Urine and poo smell on CD's

[Wendy HS]

I have just started CD's and have used the FB's and Bummies w/prefolds and g diapers with cloth inserts now for about 6 weeks or so. I have just noticed they are coming out of the dryer smelling like pee and poop still, and they seem to be leaking more than before. I do the cold wash no detergent, then at least one hot wash with detergent, and then dry on hot. Using Seventh generation detergent. I just now realize that it only got 2 stars on some of the CD web sites even though it was reccommended on the Bummies paper work as one of the ones to use. Obviously they are not getting clean. As soon as my DD pees then they really start smelling, even like she has pooped in them when she hasn't. I guess we have hard water, not really sure how to tell, but we don't come out of the shower feeling like we still have soap on us. I need to know what is the best way to get the smell off and then keep it off !!!! It is really frustrating because it already seems like I wash diapers all day!!! I also read you can strip them with dawn soap, should I do that? What is the best detergent to use and how can I figure out if I have hard water, soft water, or somewhere inbetween so I can get the right laundry detergent? Where we live I will just have to order the detergent through internet because I haven't seen any of the other kinds anywhere within 60 miles of us.

[CallMeMommy]

It might be soap residue. What I'd try is washing them on hot with a lot of detergent (if you're only using 1/2 cap or scoop or whatever, try a full one) and rinsing until you don't see any suds. Then when you resume your normal wash routine, do an extra warm wash cycle with no soap or anything at the very end to make sure all of the soap is out of the diapers. I had to resort to this routine after we got our HE washer. It's a pain, but it's the only thing that gets them clean that I've found. If you want to give a different detergent a shot, alice.com has Country Save (supposed to be one of the best cloth diaper detergents) and has free shipping.

[labellaluna]

To tell is you have hard water:
DO you have red stains in your tub? Lime scale on your faucets? If you bought you house you may have had a water test done and you can look on that and call the company who did the test. You can buy test online, but that is expensive.

Here is what I would do:
A few reasons diapers don't get clean-
1. Not enough water : You have too many diapers and not enough water to rinse them properly.
2. Not enough agitation: Diapers need to move around A LOT to be properly rinsed and get all the gunk out. Try an extra agitation cycle.
3. Too much or not enough detergent: Hard water requires more detergent to break down the calcium and mineral deposits in the fabric. Soft water requires less detergent. I would suggest a soapless detergent, as you don't have to worry about soap residue and buildup.
4.Bacteria buildup

I would strip your diapers ( using whatever method you prefer- I just rinse the heck out of them in HOT HOT water with no detergent)
DIsinfect your diapers using oxy clean free ( totally cd safe)- add 1/4 cup to a HOT soak and let sit.

Hope that was helpful!

[bodhitree]

You can call your utilities company and ask them if your water is hard or soft. They usually can tell you that.

You've already got some good suggestions for getting your diapers in good working order again, but once you've stripped them and gotten them really clean, you probably do need to make some changes to your regular wash routine to make sure they don't get stinky again. I was having problems with stinkies, and I started using more detergent in the main wash cycle (we have very hard water) and doing an extra hot wash with no detergent added to get them rinsed very, very well. That helped a lot.

[JTA Mom]

If they smell like poop, they are NOT getting clean.

You need to increase the amount of detergent that you are using. Lots of people focus on suds and detergent build up, but to be honest, I see a ton more problems with not using enough detergent than detergent build up. If it was detergent build up, you'd have repelling, but not poop smelling issues.

Ami

[Wendy HS]

Okay here's what I did. I washed them in really hot water and did the stripping with a squirt of dawn dish soap, and washed and rinsed until there were no more suds, at least 5 washes/rinses on hot water just to make sure. I increased the amount of water in the machine because it looked to me like when it was set at auto it had just enough water to cover the diapers up. We do get some stains and lime scale build up so I guess we do have hard water. The only reason I wasn't using more soap is because everyone was saying not too!!! I will try to add more soap, and see if that helps. I did go and get Charlies soap to try out (hopefully that wasn't a mistake) I also have some Oxy brite, that I will try soaking once a week or more if needed. We have a fisher and Paykel Eco smart washing machine. It doesn't say specifically anywhere that it is an HE machine, but I assume it is because it is newer and wasn't cheap!!! They did come out smelling better, but I'm still not sure, it seemed like there was a lingering poo smell on some of the cloth inserts, but I'm pregnant and super sensitive to smell right now so I may just be faking myself out.

I also forgot that I started using cloth wipes instead of disposable wipes and I was making my own wipe solution with water, Berts bees apricot oil, and a little bit of bert's bees baby soap. I am thinking that is about the time the diapers started stinking because I am washing the wash cloths with the diapers. Is there anything I can use on the wash clothes to help clean up the poop, but not cause a problem with build up or stinkyness? It won't do just wiping my DD with a dry wash cloth, her poo is really sticky sometimes!!!

[treeoflife3]

I use calgon to help out with hard water. you can get it in the detergent/bleach section of the store. A capful with the detergent helps me but I don't have really hard water, just slightly hard.

As for your cloth wipes solution... I personally either just use water (get em wet at the sink just before diaper change) or I make a solution of water, olive oil, and lavender oil. I include tea tree oil too if I'm sure there isn't anything on her bum it might sting. Pretty simple and its never caused problems. Once in a while I use vitamin E oil too but I'm not really picky about it. Usually i'm too lazy to make anything anyway. I really only care to use olive oil and lavender if she has a rash because both help (I also like olive oil to help minor rashes too... gets rid of red really nicely when we can't be naked)

As for the wash routine, I feel like if I don't do a cold rinse first, then I'll have problems. I don't feel the need to do a full wash cycle sans detergent after the full cycle with detergent every time though. Usually I just do an extra cold rinse. I also use country save currently and I use about 3/4ths of their scoop when I have a full load of diapers (a full load for me is about half full of diapers before adding a full machine of water... always as much water as it allows) and if I only fill about 1/4 full then I use about 1/4 to 1/2 of the scoop filled.

It takes trial and error though. You'll get it.

[JTA Mom]

Yea, since you have hard water, you actually need to use the FULL amount of detergent plus a water softener of some sort (could just be some extra washing soda).

The minerals in hard water actually attract the surfactants & other cleaning agents in your detergent, leaving less to actually clean your clothes/diapers.

And stop worrying about bubbles. There will always be some bubbles due to water agitation, but unless it's truly sudsy, don't worry about it.

Ami