I've been very, very bad to my cloth diapers- can they be saved?

[pagoda24]

Ok- we've been PT cloth diapering since my son was born 2.5 years ago. Built up a good stash of FuzziBunz and prefolds, washed 'em regularly with cloth-safe detergent, line-dried them and was pretty happy the first 18 months- they weren't stinky, absorbed well and had minimal stains. When I went back to work, we were happy to discover our daycare would use our cloth diapers so we sent the FBs since they were easier. We moved into an apartment building and can no longer line-dry. With me working, they diapers were sitting in the pail longer and longer, at daycare no one would dunk the poopy diapers (can't blame 'em) so stains were setting, since son only goes to school part-time if we'd forget to pick up the used diapers they'd sit for a few days, etc. And we moved to a place with hard water. And now our diapers are nasty- stained, dingy, smelly. And DS#1 is coming home from daycare sometimes soaked- they just aren't holding pee like they used to. Just had baby #2 and had hoped to re-use all of our diapers but can't imagine putting these diapers on the new baby. I'll admit I could have been a lot kinder to my diapers but am trying to turn over a new leaf. My question is- what can I do about the diapers I have now? I've done a cycle with RLR to strip them, have put BacKleen on the heavily stained ones, and have ordered a bunch of different samples of different cloth diaper detergents to try to figure out the best one for our water. And I will be hauling our entire stash down to my parents house in a few weeks to take advantage of their backyard so I can line-dry everything. And have put myself on a more regular schedule of washing diapers and have told my husband if he comes home from the daycare without the dirty diapers he has to go back and pick them up so they don't sit too long. But the diapers I have now- when do I know they've been ruined? Do I need to just order new inserts and keep using the PULs? I know you aren't supposed to bleach FuzziBunz but I've read some people have successfully bleached the inserts? Any tips so I can save my stash?

[Cynthia Mosher]

Bumping for input. Anyone have advice to share to save pagoda24's diapers? 

[Kaydove]

I was having awful stink problems with hard water and letting them sit too long. I got some Ecosprout cloth diaper wash and soaked them overnight in the bath tub, and it solved my problem! You may have to do several soaks. And since we have a HE machine as well, I got some Glamorawash hard water detergent from the website diaperdaisy.com and I use it with Rockin Green funk rock in the pre wash detergent holder. I also put a tablespoon of funk rock in the basin for the first rinse cycle before the wash cycle. Good luck!

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[Adaline'sMama]

If it were me, I'd bleach them and then run them with a cycle of non-natural laundry detergent (like tide) and then rinse, rinse, rinse followed by a long stint in the dryer to try and melt the PUL back together. I know it's not the natural way, but Ive tried the natural way and nothing worked for me.

[Monkey Keeper]

I definitely would do a more thorough stripping, particularly of your inserts. It's amazing to me how much soap I get out of mine when i am not washing in hard water (my mom has a water softener).  The last time I washed at her house, I still saw a few soap bubbles on the FOURTH wash!! But oh my did my diapers smell better!

You absolutely were on the right track with the RLR but the key to stripping, as Adaline'sMama said, is to rinse, rinse, rinse!

[mambera]

I haven't had an issue this bad but we were getting mild stink issues recently and one wash with OxyClean really helped.  I didn't do my covers but I wonder whether OxyClean might be more tolerable than bleach on PUL?

[Monkey Keeper]

Originally Posted by mambera 

I haven't had an issue this bad but we were getting mild stink issues recently and one wash with OxyClean really helped.  I didn't do my covers but I wonder whether OxyClean might be more tolerable than bleach on PUL?

Some of the pocket mfgs actually recommend oxygen bleach, so I'd say it's absolutely more gentle. 

[SweetMamaKaty]

This may sound silly, but it works for me. I live in town, and Hubby says no clohesline, so to sun my dipes, I fully extend a baby gate and lay it over the arms of our plastic lawn chairs.  It makes a perfect sunning / drying rack, and it's easy to take down.  Not sure if you could rig something creative where you live? :)

[JudiAU]

You might consider evaluating the condition of the cover and the inserts on their own. If the covers are decent you can buy the four ply FB inserts for about $4/each. http://www.fuzzibunzworld.com/300.html Would make a huge improvement if your inserts are ratty or 3 ply.