Stinky Fuzzi Buns...

[MamaBirdEmma]

We have FB cloth diapers and they stink like ammonia!

I've tried stripping them... is there anything else that I can do? How can I prevent this in the future when we buy new diapers eventually?

[Adsullata]

A cold water pre-wash w/ baking soda will normally eliminate ammonia/urine odor. If you have a toploader, you can use anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup baking soda. For a frontloader, 1/16 to 1/8 cup should do. You can tell if you used too much baking soda, because fabrics will come out a little stiff and/or rough feeling after washing. Usually an extra rinse will take care of that. Too much baking or detergent can also be neutralized w/ a very small amount white vinegar in the rinse. If you use vinegar w/ dipes tho, do be careful not to use too much or too frequent because you can make the smell problem worse.

To keep urine odor (ammonia smell) from coming back or building up, regularly put a little baking soda in your cold water pre-wash about every 2-3 times you wash the diapers. If you do that, you should only need to use the smaller end of the measurement scale referenced above.

hth!

[Michigan Mama]

Usually stripping dipes does the trick! What was your method?

Sometimes it's an issue with the detergent itself. What do you use?

[brietta]

The ammonia problems with have with our fuzzi bunz are caused by our hard water. Do you have hard water? If so, some liquid calgon along with detergent in your wash routine should help with that.

Otherwise, every so often I bleach the inserts. I think microfiber can really hold onto detergent or bacteria, so it helps to occasionally really get them clean with some bleach. It's not my favorite course of action so I try to limit how often I do it, but every 8 weeks or so it seems necessary-- and it works like a charm: ammonia smells are gone.

[Galatea]

I think there are several good ideas here: bleaching the inserts on occasion, and using baking soda or vinegar. I use vinegar in my cold prewash and never have ammonia buildup.

[MamaBirdEmma]

I have tried the baking soda methods, but not the vinegar or bleach! I will try that and report back!

[jocelyndale]

Ammonia is basic. So is baking soda. Until I stopped using baking soda, I had massive ammonia problems with the MF inserts for FBs. So I started using vinegar in the pre-wash. No more problems.

I strip with Simple Green when problems arise (usually someone else using diaper cream). And Calgon can be quite useful for hard water issues.

[ShineliketheSon]

We had this problem with our FB... we contacted Fb and they told us to use 1/4-1/2 cupful of regular oxiclean in every hot wash with the 1/4 of detergent on a large load. So we did this every time along with our baking soda sprinkled in both cold rinses and never had a problem again.

Cold rinse-baking soda sprinkle
Hot wash-1/4 det , 1/4 oxiclean
Cold rinse-baking soda sprinkle
Dry