Kushies AIOs- A few questions- smells/stains & overnight

[HuntressMother]

Hello ladies!

We have been using Kushies AIOs with our 2 year old son since he was born. We also use the biodegradeable/ flushable liners to go with them ( when we have the money to buy them. )

Well we have been using our cloth diapers ALOT latley since our money is tight ( hubby lost his job  ) and since we're trying to potty train DS.

Since we have been using the CDs so much latley, they are begining to have a bit of a smell, even after washing and they are stained quit a bit in some places. My questions to you are:

1) What is a safe/natural way to take out the smells & stains?  ( I machine wash his diapers with hot water only & sometimes i use a bit of baby det. I also machine dry them now. I was hanging them out on the line, inside out to dry- the sun bleached the slight stains out and made them smell fresh. If you like- you can share how YOU wash/dry your AIOs..i would love to hear your method!! )

2) We want DS to sleep in his CDs all night, how would you reccomend  making them more absorbant?  ( We always have DS pee in the potty before putting him to bed and we begin limiting how much juice he drinks about 1 hours before bed. I also place one of my hand made cloth pads into his diapers at night to help with the wetness- but he still wets through most of the time. )

Thanks in advance for your help. If you have anything else that you would like to share with me about AIO CD care, please be my guest.  

[krystyia]

We use Kushies AIO (Ultra-Lite) with our 14m old son, he's just moved up to the toddler size.  We sun them to remove stains, but we don't often have many..  Have you tried running a cold cycle before you wash them?  The hot water (and dryer heat?) is likely setting the stain which makes it harder to get out.  We use whatever detergent we have on hand and don't usually have to bother with stain removers though, sorry! 

Do you use detergent every time you wash them?  Baby detergent isn't usually strong enough for cloth diapers, you'd want a good detergent that doesn't have bleach or fabric softener, and usually you use about 1/2 to 1/4 of the recommended amount.  The diapers only hold a smell if they are either not clean enough, or they have too much build up of detergent.  So basically, adjust how much you use either way and you should be good!

We had the odd leak overnight but not too often, sometimes in the beginning and then again once we realized he needed the larger size.  We just add a few of the washable liners inside along with a homemade fleece liner (so he doesn't feel so wet) and we make it through.  He's not really a heavy wetter though so maybe we just go lucky :)

We love our Kushies!

[ShannonBFCDAP]

Ok a few things. You should not use baby detergent on the diapers - softeners, surfactants, whiteners and perfumes are no good for diapers. All Free & Clear is good for top loader non HE use half the amount you would use on clothes for front loader or HE models use a quarter of the amount. It is unnecessary as well as damaging to use hot water. Just use warm water wash, cold rinse. With AIOs you cannot put them in the dryer (even though Kushies says it is ok) it damages the PUL. Lay your diapers out to dry in the sun. That will dry them and get rid of your stains. The change in your wash routine and detergent choice will help with the absorbency, though Kushies tend to need two boosters to work overnight. I'm a Diaper Party consultant and you can PM if you have any other questions I can help you with. Good luck.

[trekkingirl]

Kushies are the only cloth diapers we use that are obsorbent enough to work over night. I've tried a few others and none of them fit the bill. We also put them in the dryer. I too have some stains but I occasionally use oxy clean and that helps. You have to be real careful about what kind of laundry soap you use. Also we only use a small squirt. HTH