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I thought I was doing well with our move to MEOS; however, I wanted to treat my dd to fluffed diapers this week and threw the line dried diapers into the dryer for 10 minutes. When I opened the dryer I realized the diapers smell awful. Mostly ammonia-like. What am I doing wrong? We have a front load HE washer.
We are exclusively breastfeeding at this point and I worry about my washing methods and want to resolve before we start solids this spring. |
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I have been using prefolds for 2 months now, with a front loader washer as well. My usual wash method is as follows:
*Put in dry pail with lid open until wash day (if the diapers are aired out, they don't smell unless you stick your nose in the pail)
*on wash day, wash on cold with Country Save soap and a squirt of Bac-Out in the bleach cup
*wash again on hot with Country Save and add an extra rinse
*dry, outside or in the dryer.
We haven't had any smell issues, and my DS is also exclusively breastfed. I just switched to the ME one size in OG cotton...I don't see that they would need to be washed any other way; still cotton right?
I have read that the choice of washing soap is really important because lots of them leave a residue that causes smell to build up. Check the Green Mountain Diapers website for lots of info on soaps and what works best for dipes. I actually disagree with ME recommendation to use Tide or other standard detergent, as these are full of chemicals, bad for the environment, bad for my baby's skin, and they leave a residue. I have had no trouble with the dipes not getting clean while using Country Save. The best way to tell if they are clean is to stick your nose up to them and sniff. Good Luck!!! |
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| You might not have a problem just yet, but you may want to run your diapers through the wash again with no soap and lots of rinses. I've noticed too that the diapers coming out of the dryer smell when they're hot but then once they're cool the smell goes away. If you notice a strong smell after your little one pees then you've got some issues but I don't think you need to worry for now. |
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Thanks for the suggestions. I did wash without soap and rinse them once and think I will need to try a different detergent.
What does it mean if I notice the smell after my daughter pees? |
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| It would mean that you have some build-up on your dipes and you might have to do a more serious clean. A different detergent wouldn't be a bad idea. If you're in Canada you could try Wonder Wash, or Nellie's. I think they're similar to Country Save but I haven't seen that brand up north. |
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| I know this goes against what most people say to do, but for me, it prevents smells in the first place. I do not separate my diapers from the rest of my laundry, the diapers go in a regular breathable hamper right with clothing, sheets, towels, whatever. I wash no more than 6 diapers at a time, so the rinse water never gets concentrated with urine, the diapers are washed with clothing and linens. doing the laundry every day, I never run out of diapers. This method prevents diapers from sitting around to long to become a full load, so the diapers are washed every day, in water than is not over burdened with human waste. |
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imamom4sure,
Just curious about your wash method. Does this mean that whatever loads you wash your diapers with are washed in hot water? Or do you wash your dipes in warm or cold? Do you dunk/spray poopy diapers first? If so, does that not result in a lot of water in the laundry hamper? Do you somehow fold the diapers or whatever, in order to prevent poop smears from touching other clothing (not in fear of germs or anything, but to prevent staining other clothing I mean). Do you run the diapers through a pre-rinse first?
I've washed diapers with clothing before, mostly when my kiddos only needed night diapers and I didn't want to run a wash with just a couple diapers nor leave them sitting too long waiting to have enough for a small load. I know the question has come up a few times and there were at least a few of us that had done it so it's not as 'out there' a concept as you might think. But I've never heard of anyone doing this on a regular basis with all their diapers so I'm just curious about the logistics of it all...
Thanks,
Karen. |
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I find poop not to be a problem. for most of their first year of life, my kids are exclusively breast-fed, so, poop is mostly that "mustard-like" drippy stuff, usually doesn't have to be rinsed unless lots of it. To get the stain out, I just wet with cold water, and sit it in the sun for a few hours. (diaper doesn't have to dry for stain to disappear), I never had the stuff smear onto other clothing but I have had "opps" days where a diaperless baby pooped on other clothing/linens, and I took stain out with sun. As for older baby's, the poop usually just pealed away from ME diaper and plopped it in toilet, if it was a sticky mess then I would of course have to rinse it, however, children of any age can have a poop accident and generally one just rinses the clothing best they can and then processes it with the rest of laundry anyway. mostly diapers are peed in, and my kids tend to be pretty good at pooping in potties, or mostly pooping in potties, so I really don't have much poop to deal with, and I think in general most kids don't poop that much in a day, my first born only pooped once a day, and my biggest pooper was three times a day. Except during newborn early infancy, but that poop is really doesn't need much attention.
I wash mostly with warm water, use minimal detergent (my family has a past of getting hives from detergent and I am talking about natural detergents such as ecover, bio-clean, have effected them) so I use about half the called for soap. I got a front loader to make sure detergent is rinsed out, but now I don't bother watching to see if washed out, so far everyone has great skin. I am using "method" detergent. Sometimes I don't even use detergent, just rinsing out my clothing is enough, I have been diapering for 10 years, so I have had three different washers: top loading, front loading whirlpool and front loading LG. (my machines didn't break, I just moved three times and left the washer)
So in summary, I treat a poopy diaper as I would treat any poop accident, depends on the severity, drop as much poop in the toilet, perhaps dunk, and rinse out in the sink if it was extreme (this is rare) maybe only 5 times at the most with each kid. (frankly I think it's less than that) usually a solid poop just peels to drop in the toilet, and if its breast fed, it usually can be thrown in the laundry with no special care, perhaps a little scrapping off) and if a big mess than I rinse it out first, but truly that is rare, anyway, I do laundry every day, I have four kids, and a spouse, so everyday there is laundry and because the diapers are mixed with the laundry, they sit around no more than 12 hours, and I never run out of diapers. I do early potty training also, and pretty much find poop the easiest to help potty train, my kids prefer to poop in potty's or toilets at a very young age, but if I can not help them get to the potty, I still find poop to not be a big deal. I know every child is different (I had four very different kinds of eliminators) and we are a vegetarian family if that makes a difference in the poop, Idk. I just think this method of laundry can work for most, and although I never had to face this, I would say, if I had a kid that made poop that was a big mess every day, then I would just keep a special hamper for poopy diapers, and add them to the laundry when I was ready to get them pre-treated first. But I confess, I don't have to treat the breast fed poop any different than a urine soiled diaper except after I wash and dry the diaper, I rewet it, and put it in the sun, and then put it back in the laundry, so it so that it can be soft since I prefer the feel of diapers that have been washed/dried with machines. And when my kids are on solids, the poop mess is even cleaner since I usually can get the poop to peel away and drop in the toilet with very little poop residue. |
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I have to say that you have been tremendously fortunate with your children's intestines! DS#1 pooped every single feed for as long as he was EBF and kept up a prodigeous schedule even well after that. The odd "roller" is a reason for celebration in this household, and although I've had several friends who children would poop in the potty long before being actually potty-trained, my efforts on that front have been largely futile.
As I see it, though, however one chooses to sort one's laundry or house one's diapers, the real key here is that you regularly use far less than the recommended amount of detergent. |
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Cool, I'm always interested in other's different washing routines.
Have to agree with aavt about the poop though. All 4 of my kiddos were quite prolific poopers while exclusively breastfed and still pretty frequent after that. My twins would often poop 2-4 times a day, and that's at over 2 years of age and totally on solid food!! And 'rollers' (LOL! love that one!) were also rare in my house, even with toddlers. That's why I invested in a diaper sprayer with the twins, it was worth twice it's weight in gold!
I really admire those who do EC, it's always intrigued me since I heard about it when #2 was in diapers. But when the twins came along, I was so overwhelmed with the idea of caring for two babies that I just stuck to what I knew!
Karen.
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I continue to experiment to find the right mix of soap, rinsing, etc. In the past week I have found myself "stripping" loads of towels and realizing that all of my laundry has had way too much soap, despite the fact I use HE detergent. As if I needed to do more laundry at this point in my life...
I am intrigued by the idea that rinsing with other clothes would reduce the urine concentration. Since a HE washer would have much less rinse water.
My friend that recommended ME says she remembers strands about this 2-4 years ago when she was using diapers. Can any veterans point me towards info from early forum postings?
I have read some other commercial sites, but wonder what other consumers are saying. |
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