cloth diapering - help with pee/ammonia smell!

[♥ms.pacman♥]

DS is almost 15 mo and we've been CD'ing since he was born. after chanigng him we throw the dirty diaper in a bin under the changing table that has a door. we do diaper laundry every other day, sometimes every 3 days. never had a problem with smell AT ALL until a month or so ago, we noticed a strong ammonia-like smell from his room. we thought the bin we were using for cloth dipes was causing it (since we've had it for a year or so, we figured stuff got built up on it) so we threw it out and got a new one (Sterilite trash can with mommy's touch pail liner). but now, the smell is still pretty strong, even after the dipes sitting there for only 24 hrs. the pee diapers seem to be the culprit (since with the poop ones, the poo mostly gets on the liner any remaining poo gets sprayed off with diaper sprayer).

so any suggestions on how to deal with this?? this really stinks (literally!!). the diapers only smell like this after they've been soiled, they don't smell bad after being washed. we usually do a rinse & spin cycle (20 mins) then an 80 minute wash in very hot water with CountrySave detergent (this is what we've been doing since the beginning). don't know what has gone wrong..

[lizzywednesday]

According to the ladies on the GMD Yahoo! group, toddler pee is just more concentrated.

You may have to wash your DS's dipes more often.

[twowhat?]

I think that's probably true. We were using disposables by that age, but I do remember thinking to myself that the older they got, the more the pee smelled! DD2 had a pee accident a couple days ago and I put her soiled clothes on top of the washer to throw it in with the next load, and a few hours later it was already reeking!

At least with the new baby, you'll have enough dipes to warrant doing a load every day?

[chottumommy]

What kind of dipes do you use. If it has synthetic materieals they develop a stink after sometime. A good strip should do the trick. If you're using prefolds, boil them with dawn for sometime and do several washes. That should get the detergent build and any bacteria out of the dipes.

[fedoragirl]

I had great success with the oxy/vin method in prefolds when DD was getting tons of diaper rashes at 10 months or so. She'd never had them before. Turns out that the detergent was building up on the diapers and retaining the ammonia smell and giving her a rash. We have soft water and I was putting too much detergent. Also, switching up detergents helped a lot too.

[mikala]

We have soft water and I was putting too much detergent. Also, switching up detergents helped a lot too.

Detergent build-up is a common cause of this and alternating detergents can help a lot too. Rockin' Green is great for stinky diapers.

If you're dealing with microfiber I'd suggest following the manufacturer instructions to strip them. Every few months I use a combo of Dawn detergent and bleach plus a couple extra rinses.

Once you kick this round of ammonia smell you can help prevent it in the future by doing a full cold-soak beforehand and using the smallest amount of detergent that you can to clean your diapes. It might also help to do a rinse/spin after you wash them. Letting them dry in the sun also seems to help a lot.

Good luck!!

[DebbieJ]

Our smell was from major buildup. We got some RLR and that finally did the trick.

http://www.momsmilkboutique.com/RLR.html

[LadyPeter]

Vinegar! I firmly believe vinegar fixes everything.

[brittone2]

Yep, i'd try stripping. If you are using synthetics, they tend to hold onto the most stink.

[daisymommy]

Try adding 4 cups vinegar into the hot wash cycle (with your detergent)--that will break up ammonia build-up. Then do as many rinses as it takes until you don't see any soap suds in the water.

They should smell better after that!