Stinky.

[blessedmama59]

Okay, so we have been CDing successfully for about four months now. We use all pfs and have a few Fuzzi Bunz that we use for night. I'm not a big fan of the FB, but they were free so I use them. Anyway, I wash about every other day. I do a pre-wash, then a hot wash with cold rinse..sometimes I do extra rinse. I try to strip them once a month (I just do a pre-wash and two whole wash cycles on hot with a little vinegar added for the rinse cycle.) These methods seemed to be working well as far as getting the diapers clean. Well, the past few mornings, my DD has been smelling AWFUL. Her nighttime diaper is always full (of course) but it smells SOOOO bad. I just stripped them the other day, so I would have thought that would help. It also makes her smell bad down there. I do bathe my DD every other day, unless she gets really dirty, so I know it's not her hygiene. I put her dirty diapers in a bag and usually keep it in the laundry closet..they do smell realllllly bad once I go to do the laundry and sometimes they stink up the room a bit. Is all of this normal?? I feel like I must be doing something wrong. Please help.

[MayasMama88]

With the FuzziBunz, you need to do more than just add vinegar to strip them. The inserts are microfiber, which tends to develop stink more than most other fibers. I know exactly what you're talking about, as we've had this issue before. The diapers smelled like an animal house at the zoo, and DD's genitals smelled as well. If you haven't already, I would try doing a soak with Rockin' Green detergent. This usually helps. If not, try using one squirt of Dawn dish soap (the original blue kind) in your wash and then RINSE, RINSE, RINSE until there are NO soap bubbles left. You'll have to keep checking during the agitate cycle, but this method definitely works. If worse comes to worse, you can try bleaching JUST YOUR INSERTS, not the diaper shell, and that should definitely work. It's usually the inserts that stink anyway, so the shells shouldn't need to be bleached. Hope this helps!

[blessedwith7]

I've been dealing with this problem also for the Bumgenius microfiber inserts. We just use the BG's for nighttime. I tried stripping with Dawn, soaking in bleach, vinegar rinse/soak, lots of rinses, different detergent, etc. The only thing that worked to really get out the smell was a vinegar + oxyclean soak idea that I got from diaper swappers forum. I was very careful as this causes a chemical reaction. I put the inserts in a small garbage pail. They were wet from a just washed cycle. I figured that would dilute the mixture a bit. If I need to do this again I will start with dry and "clean" inserts. I then poured out about half a gallon of vinegar to cover them. I placed the pail outside and poured on half a scoop of oxyclean. It fizzed up and I stirred with long stainless steel tongs. I kept away just in case the fumes could be bad. I soaked them like this outside all day stirring every so often. The fizz went away after a couple hours. I then filled up the pail with water from the hose, pulled out the inserts with the tongs (didn't want to touch just in case the solution is too strong for skin) and ran them through a regular diaper wash cycle: cold rinse, hot wash, two cold rinses. They looked somewhat brighter but it was not until the next morning that I noticed the biggest difference, no strong smell at all. My son is almost 2 so I'm sure his pee is potent and the inserts are always pretty wet. It's annoying that I have to give special treatment to the dipes at times but it's nice to keep that smell away and worth it especially since those bg's cost $18 each! Another thing I've decided to do since getting them smell free is rinse out the nighttime pee in the toilet before going in the wet bag, not sure if that makes a difference. I also had a problem with our prefolds but as I got them secondhand I'm not sure if they were 100% cotton so I switched to cotton flats which I like better but I would try this soak with prefolds if I needed too. Hope you find out what works for you!
Theresa

[desertgirl01]

Honestly, I tried so much and had such a complicated washing routine to deal with stink (stink the microfiber, hemp, and cotton). Multiple washes, different detergents (Rockin Green, Country Save, Green Mountain, Crunchy Clean, Tiny Bubbles), bleach, Calgon, RLR, vinegar, a billion rinses, stripping with Dawn...

Finally, I switched to Tide HE powder, and my diapers are amazingly clean. My daughter's night diaper smells like NOTHING in the morning, when the ammonia used to burn my nose. No more swamp smell. My wash routine is super simple, and the diapers are super clean. All those nasty chemicals in Tide actually work to CLEAN.

[blessedmama59]

Thanks ladies for your replies. I have heard of using dawn and the oxy clean method, but I've also read some conflicting info on those methods. I may try the dawn..anything but resorting to bleach. I really want to stay away from something that harsh. I do have some All Free and Clear..I have used it on accident (thinking I was grabbing the other detergent I use just for dipes) but can't really remember if it affected the cleanliness. Something has got to give though. I basically refuse to spend a ton of money on 'special' detergents on the net..I just don't see the point in it. Do you ladies put your dirty diapers in anything special until you wash? I just stuff mine in a plastic bag. I bought a small trash can, but it ended up being TOO small to hold them all. I just wonder if putting them in vinegar or water would help?

[is it puppies?]

you can boil the inserts.
I believe I read a 10 min boil strips them clean of everything.

[blessedwith7]

I agree about all the conflicting info on washing/stipping diapers and that includes the detergents. With me I just experimented until I found what worked for our situation. I may have to switch things up again at some point in time. Another thing I'm doing is alternating detergents. I've been using the same one as for our clothes but am now using Tide every other time or so just on the diapers. I think that will help with detergent buildup. I'm also using some Oxyclean along with the detergent and the highest water setting (thankfully I have a toploader). I watch for suds during the rinses to make sure I'm not adding too much detergent. I use a dry pail, planet wise wet bag, that I throw in the wash along with the diapers. Nearly everything that goes in there now I quick rinse first.

Good luck!

[Carma]

I agree with boiling the inserts as a good alternative to bleach. I have boiled my MF inserts when I had ammonia problems. After that I switched to Tide ,lately the HE powder which is even better, and no stink since then (it has been several months now). Even after sitting in the pail for 2-3 days, they do not stink. I keep my hanging pail in the living room (hanging on the changing table), often just open (opening zipper is hard with one hand).
I have a HE FL which did not wash diapers (and towels) very well with the more natural detergents unfortunately.

Carma

[blessedmama59]

Okay, so I stripped all of my diapers. Here's the method I used: pre-rinse cold, hot cycle with All Free and Clear, hot cycle with Dawn and vinegar for rinse cycle, then another hot cycle with nothing. I thought for sure this would do SOMETHING..but I swear it's like it made it worse!! What did I do?? I'm starting to worry bc this is literally stinking up my whole house..I am afraid I'm going to have to use bleach or something way harsh. I don't want to. Any thoughts?? I guess I could go get some oxyclean, but I hate to buy it for just one or two uses..ya know. Would throwing the dirty dipes into some solution until I do laundry help?? I'm going to try boiling them tomorrow before doing laundry. Thanks!!

[coffeegirl]

At this point mama, since you say you've tried almost everything and it hasn't worked, I would go ahead and bleach those inserts. Just make sure to rinse very well.

[MayasMama88]

You can totally use bleach on the inserts themselves, I'd just stay away from using it on the PUL. And you know what else you might think about is calling the FuzziBunz customer service and asking for their help! I've called them a couple of times for various troubleshooting questions and they are super friendly and always have great advice and/or solutions. The number is on their website: 1-800-DRY-BABY. Can't hurt!