Please help me troubleshoot why my prefolds stink like ammonia, but only at night?

[rocketgirl96]

That's right - my prefolds only smell like ammonia at night! Not during the day at all. I thought the ammonia smell was only coming from the BG diaper doublers (micro-fiber on one side/micro-fleece on the other) I use inside the prefold for nighttime diapering but when I smelled the actual prefold the other day, I was shocked to discover that the prefold also smelled of ammonia. I've tried stripping them and that seems to help a little - they don't smell like ammonia until towards the early morning (4am or so) but I'd like to know or figure out why they are smelling this way at all.

I never really thought twice about it before because I just assumed that my DS's pee just smelled like that. It never bothered him before so I never really worried about it. Now, it seems like the smell wakes him up and makes it hard for him to go back to sleep without a diaper change (which I haven't had to do since he was an infant). He's 18 months now and I guess the smell bothers him. He pees a lot at night because he still wakes up quite a few times and I breastfeed him back to sleep.

Could it be that pee just gets an ammonia smell the longer it remains on the prefold?

Is there any way to stop this smell or should I just resign myself to either changing his diaper at night or using a sposie (neither option is appealing to me).

Thanks,
Christine

[lifeguard]

Urine becomes ammonia as it sits. So probably it is just the length of time the urine is sitting on the prefold between that first pee in the night & when he wakes in the morning. Probably the only real solution would be to change him halfway through the night.

[octobermom]

yup amonia smells happen with extended wear of a diaper. What cover are you using? One that allows some airflow will help the smell. If you can do a nightly change go for it.
Another thing do you do vunager rinses? Sometimes a little vinager residue left on the diapers when combined with urine will make a STRONG amonia smell if this is so try eaither doing an extra rinse nothing added or wha t found better adding the vinager to the prerise cycle rather than the finial cycle this helps restore the PH balance and gets a good clean rinse.
Deanna