Ammonia in diapers?

[jbintz]

I use fb's stuffed with 2 cpf's for my boys at night time. A while back my younger sons penis would turn FIRE red by morning and he would stink of amonia. Lately it is happening to my older son. I am almost positive it is the diapers.

What should i do? They don't stink I wash in natural detergent but we do have hard water. Should I put them through a wash with dawn a few times?


Can it be an amonia problem if I can't smell amonia when the diapers are clean?



Jana

[tylersmama]

It's definitely possible that they're not getting all the way clean. You said you have hard water...might be worth trying some Calgon. It's worked wonders for my diaper laundry. I add 1/4 capful in with my detergent (plain old Tide). I have a HE washer, so if you have a regular one, you could probably even add more.

[JBaxter]

I always did a white vinegar rinse before washing my diapers. Like the pp said try a couple HOT wash Hot rinses with just calgon to get the build up out of the diapers

[JennaH01]

I think if the dipes are smelling like "nothing" after you wash and dry them, there shouldn't be a problem. Does the reaction only happen at night? It is rare but possible they are having a reaction to the inner of the FB...i'm not sure what thier inners are made of, I use mostly HH and they are fleece. I think FB is the same. Or the other thing w/pockets is that they are more finicky to wash and maybe the other posters are right, they are just hanging on to something. You could try stripping them.

[GeekLady]

Is it possible they are wetting more overnight? Maybe the fuzzibuns are a little tight, or otherwise their diaper area is getting hotter than usual? Heat will accelerate the natural decomposition of urea to ammonia, and more moisture in the diaper will help trap heat.

[jbintz]

Hotter is possible. THe inside of the fuzzi bunz is fleece.

But it has gotten worse.

About 6 mos ago it started with my younger son and sometimes the tip of his penis would bleed. He was always touching his penis so we thought that it was that and a yeast infection.

Lotrimin seemed to clear it up but then Neosporin cleared it up and diaper cream clears it up.

That has come and gone for a while but now my 4 1/2 year old is waking iwth a fire red penis and it has started to bleed sometimes. Today before a bath and after he peed it started to drip blood it was only a few drops (not that it makes it less stressful).

I blame my cloth diapers it is the only thing that they have in common between them they both sleep in fuzzi bunz double stuffed with 2 prefolds. AND I am freaking out even more because my 2 mos old daughter is wearing cloth too.

Is this something that can be caused by ammonia in the night? Their diapers do stink but when they come out of the laundry it is fine.

Any ideas?

Jana

[GeekLady]

Well, scientifically...

You could try checking for wetness and changing them in the middle of the night, to see if it's a heat/excess urine issue.

You could buy some prefolds and covers and diaper them that way for a few days, to see if it's some reaction to the fleece, or something in the fleece.

You could try disposables for a few nights, although I think this is least ideal. They're just as bad at the heat/excess wetness bit.

Has something changed in your 4.5's environment recently that could have provoked this change? Diet, maybe?

If you try changing their diapers a couple times in the night, and there is still a strong ammonia smell from them, I might mention it to their pediatrician. I don't think urea should be decomposing to ammonia that fast.

[Joolsplus2]

Did you try vinegar? Did you strip with Dawn? What kind of 'natural' detergent? Maybe a fleece pocket like a Snap-EZ at night will allow a lot more air so things stay dryer? How about a rice paper liner or a disposable doubler against their skin to draw moisture away?

[GeekLady]

Fuzzibuns are supposed to already wick moisture away from the skin and keep bottoms dry, and although she didn't mention it, you should be able to tell if that isn't working properly - the fleece lining would be wet.
When I mentioned excess wetness, I'm not worried about wetness next to the skin, I'm worried about wet trapped in the diaper, which will help trap heat, which will accelerate the natural decomposition of urea to ammonia.

I don't know of any catalyst that would do this. Doesn't mean their isn't one, it's just odd.

[Joolsplus2]

Yeah, I know the FB's are dry inside, I was just brainstorming...maybe the hydrophilic liner would be even drier, or be a barrier between whatever irritant is being left in the FB's....

[GeekLady]

Yeah, I know the FB's are dry inside, I was just brainstorming...maybe the hydrophilic liner would be even drier, or be a barrier between whatever irritant is being left in the FB's....
I'm sorry, I just thought I wasn't communicating well. I'm a nerd, we're bad at that.

But the redness and bleeding she described in her last post really bug me, so I took a little time this morning to explore the vast amount of reference material available to me at work:

I remembered that heat is the most effective way to decompose urea. What I didn't consider is that bacteria will eat urea as a nitrogen source and produce ammonia as a byproduct. Jana, you didn't mention if the diapers were dirty, or just wet. If they're dirty, bacteria from the stool can cause the ammonia smell.

If the diapers are just wet, my gut feeling is that bacteria are still getting at that urine somehow. They could be living in the diaper, but it could be a UTI or another infection. I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on TV, but here's what I would do:

1) Call your pediatrician and make an appointment. The symptoms you describe deserve to be looked at no matter what is causing them. You might ask your oldest what pee-ing feels like. Don't lead him by asking for specific symptoms.
2) Put your two boys in disposables for the time being, at least until you get in to see the doctor. They're not sterile per say, but if it's something in your diapers, the odds of the disposables having the same problem is very, very low.
3) Give all your boys' fuzzibuns and inserts a really good cleaning. I've never heard of cloth diapers causing something like this, but my experience is limited (not to mention theoretical). A good thorough cleaning won't hurt them. And wash them separately from your daughter's diapers, just in case.
4) For your oldest, I'd just bite the bullet, put him in undies, and work on night-time potty training. I don't know if this is feasible for you.

I really hope they get to feeling better, it makes me wince to just read the symptoms in your second post.

[trales]

Our well water is very hard, high in Manganese and Iron. We get a red bottom and ammonia smell if I do not strip the diapers often, there is no perceptable odor when the diapers come out of the drier ever. Only when she pees a lot.

I pre-rinse with baking soda, use powdered tide and hot as can be water for the wash, I do a vinegar rinse and another rinse. Every third load I run the diapers through another entire hot cycle with no detergents or additives. The ammonia smell goes away.

I do have a front loading machine so I can program all of this in.

We added a whole house carbon filter ~$45 from Lowes, that has made a difference.

Have you tested your water to see what is in it?

[jbintz]

Ok Dr says use aquaphor looks like irritation. So we are doing that tonight.

I do have hard water but I haven't had it tested. My washing machien alone has a lot of residue in between its cleaning cycles. Where does one find calgon? I will check the detergent aisle at the grocery store. Where is a whole house water filter installed? That sounds like a great idea. We might look into that.

I have been using vinegar but it doesn't seem to do much (unless that could be causing a problem?) I will try the baking soda prerinse. how much of that do you use?

The reaction only seems to happen at night. They do get a lot wetter at night than during the day. Both of them are potty trained in the day so they stay really dry. This started before my youngest DS was potty trained though. The fzzibunz on my oldest aren't too tight they are xxl and are not even close to being too small. I made sure we weren't snapping them too tight.

I dont' think it is heat, especially if sposies are worse, then they use sposies it goes away.

No diet changes that I can think of, however it is possible that they are getting dehydrated they have been crazy lately and it is hard to get them to drink enough during hte day.I might actually try changing them at night. We just had a new baby come home 2 mos ago.

We use biokleen I haven't tried dawn I am not sure of the process but I am willing to try anything.

Rice paper made it worse when i tried it.

The fuzzi bunz fleece stays dry but the diapers definately are wet.

Thanks for the help hopefully a good stripping will help, fingers crossed.
Jana

[tylersmama]

Calgon is in the regular detergent aisle at my grocery store. It's in a small-ish white detergent-shaped bottle. I think it's with the stain remover stuff.

[trales]

The filter goes right on the main water line straight from the pressure tank. It was super super easy to install. We did it ourselves, and are not plumbers. It has caught a lot of stuff. If you have build up in your washer, you probably have build up on your diapers that are causing problems.

I would really consider a water test, they are about $20 bucks and can give you great insight as to what type of treatment you need.

[Joolsplus2]

I'm sorry, I just thought I wasn't communicating well. I'm a nerd, we're bad at that.

.

No, no, it's my bad (oh, please, did I just say that?), I just stumbled in here like a smarty pants :blahblah:

OP, I hope something works fast for you!!!

:)