My 2 year old has super ammonia pee

[iris5426]

Hi mamas...DS just turned 2 last week.  We were almost potty trained around 20 months, but lately he is actively boycotting the potty.  So, we're still CDing, we use mainly prefolds and covers.  Lately he has this awful potent ammonia pee all the time.  Especially after longer times between diaper changes like at night, but often even with a diaper that has only been on an hour or two as well.  I've tried stripping the diapers and that doesn't seem to be it at all, it really seems like it's just his pee!  We've used the same type of diapers, same wash routine and detergents since he was born, and this has only been a problem the last 2 months or so.  So at this point I am just trying to stay on top of changing him every couple of hours during the day, and we change him when we go to bed and use an overstuffed pocket dipe then so the fleece layer keeps it off his skin some for the longer period of time.  But it's giving him almost constant diaper rash, often just a few red spots but sometimes lots of them.  Last week he had a giant blister show up overnight, like a couple mm tall you could pop it kind of blister, and several weeks ago he actually got a slight burn everywhere, it looked like he had a pink diaper on when he was naked and then it kind of peeled like sunburn.

The whole thing has me totally freaked out and I can't seem to figure out what to do to combat it.  Has anyone else had this happen?  Any ideas what could cause it or how to fix it?? 

Crossposted in toddlers since I couldn't decide the best place to post...

Thanks!

[Petie1104]

We didn't cd, but I saw the title and had to respond.  Could it be that he isn't drinking enough fluids?  I know that stinky pee is a symptom of not enough fluids, dehydration, not severe, just that he isn't drinking enough fluids to flush out all the icky stuff so it is concentrated in a smaller amount of pee.  I know whenever one of our kids pee starts stinking really badly our first action is to up the fluid intake.  It's just a thought.

[MayasMama88]

It could be not enough fluids, but I'm also wondering if you need to strip your diapers? Whenever Maya's diapers have detergent residue left in them (I'm just now figuring out that our washing machine is not doing the greatest job at getting it all out) they smell like ammonia - or worse - and she gets a very red rash on her vulva and in her butt crack. You can strip them by doing a few very hot washes without any detergent, boiling them on the stove in a big pot of water, washing with some RLR (I haven't used this but I've heard great things about it) or using a tiny bit of bleach (this is what I resort to when all else fails).