean to ever one of my loads of clothes. It works great.

Good Luck

Hi A.,

my children are 8 and 10 now and we used cloth diapers that we washed ourselves when they were infants. I remember adding "washing soda" to the loads and never really having problems with smell. Arms and Hammer makes it and it comes in larger orange boxes in the laundry detergent section of the store. I don't remember exactly how much of the stuff we added, but feel there should be information on the box or you could find an answer on line.

Best,
J.

I use fuzzi bunz and I was them in All free and clear in a HE washer...I just run two cycles one hot one cold. Once my son's poop got to a point where it can be knocked out the nasty odor is gone completely.

fleece and similar fabrics really have a tendency to get buildup on them and stink! hemp also (and we had trouble with our microfiber inserts too at one point). afrer trying everything and everything from boiling to bac-out, seems what works best for us is using bac-out in a few washes each month (several squirts), dawn dishsoap for particularly stinky dipes (i use it alongside the regular detergent), making sure every last bit of detergent is washed out, and maybe once a month or so adding a little bit of bleach to the wash. i used to hate the idea of bleach, but honestly i think this is the thing that got rid of our really bad stink problems around the time our son was ~18 months and having horrible issues due to an undiagnosed milk sensitivity and buildup/stink on our pocket diapers and inserts (and the resulting rash and yeast infections -- he was a mess until we figured out what the problems were!).

if you're smelling ammonia, things aren't getting clean. if you're getting immediate ammonia smell upon your child peeing into the dipe, it is either having a reaction with something on them (detergent or vinegar?) or they are not completely clean. it might take several washes to get them completely stripped and clean again. but after that i'd think a once-a-month stripping and/or little bit of bleach (i'm guessing i use about a tablespoon or a touch more and wash on hot a few times to make sure it's all out) in the wash might keep things from getting bad again.

Have you tried the bumgenius spray? Those diapers are known for getting a nasty smell in them, but the spray does help a TON! Good Luck!

I think they're not getting clean somehow. Your washing routine sounds good. Or he's peeing early in the night. Maybe try changing him after 3-4 hours or when you go to bed.

You could follow the bg instructions for bleach. Dry them in the sun.

I recommend country save and use it for all your laundry.

I don't know how to help you on the cloth diapers but my son would break out to most disposable diapers when he was younger. We did pampers swaddlers and they now have them free and clear and now we use crusers by pampers as well now that he's older. We found that trying different brands until we found one that he would not break out to. Most of the major diaper companies will send you a sample if you ask and tell them that you have had problems with you child breaking out to diapers. I wish you luck!

I like to run them through about 4 or 5 hot washes, no detergent to really get all the residue out. I do that about every 6 months or so. I don't know if you would consider switching diapers but I find that prefolds are so simple to care for and use as opposed to pockets. I also use Goodmama fitteds but those are the ones that get the buildup. If they weren't so damn cute, I would use only prefolds! I also don't have a frontloader. I have a top loader.

No one has yet considered the washer. I no longer have diapers to do, but I have had an HE washer for 3 years. One place that I notice residual odors is in washcloths, things that are re-wet in use. I've come to believe it's the washer, perhaps the low water usage during the cycles. My guess is that's the problem you're having.

J.