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I have the mother-ease one size bamboo diapers. They work fantastic, had no leaks and they are so soft. My one issue that I have been having is smelly diapers. Its a strong ammonia smell. It keeps coming back.
I use Charlie's soap, half a tablespoon for an extra large load. Do one cold rinse, a hot wash and a final cold rinse. It got so bad after 6 months that I had to strip my diapers by boiling them (washing them repeatedly without detergent did not work). Prior to this I had used diaper cream on occasion. Stripping the diapers worked and I don't use creams anymore.
However, the smell is returning and its been about 2 months. I do a load every other day so they don't sit very long, do an extra large load so there's lots of water, I use a dry pail.
Suggestions? New detergent?? Help!
Lisa |
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My first thought is that perhaps you're not using enough detergent. Considering that you're using a residue-free detergent, use what seems like very little of it (admitedly I've never used Charlie's so I don't know how much you're 'supposed' to use) and that plain water stripping didn't help in the past, I'd definetly say that it doesn't sound like it's too much detergent. It's possible that they're just not getting quite clean enough and the boiling helped give them a deep clean, which is why it worked and the stripping/plain water washes didn't.
Does Charlie's recomend using that quantity of detergent? For most detergents you do have to use less than recomended but for a clean rinsing detergent like Charlie's it's probably best to stick to the recomended amount or pretty close to it.
Karen. |
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That could be the problem. When I first had this problem I was using 1 tbsp (recommended amount) and the diaper retailer said that I should probably use half that so that's what I've been doing since. I'll try to use some more soap and do a few thorough washes.
Is there another detergent that you know works well?
Thanks,
Lisa |
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I am having this problem too  I use Country Save Detergent and my only option yet to try is that I am using too little. I use 1/4 of what is recommended for HE detergents. |
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Using 1/4 scoop of Country Save, 1/2 of what they recommend for HE, has worked well for me, and I've been using it for almost two years now. Water type is such a variable, of course.
If you are worried about rinsing clean, you could try a couple of things:
1) use the detergent in the pre-wash/rinse that you do (ideally on hot) and then run a full hot cycle afterward.
2) either separately or as a variation of the above, if you have a top loader, this is easier, but if you catch the machine after it has finished the hot wash but before it does the rinse, you can set it back and basically run another hot wash to act as your rinse cycle (and ideally you'd catch it again before it runs cold rinse and set it forward to just spin things out afterward, but I will be the first to admit that it's hard to catch things right. This is what I do at my in-laws who have the water from Hades). Detergent is always going to come out better in hotter water.
Playing with cycles isn't easy with a front loader, but sometimes you can pick your rinse warmth, and they do give you the option of running a sanitary cycle every now and again. If you don't have the ability to set up a cycle with a hot pre-wash/rinse, you might have something like a "quick wash" option you could run on hot and then start the normal hot cycle. Can you tell I'm a fan of as much hot water as possible? :-) (I wash most of our family clothes on cold, though.) |
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I would definitely use more detergent, or switch detergents (after stripping again).
Right now I use Tiny Bubbles by The Natural Baby Company. Are you in the US or Canada? I don't know if they have it in Canada. But there are quite a few CD friendly detergents to choose from these days. One new one a lot of people love is Rockin' Green. Country Save is a popular one.
One thing I do to prevent smelly diapers is to rinse them before putting them in the dry pail, even if they are just pee diapers. You could also try another extra rinse at the end of your cycle, see if that helps.
Some people add some vinegar to the pre-rinse. It helps balance the ph of the diapers so that detergent works better. Others like to add vinegar to one of the last rinses, to help break up any detergent residue and it acts as a fabric softener as well. You can try it both ways and see which you prefer.
Do you keep the lid of your dry pail open? That helps not to set odors in diapers as well. I couldn't leave it open when I wasn't rinsing pee diapers, but once I started rinsing pee diapers, I can leave the pail open and it's no problem.
Here's a link about stripping diapers:
http://www.zany-zebra.com/stripping-cloth-diapers.shtml
Maybe that can give you some more ideas.
I've used RLR successfully. IT really did help eliminate that odor that my daughter's diapers can get by morning time. I've used it a couple times in the past 4 months. |
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Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I'm going to give some of them a try. Let's hope it works!!
Lisa |
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