My wet bag has been especially stinky this week, a stong ammonia smell..I mean it makes my eyes water when it's laundry day. Even when it's empty the smell is still there. So this morning when getting my daughter up after she woke up, I changed her diaper and happen to smell it because there was a really stong pee smell I could smell when I walked into the bedroom, and her diaper smelled like ammonia too!? This has never happened. I have no problems with absorbency so I didn't think they would need stripped. From everything I'm reading online it says to wash them in Dawn to get rid of the ammonia buildup?
I have only been using cloth for about 3 months...HELP
**I use Rockin Green and wash ever 2 days, so on Morning 3 - I wash, they are actually in the wash right now.
**I have all pocket diapers, but 1 Gro-Via AIO and 2 Thirsties AIO, I think it's the inserts that stink more than the diapers.
ETA: Silly question but how do I find out if we have hard water or if it's the water causing the problems?
Next wash do a vinegar rinse. Also wash the wetbag in vinegar. Only 1 cup is needed.
Edit to add
You live in MO! Ok you have a high lime content to fight. If you do not have a water softener cut back on soap. The lime makes the soap stick to the diapers. It also causes the lime smell to hold better and be happen faster.
Have you tried Funk Rock by Rockin Green? It is formulated to take care of ammonia "funk." I do a Funk Rock soak every 30-60 days as needed to address the ammonia funk. This does the trick for me. What formula of Rockin Green are you using? I use the Hard Rock formula. You can also add calgon water softener to your wash if you think hard water might be the issue. If your diapers stink of ammonia, you probably need to do some sort of a strip to correct the problem. Stripping is really just washing your diapers more thoroughly than you normally would. There are soooo many different ways to strip. The stripping method you choose depends on what is causing the problem. Sometimes you will have to try a few different stripping methods to figure out just what the problem is. I would suggest doing some research online to determine which stripping method you should try first.
I would also suggest to keep your diapers in a dry open pail, if you are not already doing so. Storing wet & poopy diapers in a closed container will just make the ammonia worse. I store my diapers in a kitchen trashcan with a pail liner and no lid.
Wash your wetbag or pail liner every time you wash your diapers.
Your nighttime diapers will probably have more issues with ammonia since they get much more saturated and stay on the baby for so long. Microfiber seems to be the worst fabric for trapping ammonia salts. I have completely ditched microfiber at night, with the exception of the 2-layer bumGenius inserts. They don't seem to trap the ammonia salts as bad as the thicker inserts with more layers. Natural fibers such as cotton, hemp & bamboo just don't seem to hold onto that ammonia smell the same way microfiber does. If your nighttime dipes are giving you the most trouble, you might consider changing your inserts to natural fibers.
Most importantly, it is normal to have ammonia issues with your diapers. It will just take you some time to figure out how to deal with it when it happens. You either need to make adjustments to your wash routine, or you need to do some sort of a strip periodically ..... you're doing great! You should pat yourself on the back for taking on the challenge of cloth diapering!
If you have hard water or water with lime (which one mama mentioned you might) vinegar makes it WORSE!! Vinegar does not mix well with hot water. We have hot/lime water and it certainly rang true for us. Unfortunately, I found that out after I tried it!! Get Calgon water softer (I find ours at Walmart) and do a cold rinse with nothing, then add calgon and do a hot wash. Wash them on hto over and over with nothing else until the smell is out. If you can bump up the heat on your water heater for the first was with calgon, that will really make a difference. Just bump it back down for the rest. We also use GroVia and it works really well.
When this happened to mine, I would run a rinse cycle to remove the urine from the used ones, then I'd put all of the diapers from the drawer into the washer as well and soak in 1/2 cup washing soda or borax with a regular portion of detergent (I use unscented All), letting the washer stir for a few minutes then turning it off for three hours or overnight. I'd turn it back on to finish the cycle and run an extra rinse. Fresh! Good luck!
Use HOT water and 2 cups of white vinegar to a medium water-level washer--for both wash AND rinse cycle (vinegar acts as a fabric softener too). That should help :)
I also use a little vinegar in the wash when any of our laundry, including the diapers, get a little funky. We have BumGenius 3.0s.
I used cloth diapers in the old days, never heard of 'stripping' diapers. What in the world it it? I used to put mine in a diaper pail, as did all of us old people then, washed them in hot water with some bleach, hung them on the clothes line to dry until I got a dryer later and then used that, and I had the whitest diapers you ever saw and never had a stain on them. The ammonia smell came later when the child was a bit older and the urine more concentrated overnight. Who can tell me what you all are doing these days?
1st, what are you washing them in normally?
If you are using micro terry type inserts, you can use bleach per Cotton Babies/Bumgenius website:
http://www.bumgenius.com/help.php
I personally have used the Dawn method to strip- but not for ammonia- for diaper cream.
What I did: Washed diapers per normal routine, when diapers were clean, instead of drying, refilled the washer with hot water and a generous squirt of Dawn. Let aggitate and then stop, let sit overnight. Rinse until there are no more bubbles in the rinse water.
I ran into this problem and none of the methods mentioned here worked - what finally got rid of the smell was washing them in HOT water (and nothing else), over and over and over until there was not a trace of bubbles in the water! Never had a problem again - good luck!
When I run into this problem, here is what I do:
Throw diapers & wet bag into laundry. Do a cold water soak with baking soda (about 1/4 cup) added, and leave overnight (or at least a few hours, the longer the better). Do 1 cold water wash and rinse cycle with no soap.
Then do a hot water wash & cold rinse with soap, and add 1/4 cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle (at the time you would normally add fabric softener).
Then do another cold water wash & rinse. Smell the diapers--if they still smell, rinse them a few more times.
If possible, hang outdoors in the sun to dry.
Also, clean out your diaper pail with soap & water; you can do an optional baking soda soak on this too, if needed. Let it air dry outdoors in the sun if possible.
I have also found that it helps to periodically switch laundry detergent. 90% of the time, I use Charlies Soap. About 9% of the time, I use Biokleen unscented laundry powder. About 1% of the time I use Tide Free & Clear. (So I maybe use Tide once or twice per year, Biokleen maybe 1x per every 2 months).
