cloth diapering - help with pee/ammonia smell!

[edurnemk]

Are you stripping them frequently? I personally think RLR Laundry treatment works better than Dawn for stripping. We also add some vinegar on the rinse cycle.

As far as your regular washing routine, check that there are NO detergent bubbles in the final rinse, if there are, try using a little less detergent. Build-up is the top cause of stink IMO.

[Tinochka]

I had such kind of thing too. Figured out, that I was using wrong detergent, switched to Charlies Soap. Stripped the diapers couple times (followed brand recommendation) with Dawn. I use FB diapers. Nowadays I add 1-2 drops of Dawn to prevent detergent build up and measure carefully Ch.Soap. I had a top load machine, didn't strip for 1,5 years (2 kids) and didn't have such problem any more. I have a front load m. now, from time to time run diapers through soaking on cold for 1h10 min. Good so far.
Good luck!

[american_mama]

You can try any or all of these laundry suggestions, and they might help. Or they might not. Or they might not. I switched to disposables at night for just this reason. I personally would pick one or two of the easier laundry solutions, see if that helps, but I wouldn't go crazy looking for a solution or expect to completely return to the stink-fee days. In my years cd'ing two children, I believe that overnight diapers sometimes just stink regardless. It happened on rare occasions with my son when he was just 2-3 months old, but generally, the stink seems worse as they get older. It may also be that the temperature in your house in getting warmer as the weather changes, and that can affect it too. And there could be some buildup on your dipes, but even if you remove that, you may find the other factors still create stink.

One other easy thing to try is eliminate microfiber from your overnight diapers for a week or so since it can really hold on to stink.

[AnnieW625]

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.

I made this mistake when I was using Fuzzi Bunz on DD1 as a toddler. They never smelled bad until I went to put them in the washer and therefore they ended up retaining pee smell. I put them in a 2006 Diaper Genie and it really masked the smell almost too well so I most likely didn't wash them enough.

I would try bleaching them and maybe try some with some normal detergent like Gain or Tide. There are people on diaper swappers who use regular detergent on their prefolds and have no issues with it.