Strong Ammonia Smell in the Morning

[3daughters]

DD's MEOS have a HEAVY ammonia smell after being worn all night. This is a fairly new thing. I stripped the diapers with a HOT wash and 6+ rinses but the smell didn't going away.

I don't smell this on every wet diaper (unless I bring them right up to my nose) just the night ones. The dry diaper pail does have a strong smell too. Diapers smell clean when they come out of the wash and DD doesn't have a related rash.

I started thinking that maybe its normal for this to happen with an older baby (DD turns one this week). If it isn't normal then please suggest how I can eliminate this smell with a method other than repeated rinses.

[chely7425]

We have started having this issue in the past month (DS just turned 1) and all the feedback I have gotten on here is that its normal. I mean, a nighttime diaper sits on a baby for 10-12 hours and any fabric with pee on it is going to smell after that amount of time!! Do your diapers smell clean out of the wash? If not, then they are possibly not getting clean in the wash... but if they smell fine out of the washer (as ours do) then it is probably just stronger pee. We bought some citrus circles for our diaper pail and that has helped a lot!!

[Llyra]

Urine starts to break down in composition after awhile. The smell comes from that. Also, nighttime urine is often more concentrated, especially if baby is night nursing less often. It's normal for wet diapers to smell that way after they've been wet awhile, like when baby wears them overnight. As long as the diapers come clean, and there's no rash, and you don't have stink IMMEDIATELY when baby pees, then there's no worries!

[paintingmom]

Totally normal--my husband refuses to change it because it's so strong.

[Michigan Mama]

Just one thing to add - if you do need to do extra rinses, make sure they are hot. I always turn the hot water heater up. I think 2-3 hot rinses is much more effective than 5-6 cold ones.

[3daughters]

Thanks for the input ladies! I will not attempt to strip again since it is added wear on the diapers. I think I'm going to invest in some soap nuts so I can avoid the detergent build-up concerns.