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I love my Mother-Ease system and have spent many months collecting my entire cloth diaper system (30 MEOS, 30 snap-in liners, 30 stay-dry liners, airflow covers size small to x-large, AIO's small and large, training pants).
Everything has worked beautifully until just this past month. My 19 month old got very sick and his urine started to smell and then my MEOS started to smell even worse. I don't know if it was coincidence that the two happened at the same time. Plus, my son developed a rash so bad that he had to be on antibiotic cream. Again, I don't know if this is related to the diapers possibly going bad?
I have soaked, washed, second rinse, followed all directions for the past eighteen months with my diapers. Now the moment they get pee on them, they smell so strong my eyes water! Now my next son (6 weeks) is ready for the system, but I'm tired of my kids smelling once they pee!
I purchased them used on the forum. I am now the third owner of the diapers so they have gone through a minimum of three children (most likely more). I use my system full time so all the diapers receive similar amount of use.
I'm tempted to purchase "newer" used ones and see if they don't smell. I'm going to need them for at least the next three years and I can't have them smelling so horrible for even the next day. What should I do?? Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks for your help : )
~ Krista |
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To me this really sounds like you might be having detergent build-up issues. If the smell is making your eyes water, would you say it is ammonia? If so, detergent it is.
If you are soaking your diapers, what are you soaking them in? I know ME's instructions recommend a bit of detergent, but when I did this, my diapers started to smell of ammonia when wet and DS developed a bizarre, almost burn-like rash. When I came to this board looking for answers, I realized that that little bit of extra detergent must have tipped the scales for me. I eliminated it and did a few extra rinses, and the diapers were happy again.
Also, how much detergent do you use to wash the diapers? Most people find the best success with 1/4-1/2 of the recommended amount.
What I would do if I were you is to wash your diapers in hot hot water. If you have a top-loader, dump in a couple of kettles of boiling water to get things good and hot. If you have a front-loader, do a sanitary cycle. Do this without any detergent--and watch the cycle to see if you are getting loads of suds. If you are, it may take several very hot, detergent-less cycles until you are seeing fewer suds. Although it requires some machine babysitting, you can stop your machine after it spins out the wash water but before it gets to the rinse and set it back to the beginning again (if you have a top loader). The hotter the water the better the detergent will rinse out, so the cold rinse you probably get isn't doing a lot of good for your purposes right now.
One thing that may also be helpful is if you are able to soak the diapers in a very strong vinegar solution. If you have a top-loader this is pretty easy because you can just dump in a good part of a jug of vinegar, add hot hot water, let it agitate for a minute and then let it soak a bit before continuing the cycle. The acid in the vinegar helps to break the chemical bonds that are holding detergent bits together in the diapers with minerals from your water. (When the diapers are peed on, the urine breaks those bonds, producing the smell and causing the weird rash.)
Depending on your wash routine and detergent quantity typically used, if you've gone 18 months without problems, you probably don't have huge nasty issues (some people have horrible water that makes almost any detergent hard to rinse out), so some good hot rinsing now and some tweeks to your routine might be all that's needed. |
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Thank you for your response. I'm so glad to hear that another mom has experienced the same thing with their little one (not that I would wish the rash on anyone as it can be very painful for him at times). I thought we might have to give up cloth diapering all together.
So, I put all my diapers and liners in a sanitary cycle in my front loader without any soap. I watched it throughout the cycle and saw only a small amount of bubbles/suds during the wash cycle. I would love to wash them in vinegar and/or baking soda combination but I'm not sure if I can put those ingredients into a front loader (we just purchased it this past week as I wanted something more efficient to wash, rinse, and spin my diapers). Do you know if it is possible and how would I go about doing that (i.e. Do I put the vinegar and baking soda into the detergent dispenser or soak them in the tub in vinegar and baking soda before putting them into the washer?)
I've washed them once now without any soap and I'm wondering if I should do another one or two cycles through the washer until I don't see any more suds? Again, only saw a small amount of bubbles running down the front of the washer.
Thanks again for your help : )
~ Krista |
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Although I've occasionally run across recommendations to use baking soda and vinear together, chemically speaking I'm not sure how much good it would do (unless produced the fizz is the point), since to a large extent I would think they would cancel each other out. They'd create a very mild soapish thing, but I don't think that's what you'd want to accomplish in this case. If you really want to use both, use them in different parts of the cycle so they can do their own things without interferring with each other. In this particular case, I would see vinegar as being much more helpful, to break those chemical bonds. DH has theorized that in certain circumstances, like involving a water softener, baking soda could also be helpful, but otherwise, I think that vinegar is a bit more broadly useful, especially for dealing with build-up.
Given that you have a front loader and it's harder to control things like how full the tub is and how long things soak, the best way to soak the diapers would be a separate tub with very hot water and vinegar, stirring occasionally. That's a bit of a bother, though, so personally, what I think I would try first would be running the diapers through another sanitary cycle (or two, or three), and pour a hefty glug of vinegar in through the detergent dispenser (and/or fabric softener/pre-wash drawer); I'm guessing you can keep pouring and it will overflow into the tub; if you can't, you can probably wait until the detergent drawer has emptied when the cycle starts and then pour in more and more. You can add as much vinegar as you'd like and don't have to worry about hurting your machine, since it won't create suds or anything like that.
Am I correct in thinking that this smell/rash pre-dated the new washing machine?
Once you get your diapers back to a happy place, remember that it's especially important with front-loaders to use very little detergent. You can wet the diapers before putting them into the washing machine so the sensor will think they weigh more and thus use more water to wash/rinse (sounds like you use a wet pail, so you've got that covered). Although many people don't need to use a sanitary cycle every time they wash diapers, some people find it's good to do one once in a while. Some people also add a glug of vinegar to the wash or rinse cycle, but that's the sort of thing you can experiment with a bit once your diapers are happy again. |
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Sorry to hear about your troubles.
My son had a persistent rash and I ended up boiling all my dipes. It sounds overwhelming but is incredibly easy actually! I recommend trying that and see if that helps, at least it will disinfect them if anything!
Fill a large stock pot & bring it to a boil. You can add about 4 dipes and boil for 5 minutes. You should be able to do 2 to 3 sets of 4 dipes per pot of water before it's mostly absorbed by the dipes. Unless your water is icky! Then only do 4 then dump. Refill & boil, repeat.
I did 26 dipes & 15 liners & 20 fleece liners in about an hour.
My dipes didn't smell before but at least they got disinfected. My son's rash went away next day.
Boiling them will get the buildup out fast & disinfect also. You can't loose anything by doing it, just time & effort. I did mine after my son went to bed at night. So an hour of uninterrupted work was no biggie.
Oh, wash normally after & dry. |
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| I did two sanitary cycles on my front loader with no soap today. They are now in my bath tub because I need to actually catch up on some of my other wash this evening. (The sanitary cycle takes over two hours to complete!) I was thinking of soaking them in water and vinegar tonight in the tub. Then I could rinse them in the washer. After that I will try boiling them tomorrow afternoon while my little ones are napping. I have read some of the other posts about getting odors and such out, but I had never heard of anyone boiling them. Thanks for the tip and I will try that as I'm getting anxious to get my kiddos back into cloth again. |
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Nakedbabytoes, is there a reason you would wash the diapers after boiling them? I wouldn't think you'd gain anything? I'd spin 'em out in the washer for sure, though.
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I can see why rinsing them at least would be useful. Any crud or detergent build-up that was drawn out by the boiling would ideally need to be rinsed out. I wouldn't bother washing with detergent or anything, but I would give them a hot rinse at least.
But isn't boiling not recomended because of a risk to the snaps and/or elastic? That's what I've always heard and I think that's what ME say isn't it? Especially if the snaps have prolonged contact with the sides or bottom of the pot, they could theoretically crack. That said, I have boiled my diapers once with no problems so I don't think it's a huge risk, maybe just something to be aware of so that you really keep a close eye on things and make sure nothing sits in the same spot for too long.
Before doing that I'd see if your stripping has worked first. Minimize the amount of work you have to do is always my motto, maybe do one last sanitary cycle if you want to (takes a while but at least it doesn't require much of you) and then see how the diapers are. At worst you can always vinegar soak them or boil them afterwards if the stripping wasn't enough.
aavt, educate me on front loaders, is there any reason someone wanting to do a vinegar soak couldn't just pour the vinegar straight into the machine? A little more ackward than top loaders for sure but maybe simpler than pouring small amounts at a time in the dispensers?? Just throwing that out there, I'm still using our crappy top loader so no experience to speak from... Someday...
Karen. |
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Good point about rinsing out cruddies drawn out by the boiling; for that I'd agree that a hot rinse would be best. I also do second the thought that boiling might be overkill, esp. since a few sanitary cycles may well have done the trick. But if the diapers still aren't happy, it would be something to try.
Good question about the vinegar adding, Karen, not something I was thinking about. If you could get the diapers to absorb the vinegar poured in, then that should work and take less time than using the detergent drawer, so I think that's a good idea.
With my machine, though, it somehow seems to sense extra liquid in the drum and will actually drain it out before proceeding with the cycle. For instance, trying to fool the machine into using a little more water when I was washing just a few but very nasty diapers (so wasn't thrilled about having them with other laundry), I just poured in a gallon of water I'd saved from running the tap to hot for dishes. I just dumped it in, though, instead of pouring slowly for the diapers to absorb, and after I pressed start the machine actually kind of sat and thought for a minute, then did a drain. Only after that did it launch into the programmed cycle. In that case, I didn't lose much, as the diaper were obviously wetter than they would have been, but you'd lose your vinegar. I don't know if all front-loaders are like this, but I think that the Bosch I had in the UK did the same thing with extra water in the drum.
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| Thank you, thank you, thank you! It worked! I washed the diapers in two sanitary cycles, soaked them overnight in vinegar and water in the bath tub, boiled every diaper and liner, and then ran them through one more sanitary cycle. I now have amazing diapers thanks to everyone here. I'm so glad they work now. I believe I'm going to try using Charlie's Soap in my front loader now. It says it is mild and even works well in keeping front loaders free of mildew. Thank you to everyone for all the help and now I am back to cloth diapering!! YEAH! |
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Glad to hear your diapers seem happy once more! Having smelly diapers is so demoralizing.
Now that you know the signs, if you catch things early, you wouldn't usually have to do such a song and dance (that's not a normal part of most people's routines! :-)). Less detergent and maybe a sanitary cycle now and again, but again, you bought them used and they were fine for quite a while, so I wouldn't think you have to do anything major to your regular routine.
I haven't used Charlie's Soap--some people here swear by it and others haven't liked it so much, so I suspect as with most detergents that's probably a function of water and washer type. |
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Glad it worked!
Yep, I wouldn't boil them too often just as a last resort because it has to be hard on the elastics & snaps. And the wash after, just getting rid of the crud that got boiled out.
Prevention is better than playing catchup. At the first sign of stinkies, take action so you don't have such a problem to fix.
Happy Diapering! |
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