UPDATE!!! Grrr, I'm not feeling the CD love right now (warning: mildly strong language)

[parkersmama]

UPDATE:
Since you were all so helpful, I thought I should give you an update on our diaper situation.

First of all, as you can imagine, I did *not* throw them in the river after all. :) They are safely ensconced in their laundry basket as we speak.

The stinking problem seems to have been solved by upping my detergent use a bit. I have also used a tablespoon of color-safe bleach a couple of times which helped as well. Another thing I did was follow the directions on the Diaper Hyena site for cleaning my washer thinking that could be contributing to the problem. No way to know if that helped but it certainly couldn't have hurt!

As for the leaky nighttime dipes, I think I've mostly solved that problem, too. She was leaking at the front when sleeping on her tummy. It appeared that the back of the dipe wasn't getting as wet so I thought it might be a positioning problem. I've been just adding an additional folded in half doubler in whatever nighttime diaper I use and that seems to be doing the trick. Good thing...I was getting sick of doing all that laundry!!

And lastly, the Happy Tushies bag. It seems to have fallen into line with the rest and is not leaking any more that I've noticed. I dried it in the drier with my diapers twice and that seemed to do the trick. Whatever.

Thanks for all your support and for pulling me back from the edge of the diaper abyss. :)

Denise

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Lately we've been having lots of CD problems and I'm starting to get very frustrated. First, they seem to all stink! I can't figure out what the problem is exactly. I know that we don't have soft water. It's more like "moderately hard". I try to use just a small portion of detergent (Tide liquid) and hot water and lots of rinses. But then, they still smell bad. So, I try Calgon to strip them. And lots of rinses. No suds in the water. Stripped, right? Well, they still stink. Everything, not just the hemp. I'm not sure where to go next. Baking soda? More detergent? Vinegar?

Also, we've had lots of problems lately with leaky nighttime diapers. The FBs leak almost no matter what I stuff them with. A hemp prefold. 2 FBs. 2 MOE inserts. Whatever, they still leak. I have dried them (as per instructions on this board) to make sure they were "sealed" or whatever. Still leaks. Last night, I did add an extra doubler folded in the front (I think the doubler from a Sam's fitted) on top of the 2 MOE inserts and it leaked *less*. When I use the Sleep Tights, it's the same thing. They just don't hold it all. And that's with the extra doubler in there. Those damn things are just *soaked*. She is not otherwise an extremely heavy wetter. I guess she's just a heavy nighttime wetter. The only way I'm consoling myself is that the once or twice that I've recently put her in a disposable overnight, they leaked too. :(

And then, as we were putting the boys to bed tonight, AG was with us and I noticed a foul odor and sniffed. Yep. It's her diaper. So I went to change her and the stupid thing isn't even that wet but it was just reaking (no poop). So I decided the pail was full, time for a wash load. I carried the bag into the laundry room over my shoulder and thought I felt something damp. Well, damned if our Happy Tushies diaper pail liner isn't leaking too!!! So, now I'm mad cause my ass is wet and I'm worried that my liner is ruined! Arrgghhh! The only thing I can think of is that it probably got in a load with some Downey Advanced and maybe that has messed it up? It didn't appear to be just damp around the seams...it was a large, spotty wetness.

So, anyone out there care to help me solve some problems? If not, we might be having a "throw the CDs into the river ceremony and party" and you would all be invited!! LOL!

[Momof3Labs]

Sounds like you aren't using enough detergent - the "tiny bit of detergent" rule only works if you have soft water. If you have moderately hard water (like we do), you need to use more detergent to get your dipes clean (I use close to half a capful of Cheer). It isn't 100% foolproof for me (still need to strip the JBs every now and then) but works pretty well.

Now, on to the leaky FBs. When two JBs were saturated, we went to three JBs. Can you try three JBs at night and see how it goes? The other question is where the FBs leak. Are the inserts saturated when they leak? Where are the leaks? Is she possibly ready for the next size up??

As for the liner, maybe treat it with some waterproofing stuff? PWG, I think? I don't know, since I don't use Happy Tushies liners. It doesn't sound like a problem from using Downey Advanced, though.

Hang in there - once you get this figured out, you'll be glad you're still using cloth!!

[C99]

I'd definitely recommend going with vinegar in the rinse to get rid of the smell of the diapers. You should only need to do it once. I've read things that say don't put vinegar in with diapers, but I know that vinegar does wonders for stinkiness (Carson on QE recommended 2 c. in the washer to get rid of vintage smells in vintage clothing) and it's better that that throwing them all into the river!

[pritchettzoo]

Oh, Denise. I have nothing to suggest; just wanted to say that I'm so sorry things suck and your ass got wet. Hang in there. Take a bubble bath with a nice glass of whatever. :)

Anna
Mama to Gracie (9/16/03)

[sweetbasil]

We had the stinky diaper thing going on here with our hard water, too, and it was like Lori said- not enough detergent. I thought- oh, here we go, the real not-fun part of CDing begins, but a capful of detergent made it all better. And I have Calgon waiting in the wings, ready for the occasional wash with this nasty Texas water.

Hang in there- but on some warm, dry pj pants, maybe make some warm cocoa, and veg out. Hoping tomorrow's a better day- CDing, and just generally!

Hugs,

[jec2]

Denise,

I just sat here and chuckled at your mommy-life. Honestly, I feel your pain and frustration. I am sitting here w/ my "cool" red, john Fluevlog shoes worn over damn sports socks! Sweat pants and my "cute" dry-clean only hip top that Finn royally spit up on (today and every other time I've worn it in the last two weeks--and no, I haven't laundered it yet!) I don't even know if I brushed my teeth. Dh is circling the complex to get him to sleep because I just can't get him to nap. So, to have freaking leaky, stinky dipes on top of it would just push me over the edge. I would say, "go make yourself feel better and go diaper shopping." But, for more stinky leaky dipes? Probably not.

Unfortunately I don't have any advice. If I think of anything I'll post again. But dear, I do feel your frustration and sympathize with your wet ass. I swear, I hate buying all these cute, environmentally firendly things like a liner when a good ol' fashion Hefty will do the trick. But, I have the cute, evnironmentally friendly liner too! And, may have a nice wet ass to show for it too!

[liya]

*gasping as i say this* have you tried to bleach the puppies.....As i have said over and over again ALOT of wahms do this with their diapes at least once a month especially if they have harder water. For some reason it keeps the diapers stink free....The do a 1/4 cup of bleach(regular not ultra) per HUGE load...and that seems to help ALOT....*gasping again* i had a problem with 1 diaper..Just the one and i DID IT!! It has never smelled better...LOL Plus since i rinsed the puppy so many times nothing happend to Ari's tush except it smelled sooo nice!! Edited to say: I tried everyhting with this diaper, more det., less det., calgon, vinegar etc etc etc etc etc....Nothing worked...


I know for sure that HT diaper pail liners wick ...sigh....For some reason i dont know why....And its exactly as you described...

FBs- I use disposies at night. I have accepted it and will keep on accepting it...I cant use anything at night that is cloth, everything leaks on me. I got tiered of it so i switched....My nights have been sooo much more peacefull....sigh


HTH some

[parkersmama]

Anna, you made me spew my drink of whatever! :) LOL!

[parkersmama]

Now, what made me think that I needed to use just a little? Someone started a vicious "just a little" rumor!! I swear I read that. Wonder if it's my sleep deprived, bleary-eyed reading finally getting to me? ;) I did throw this load in with more detergent than normal. I'm about to go check them and give 'em the whiff test.

As for the FBs, it seems like sometimes the back of the inserts aren't as wet or wet at all and the leaking seems to be mostly in front. That's what made me stick the extra doubler up front. Tonights concoction (a Cloud9 with a JB and a doubled up all-hemp SP doubler in the front all tucked safely inside a watertight ME airflow!) also includes extra "up front" protection so maybe that's the answer. I only have 2 JBs and 2 MOE inserts...guess I need to get more to experiment.

Thanks for your help! The CDs are starting to breathe a sigh of relief...they didn't really want to wear concrete shoes and swim with the fishes. ;)

[parkersmama]

Okay. I've got a huge thing of vinegar. I'm trying more detergent first. Next line of defense is a bunch of vinegar! I'm gonna whip these things into shape, by golly. The gauntlet has been thrown down!