Stinkies Getting WORSE... HELP!!

[chely7425]

Our stinkies are getting worse... his diaper this morning DEFINTIELY smelled like ammonia *gag* and I have no idea what to do. We are currently using pockets and MF inserts. Our wash routine is cold rinse, hot wash with calgon and Tide Free, hot rinse... they smell perfectly fine coming out of the wash!! We have tried tons of detergents, Tide Free definitly doesn't seem to be helping any?? What causes the ammonia smell? What do I need to do?!? Switching to sposies isn't an option as DS is allergic... do I need to use a different system (ie natural fibers, fitteds and covers) to deal with the hot water? Different detergent? I have GOT to figure this out!! Help!!

[brietta]

From what I understand, ammonia is caused by one of two things:

1. detergent build-up
2. bacteria build-up

The difficulty with MF inserts is that they hold onto residue (detergent or bacterial) more than natural fibers. That said, I use all pocket diapers with MF inserts, have hard water, and have figured out a system that works. Here it is:

cold rinse
hot wash with 1 FULL scoop (=1Tablespoon) of Charlie's Soap
cold rinse
1 addition Express hot wash w/ cold rinse because I have a frontloader (since they use less water, I have to compensate with extra rinses)

In the summer, I line dry outside and we have virtually NO problems then. The sun works wonders at killing bacteria and since I use a 100% soluble detergent (Charlie's), I don't have to worry about detergent build-up either. In the winter, however, I use a drying rack for the pockets and dry the inserts in the washer and that's when we can have problems with bacteria build-up.

So every couple weeks during the winter months (probably every 5-7), I bleach all the inserts to get rid of bacteria that has built up. I use about 1/4c bleach and then rinse the heck out of the inserts and we're usually good to go. Bleach isn't my favorite thing in the world to use, but I've tried vinegar (made it worse), 2 different kinds of oxiclean (made it worse), baking soda (didn't help), less detergent (made it worse), more detergent (didn't help), etc. I figure an occasional bleaching is better than my child's bottom being irritated and/or my eyes watering when I change his/her diaper in the morning!

Anyway, I don't know if any of that will help you. But I totally sympathize as it took me quite a while to figure out this system and I felt rather stressed in the meantime.

[chely7425]

Thank you for your reply!! I think perhaps once our house guest is gone I will try Charlie's... but for now I can't really afford to buy that stuff for ALL our clothes plus his and I know it isn't good to use Charlie's with other soaps. Do you have an detergent rec's in the mean time? Do you think that trying to use more natural fiber inserts like hemp might help?

[MoOnFiReGlOw]

HI mama! Those suggestions the previous mama made are awesome! Those should work, if not though you could try to put some white distilled viniger in the rinse cycle as well (or if you have a downy ball, put some in that). How it works is that the ammonia is a basic and your diapers pH is out of balance. What i did (just for fun) was I whipped out a pH strip and tried to see what the pH was and it was about 7.7 when I was having problems (a bit basic, needs more acid to be neutral). I went to my chem professor and asked how much vinegar to add and he said about two cups should be enough. Added the two cups and let it soak and rinsed in the morning and magically the ammonia smell was gone!

[chely7425]

Thanks!! I am up for trying anything at this point...

[confustication]

I readily admit that the only 'fix' I ever had work for us was bleach. Switching to Charlie's has prevented it from happening again, but I needed the 'bleach it' fix initially. I won't bleach pocket dipes, of course, or covers, but inserts, fitteds, and prefolds are fair game.

[Dynia]

Originally Posted by MoOnFiReGlOw

HI mama! Those suggestions the previous mama made are awesome! Those should work, if not though you could try to put some white distilled viniger in the rinse cycle as well (or if you have a downy ball, put some in that). How it works is that the ammonia is a basic and your diapers pH is out of balance. What i did (just for fun) was I whipped out a pH strip and tried to see what the pH was and it was about 7.7 when I was having problems (a bit basic, needs more acid to be neutral). I went to my chem professor and asked how much vinegar to add and he said about two cups should be enough. Added the two cups and let it soak and rinsed in the morning and magically the ammonia smell was gone!

Vinegar was the solution for us as well. I soaked the stinkies for a few hours then washed as normal. Now I add vinegar to my rinse as well and the stinkies have not come back

[chely7425]

I might try the vinegar... and I have bleached the inserts once before so I think I will do that again!! Any thoughts on Country Save detergent? It is available locally (which most good detergents aren't) so I think I might give that a try but I need to figure out how much to use...

[Michigan Mama]

You may or not have heard this, but Tide is not often recommended for dipes. Check out this list if you haven't already:
http://www.diaperjungle.com/detergent-chart.html

Our routine usually goes cold rinse, hot wash with 1 T Charlie's (though I will probably switch back to the arm & hammer essentials free when it's gone), hot rinse.

Occasionally, if I start to get stink, I turn up the hot water heater and do like 4-5 extra rinses. That usually keeps stinkies at bay. I do that periodically. Maybe every 6-8 weeks. I don't count, but it's something like that.

Good luck! As you can see, something different works for different families, so just keep trying and you'll figure it out.

[chely7425]

If the Country Save doesn't work Arm and Hammer Essentials Free is next on my list to try... I would have tried it this time but the store only had HUGE bottles and I didn't want to buy a huge bottle when I am not sure of it yet!!

[Michigan Mama]

From what I've read here, Country Save usually works well. It's not available to me locally so I've never tried it. I would use about 1/4 the normal amount and see how it goes...

[chely7425]

Originally Posted by footprintsbaby

From what I've read here, Country Save usually works well. It's not available to me locally so I've never tried it. I would use about 1/4 the normal amount and see how it goes...

It says to use 1/4 cup... so would I start out using 1 tablespoon?

[fairymom]

I don't know much about washing CDs but a question popped into mind- I can tell you are having a really hard time. Do you think it could be simply something your son is eating? A new food? I don't know really just my thoughts from reading your posts- you've said they smell fine coming out of the wash and as I understand from reading the bad smell is in his morning diaper. Just a thought. Hope you find a solution!

[chely7425]

His diet is still the same as it always has been... we have been having issues since we moved to Louisiana (very hard water vs our soft water back home) but I am just getting fed up now Plus we are having a second baby in a few months so I want to get all this figured out now! I am sure we can find a solution just might take some time... bleh.

[MoOnFiReGlOw]

Originally Posted by chely7425

If the Country Save doesn't work Arm and Hammer Essentials Free is next on my list to try... I would have tried it this time but the store only had HUGE bottles and I didn't want to buy a huge bottle when I am not sure of it yet!!

I LOVE country save! I got some samples from an online retailer and used half of the recommended amount for a full load of diapers and it worked very well

[brietta]

Originally Posted by chely7425

we have been having issues since we moved to Louisiana (very hard water vs our soft water back home)

Hard water makes everything with washing diapers more difficult. Sometimes I get very frustrated that I'm paying for water that's so hard. Grrr...

I hope you can find a good solution!

(In regards to how much Country Save to use, my one caution is that I had real problems when I reduced how much detergent I used. It's important to find the right balance or you can cause even more problems by not using enough detergent to get rid of bacteria. I'm not sure what the *right* amount with Country Save is-- especially since I don't know what kind of washer you have-- but don't be afraid to experiment a bit.)

[Galatea]

I use white vinegar in the cold prewash and have no ammonia smell. The acidic vinegar cuts the basic ammonia salts from urine.

[mumkimum]

When I had bad diaper problems like this, I started running a full wash cycle without detergent after I washed the diapers (like an extra-extra rinse). I did this everytime I washed them for a week or two, and it really helped get rid of whatever was causing the extra ammonia morning stink.

(We'd used All free & clear and ended up having to switch, and switched to Charlies)

[BabyBearsMummy]

It sounds to me like you have a detergent buildup issue. When I was first using CDs I used Tide Free too but had to stop because I found I was repeatedly having issues with detergent build up. I would strip them but ended up with build up again. Once I switched to a different detergent (Claudia's Choice) and added vinegar to the rinse. I didnt have the problem again.

[seaheroine]

I vote fibers. The only stank I've ever had was with diapers with synthetic fibers. Cotton diapers mean no stink here and I wash with All Free and Clear, which I know isN'T supposed to be the best...but in fifteen months we've had no stink yet with the pure cotton.

I:
cold wash
hot wash w/soap + rinse
extra wash w/no soap

A bit excessive but I only wash diapers 2x a week so loads are full. I'm with you, Mumkimum. I think the extra wash really helps.