fishy smell?

[milkmamamerina]

We just switched to cloth a week or so ago, and I noticed from day 1 that the pail was fishy smelling, but I thought it might be that I keep my diapers in an airtight bucket. (I've been washing daily until my stash grows)

But last night was our first night in cloth. We used a hemp fitted with a PUL tight fiitting cover. When I changed her in the morning, the first thing I smelled was an overpowering fish smell. After that the ammonia struck me.

Even my husband walked into the laundry room while the diapers were going in the wash and commented it smelled fishy.

Is this normal?

[michelle123]

Are you using diaper cream with any fish oils like cod liver oil? That can cause a fishy smell and they are generally not recommended for cloth diapers.

[Chamomile Girl]

Y'know BM poo sometimes smells strangely fishy. Maybe its that?

[Sleepyheaded_Mama]

Is it fishy really, or more of a buttered popcorn smell? I've always thought BM poo smelled more like buttered popcorn...

[milkmamamerina]

no on the diaper cream, in fact it was MUCH fishier than desitin is.
I don't see how it could be BM poo since it was only urine in her diaper.
And, yeah, it's FISHY definitely not resembling buttered popcorn :-)

[DevaMajka]

A few things I thought of:
If you don't use an airtight lid, the pail stinks less. I find I only need to put the lid on tighly after a day and a half.

Are you using enough detergent, and plenty of water? I had the ammonia smell, and it was fixed by washing with Tide to the 1 line and rinsing over and over until there were no suds.
I've used about 1/2 detergent since, and just one extra rinse.

I would try that for the fish smell too. You may need to do it more than once. Or try washing clean diapers with Dawn (and rinse until there are no suds left). The fish smell takes some work to get rid of

[HeatherB]

Did you buy the diapers new, or used?

We've had the fishy smell, and it comes after a stomach virus. Has happened with both of my CD'd boys and I've come here both times (the second time, found my original thread to help! ).

If there hasn't been a virus, and no diaper cream, then I'd wonder if it wasn't the diapers needing to be stripped. DevaMajka's instructions above will help get them thoroughly clean, at which point they should be fine.