[sageovalente]

I need some advice. I put the dirty dipers in the washer for the first cold rinse Thursday night. I live in Vermont where we had a major ice storm and the power went out late Thursday night. We didn't get power back until yesterday (Monday). I used disposables while the power was out, and totally forgot that I had put the diapers in on Thurs. I went to put a load of towels in the washer today and discovered the diapers that had been sitting in the washer wet for 4 days. They smell very bad, a moldy, fishy odor. I stripped them, hot was with full amount of detergent, followed by many cold rinses, and they still smell. The diapers are fuzzy bunz with various hemp inserts. I thought of sunlight but there is none today or in the near future forecast. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks Sage

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[Llyra]

I know it's not usually recommended around here, but I would try bleach. A cupful added to the wash cycle, once the machine is full of water, should kill whatever mold or mildew is in there. I am not usually a fan of bleach, but this is a case where I'd try it. Colored PUL seems to survive bleach just fine with no fading, so the Fuzzi Bunz should be fine. I've bleached mine a few times and they've been okay.

 

[tinyblackdot]

I would use bleach aswell. Like pp said just like a cap of bleach.

 

[schreiberwriter]

FuzziBunz/fleece seem to hold odor. It took a lot of washes to get Tide's fragrance out of some I bought second hand.

 

[Michigan Mama]

The other recommendation I would give is to do multiple rinses with very hot water. I find it's much much more effective than cold. I usually turn up my hot water heater to do it. You could also boil the inserts if you don't want to bleach to kill any harboring mold or whatever. There's another post going on recently about boiling your dipes, so check that out if you're interested.

 

[alegna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by footprintsbaby The other recommendation I would give is to do multiple rinses with very hot water.

:

IME cold rinses are basically useless.

-Angela

 

[tinyblackdot]

Boiling i don't think will get rid of the musty smell, it would kill the bacteria, but the fleece is a synthetic so it can hold onto smells pretty well.

If your not comfortable with bleach i would use tea tree oil, and maybe some baking soda or vinegar.

Good luck!

 

[fiveyearsapart]

I bleach my FB every wash load. About 1/4 cup or they stink. They are fine after a year of heavy use.

 

[Drummer's Wife]

I have to go with the rec for bleach too. If it's between that and throwing them out, definitely try bleach and a ton of hot rinses.

 

[AutumnSunshine]

Oops, I just posted something about smelly diapers in a separate thread, then I read this. I suspect that the smell might be some kind of mold or mildew?

IME, when dealing with mildewy/moldy laundry a soak in OxiClean (prepared as directed with very hot water and completely dissolved before adding laundry) overnight followed by regular laundering always works. It might take a lot of OxiClean to do this, depending on the size of the load, but it would be worth it. Or see my post on smelly diapers. I pre-soaked in hot water with a combination of OxiClean and borax. Maybe that will work.

I thought FuzziBunz come in colors, so bleach would probably ruin them?

Hope this helps!!!

 

[AutumnSunshine]

Oh, one more thing... if you want to rinse in hot water, beware your machine. My machine always rinses in cold water, so if I want to "rinse" in hot water I have to actually run it on a hot water wash cycle with no soap.

HTH

 

[Llyra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UmmZaynab I thought FuzziBunz come in colors, so bleach would probably ruin them? Hope this helps!!!

I've bleached mine, a few times. I've bleached all my PUL covers and diapers, with ordinary chlorine bleach. It never seems to fade them or anything. Over time, if you do it a lot, it'll be hard on the elastic and wear down the fabric faster, but a few times here and there is fine.