So frustrated about diaper smell even after many washes!!!!

[Wendy HS]

I am really getting frustrated with trying to figure out my wash routein to get my diapers clean. Last week some of them came out of the wash smelling like poop, and I was starting to smell a strong amononia smell also, especially after my DD wets. That didn't happen for the first 4 weeks or so. I have stripped them (hot water, dawn dish soap and about 6 hot water rinses). I have washed these things in hot water at the least 8 times to no avail.

My wash routein is cold water cycle, Hot water cycle with 1-2 scoops of charlies soap and 1/2 cup arm hammer washing soda and another hot wash to make sure all the soap is out, they still come out after all of that smelling like poop!!! They do smell better but good grief!!!! How many times do I have to wash them to get the dang smell to go away!!!! Is my nose just being to sensitive or what???? I have also added more water to the load to make sure it was enough and also put the load on heavy soiled. There is plenty of water in the load and I rinse them I know until there are no suds or anything. I am really getting frustrated!!! Please help and tell me what I am doing wrong. I think our water is averge hard water, but not too hard.

[cristeen]

White vinegar rinse? Top loader or front? What type of dipes?

[Wendy HS]

It is a top loader, a fisher and paykal eco smart and I am using fuzzi bunz pocket with inserts, bummies with prefolds and also g diapers with cloth inserts. Today I tried to wash a few and added not only the armon hammer washing soda, but also the borax, 1 scoop of charlies soap, and did a cold water wash and a hot water wash and let them sit and soak in the hot water and did the heavy load and they did seem to come out smelling better than before. That seems like an awful lot to go through and a lot of laundry products!!!! Will the white vinegar hurt the diapers at all. I will try that too if needed. I need to get this right, I have another baby due any time now and my DD is still in CD's, so I will have twice as much now.

[~Demeter~]

Use less Charlies, 2 scoops is way, way, way too much... even one full scoop might be too much.

[Pepper44]

Use a tiny bit of soap, put a little vinegar in the rinse...like 1/3 cup, I just estimate mine.

I don't know about the arm and hammer washing soda? What's that for?

We have hard water and I have found that Calgon makes all the difference. I do a cold soak for a couple hours, rinse, then a hot wash on the heavy soiled cycle with a few drops of Purex free and clear and Calgon, with vinegar in the rinse. Then I do an extra rinse for good measure. My diapers always come out soft, fluffy, and fresh since I started using the Calgon. Before that we had stink issues. (I use prefolds and fitteds.)

[Katie T]

I use Charlies as well. I think you need a level scoop but just one. They will tell you that you shouldn't use less for diapers like other brands. But what I found really helped my issues with the poo smell was to do as you have been with the cold wash no soap then do the hot wash with the 1 scoop of charlies and let it agitate for a little bit then stop the washer and let it soak for at least 30 minutes. Then start it back up. Then do hot washes till you see no suds.

The poo smell is the diapers not getting clean (the soak should help with this)

The ammonia smell is from detergent build up (the hot washes with no soap should help this)

Once you have them clean and free of the extra detergent you will only need around 2 hot washes with no soap before you see no suds. Sometimes it takes 3 but I have not had to strip or had smell issues since starting this routine around 2 yrs ago.

Good luck!

[JTA Mom]

Poopy smell is them not getting clean. Up the detergent.

And please, enough with the suds! Do you check your clothing for suds? If there are no rash or repelling issues, don't worry about it.

Ammonia stink is for 2 reasons, and 2 reasons only:

1) Not enough water to get the ammonia crystals out.

Huge issue with front loaders/he machines. Also a huge issue with having a dry pail where the ammonia dries into the fibers. Also why super absorbent materials have bigger issues (more absorbent=harder to rinse).

Fix: Add more water to your washer (either through a button or manually, up to 3 gal, is okay). Do an extra hot or warm wash cycle. Extra rinses, in my experience, are not enough in an he machine to do much difference.

2) Ammonia bacteria build up.

This happens when diapers don't really get clean. Detergent does NOT disinfect diapers. Combined with not using enough soap to get the diapers clean, it's a recipe for disaster. You know you have ammonia bacteria when, upon peeing, the ammonia stink starts. Ammonia bacteria is like yeast. In dry form, inert. Once wet, they take off!

Fix: You need to disinfect them! Either use bleach or a very generous scoop of oxiclean (it's basically concentrated hydrogen peroxide). The first time, let it soak a little bit (like 30 min). For maintenance add a bit of whichever each time you wash.

Detergent build up generally does not result in smell issues. Detergent build up generally comes out with repelling issues. Stink issues means your diapers are not getting clean.

Also, if you have hard water (any scale on your faucets, shower doors, etc?) you actually need to use more detergent. The minerals in the water attach themselves to the cleaning agents (surfactants, water softeners), leaving very little left to actually get your diapers clean.

Ami

[Jazzmin]

Originally Posted by Wendy HS

It is a top loader, a fisher and paykal eco smart and I am using fuzzi bunz pocket with inserts, bummies with prefolds and also g diapers with cloth inserts. Today I tried to wash a few and added not only the armon hammer washing soda, but also the borax, 1 scoop of charlies soap, and did a cold water wash and a hot water wash and let them sit and soak in the hot water and did the heavy load and they did seem to come out smelling better than before. That seems like an awful lot to go through and a lot of laundry products!!!! Will the white vinegar hurt the diapers at all. I will try that too if needed. I need to get this right, I have another baby due any time now and my DD is still in CD's, so I will have twice as much now.

I use the same machine and I use the same dipes!

I do a cold wash on "time saver". Then a hot wash with one scoop of Charlies. Then two more cold washes on "time saver". All of those have the water level set to high.

We do have hard water, but I have had no issues with stink or repelling with this routine.

[Carma]

I now also developed ammonia issues Diapers smell good after washing, but once they are wet with urine there is ammonia right away. It is only the inserts (I have MF and Zorb) not the covers. I was using 7th Gen. then I switched to Tide, no solution yet. I am now going to boil the inserts. I am pretty sure my LG HE FL does not wash the inserts well enough. When I first got the HE FL (my TL broke), I suddenly had stink issues with my towels. That was resolved with vinegar rinse and (air) drying them after use, but that has not helped with the ammonia in the diapers. When my kitchen rags smell (leaving them wet too long), I cannot get the smell out with my HE FL. I have to use bleach or boil them. I am reluctant to use bleach with the diapers, because it is dangerous to mix ammonia with bleach (what if there is still some bleach in the diaper and there is again ammonia developing).

Carma

ps. Didn't try oxiclean yet. Is that save to mix with ammonia?

[Wendy HS]

Okay, now after stripping them, I have washed them with cold water cycle 1st, then 1 hot wash heavy duty with 1 scoop of Charlies soap, allowed them to sit and soak for at least 30 minutes, then another hot wash with no soap and I add white vinegar to the last rinse. Then I dry them. After I pulled them out of the dryer I could not smell any poo or urine smell on the g diaper cloth inserts, covers, or liners. I could not smell it on the fuzzi bunz covers, but believe it or not I could still smell a hint of poo on the fuzzi bunz inserts (and yes I take the inserts out of the covers). I've gotten conflicting advice about how much soap to use. Everyone says do not use more than 1 scoop of charlies soap. I am doing a small load of diapers ( at the most maybe 5 pair) and adding enough water to cover them completely and then some. I wash these diapers everyday so they don't typically sit with poo on them and I also wash the poo off in the toilet before I put them in the wet bag. WHAT AM I STILL DOING WRONG???!!!! The smell is more bearable now for sure, do ya'll actually hold your diapers right to your nose and expect them to have literally no smell whatsoever. Maybe I am being too picky!!! They do smell better after this last wash, but I could still detect a small amount of poo smell in the fuzzi bunz inserts.

[Jazzmin]

I put them up to my nose and sniff and no smells.

Are you using enough water if you are just covering the CD? I put the level on high.

[JTA Mom]

The amount of detergent is not based on the number of diapers, but on the amount of water in a load. If you add a ton of water and use a small load size scoop, you are, in essence, diluting your detergent. Same concept as just using a tbs to clean an entire load of diaper laundry.

Again, don't worry about using 'too much' detergent. If you truly use too much and it causes repelling issues, just run a few non-detergent washes on hot. Nothing that can't be easily reversed.

Carma, look at my previous post about ammonia. Also, you can add up to 3 gallons of extra water to your fl without issues. I've found that this is a HUGE deal in getting rid of stink in an he machine. Those things just do not use enough water to really clean, imo, actually dirty loads. Poo smell=not clean. Ammonia smell=a bit more complicated. lol

ETA: And yes, I stick my nose right into the inserts to smell them. IMO, I wouldn't wear clothes that had 'slight' BO on them, so why would diapers be different?

Ami

[Katie T]

If it is just your inserts maybe try filling your sink with straight hot water and a scoop of Charlies and a scoop of oxyclean let set over night and throw in the washer.

I think fl make diaper washing harder. Hope you figure out something that works for you and your water soon.

[Carma]

No ammonia odor when using them again after boiling the inserts. See if I can keep it away. I will now use the tubclean program to get more water in the machine. After water inlet I change the program to a real washing program (tub clean does not have a lot of agitation). See if that works. Sticking to Tide for now. It get's stains out better, so I assume it also washes cleaner...

Carma

ps. I am also holding the diapers to my nose

[Wendy HS]

I guess my washing machine just doesn't work!!!! I always add extra water, enough to completely cover the diapers over with at least 3-6 inches of water. I use the heavy load setting. I did a cold water wash no soap, then a hot water wash with 2 scoops (TBS.) of charlies, 1 cup borax, 1/2 cup arm and hammer super wash, and I even added 4-5 scoops of oxi brite to the load and let them soak in it ( I thought for sure this would have to get the poo smell completely off). Then I washed again on hot with no detergent or anything to make sure all the soap rinsed out. I am not having issues with amoniona smell at all after the wash, only before of course because they sit in the wet bag until I take them out to wash them. After washing I held each one up to my nose and all smelled okay coming out of the dryer except one of the inserts that my DD pooed on!!!!! GOOD GREIF!!!! The stains were even still on the diaper. I rewashed this insert again and it still came out stinky and stained, now I added it to my whites load and am bleaching it in hot water with a soak. This machine is a eco smart, fisher and paykal, and is fairly new. I did have some problems with towels holding a musty smell in them for a while in the summer time and I ended up using some white vinegar and that seemed to take care of the musty smell of the towels. Can anyone tell me how much Vinegar to use in the rinse cycle of the diapers on an average load. I only have 5 fuzzi bunz and 5 g diapers with their inserts so I really don't wash a ton of diapers. I wash everyday and never all 10 at the same time. Everyone is telling me that if they still smell like poop they aren't clean!!! I agree!!!!!! It is gross!!!! Look at the amount of crap I am putting in the hot wash and tell me how much more I need to add to get these things clean. I am about ready to give up on charlies soap and try some tide or something else, at least they will come out smelling better. Our water is not super hard, I would say it is middle of the road. I am also not having any repelling issues as of yet. Would bleach work at all? We were told this washing machine was a top of the line machine, but I am beginning to think they were selling us a load of garbage.

[robocop760]

I know this was a year ago but did you find anything that worked?  I am having the same trouble with my FB inserts.  I have tried everything.  Thinking of switching to disposables after three years of CD.  I just don't think I can keep this up every other day, it takes me all day.  And it might be worth it if they came out smelling clean but they don't and it makes my son's skin red. 

Soak all diapers in a wet pail with water/vinegar solution.  Tried dry pail, stink WAY worse.

Cold wash with borax

Hot wash with detergent

Two cold water rinses

Dry in the sun

Inserts go to full rounds in the dryer on high heat

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

[icy02]

robocop760 - I had the hardest time with smell with my pocket dipes. I am not currently using pockets but here is my regimen:

I only do dipes 2 (sometimes 3) times a week MAX! I keep my diapers in a dry pail. I rinse on med water level in cold water. I wash in HOT with ECOS detergent (I get it from Costco and I love it and it's super cheap!) For the wash I switch to Large Load. Then I go back to med sized load and rinse again in cold. Line dry in sun and finish in dryer for 30 mins. My diapers never EVER smell.

I will occasionally add 1/4c bleach to my wash if DS is getting rashy. I've read that the sun and dryer don't kill all the bacteria and it's good to bleach them once a month. 1/4c in a Large load is not much bleach and equal to a chlorinated swimming pool. My DS has a lot of allergies and very sensitive skin and he does really well with the ECOS and a tiny bit of bleach.

Hope this helps! Keep us updated.

[Nicole730]

I think I read most of this thread...didn't notice bleach.  When we get stink issues of any kind, I put some bleach in.  Fixes it every time.  I bleach it all when I do it.  Wetbags, wipes, pul, fitted, etc...  We have a little bit of everything in our stash.

[SweetSilver]

I stopped saving my diapers.  I washed every day or every other day.  I figured this out with my 2nd daughter.  I always used prefolds because they were easy to launder and didn't hold the smell as easily.  I used extra soap and hot water on the first wash and, yes, bleach bleach bleach.  Not every time nor every week, but regularly.  It is the one truly toxic thing in my house.  Had a top loader for dd1.  Much preferred front loader I got for dd2.  I would still wash them twice often, I forget the exact details, but I remember putting vinegar in the "fabric softener" slot. I stopped trying to get a full pail or whatever, the ammonia was overwhelming.  For the pail, I washed then swiped it with a vinegar/tea tree oil mix.

[teraze]

Originally Posted by Nicole730 

I think I read most of this thread...didn't notice bleach.  When we get stink issues of any kind, I put some bleach in.  Fixes it every time.  I bleach it all when I do it.  Wetbags, wipes, pul, fitted, etc...  We have a little bit of everything in our stash.

I started bleaching my bumGenius' once per month, about a quarter cup.  I've done it twice so far and it hasn't hurt the integrity of the dipes, and there is no dirty smell.  (bG recommends it...if they didn't, I'd never give it a shot!)  :)