best way to strip cloth prefold diapers??

[♥ms.pacman♥]

so i've posted here before about dealing with strong ammonia smell in our cloth diapers (GMD prefolds). it started when DS was about 14mos..after a day sitting in the pail, they started to stink like ammonia, smelled horrible. from the responses i got it sounded like i really needed to strip the diapers, bc the ammonia smell was likely coming from the pee reacting with buildup in the diapers. so i started giving the diapers an extra rinse (or two) after washing them and that seemed to help a lot at first...then i tried washing with RLR, and i tried soaking the diapers in Baby Oxi-Clean which helped too, at first. however as time went on, the smell would come back faster and faster and i'd have to strip more often (at first it was once every couple months, then it was every month, and then every few weeks). I just soaked all our diapers in OxiClean like four days ago, and today i noticed that not even after 24 hours they stink up the whole room!! also, i noticed today DS seems to be getting an itchy rash on his penis (sometimes the skin gets so irritated it bleeds a little bit)..i am worried could that be due to the buildup in the diaper, irritating his skin?

so i was wondering is there a better way to strip prefold diapers?? i've tried soaking in oxyclean, doing several rinses after washing (i use Country Save), and adding RLR to wash cycle. i've heard of using dish detergent, but i remember the GMD book advised not to, for some reason..

Or, could it be that toddler pee is just more concentrated, and i just have to suck it up and do diaper laundry every day (instead of every other day?) though, this wouldn't deal with the rash issues (though it could possibly just be a coincidence, i don't know). \

any suggestions welcome. i really really want to continue CDing (it's otherwise not that difficult, it saves so much $$ and reduces so much waste) but that darned ammonia smell is driving me crazy!!!

[twowhat?]

I'm not totally sure but the smelly toddler pee probably is a contributor...just wanted to share that the last time DD2 had a pee accident in her pants, I took them off and threw them in the sink to wash later. They were STINKING UP THE LAUNDRY ROOM within a couple of hours!!!

[momm]

Have you tried drying them in the sun?

How I stripped ours:
First, cold or hot wash in a little bit of Bac-Out
Next, a regular wash with a "super" load of water with Trader Joe's detergent (rated 5 stars for cloth diapers)
Next, an additional cold rinse
Then, dry them in direct sunlight.

Came out wonderfully new!

Can you try drying them in sun, then washing again and check the ammonia smell? Good luck!

[hoodlims]

A popular way is to strip them with blue Dawn. I found this link for you.

http://www.mamaslaundrytalk.com/2010...iapers-part-2/

[Uno-Mom]

Have you tried white vinegar? Sprog's diapers sometimes sit at daycare for a week and then a few days at home so we have too much BTDT.

[lizzywednesday]

White vinegar will strip any buildup from detergent, for sure.

Do you have hard water and are you using a hard-water friendly detergent?

Also, get a package of "Funk Rock" from Rockin' Green & do a soak with 4 Tbsp in your machine (I assume you have a top-loader?) or a bucket and then wash as usual. The stink will be gone.

Toddler pee is wretched.

[daisymommy]

The big thing is it sounds like they are not getting adequately cleaned and rinsed each time you wash them on a normal basis. You shouldn't have to strip them so often. Maybe like once a year. I still wash toddler diapers every 3rd day, no problem.

Are you doing cloth at night? Because for me, that's the deal breaker that will stink up my pail like no-body's business, and I can't get the ammonia funk out after a nighttime diaper goes in. Add in the fact that my kids are super-soakers at night, and I said forget it; we use a disposable at night, and I don't feel guilty at all about it.

Now, as far as stripping your diapers, the RLR or blue Dawn should work well, in hot water, and as many rinses as it takes until there are no more soap bubbles or film at all left in the water (keep going back to check--it can take 10 rinses sometimes!).

After that, you should be good to go. How do you normally wash your diapers? Hopefully we can tweak your wash & rinse routine so this doesn't keep happening to you.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

thanks everyone

we already do use sposies at night for both kids, bc DS is a super soaker at night and we figured it's just easier. he pees SO much when he's asleep...during his naps (2-3 hrs) i use cloth but i put in a preemie size prefold in as a doubler, and it comes out SOAKED!

i tried using vinegar too, but maybe i should try again. maybe the key is rinsing enough..sometimes i do just 3 rinses after stripping and maybe that is not enough?

i normally do a rinse/spin first (20 mins) then a hot wash with Country Save (79 mins) then 2 rinse & spin cycles. when stripping maybe i do 3 rinses. but i guess maybe i need to do more?

i have a High Efficiency washer, but it's actually a top loader (rare, i know).

[daisymommy]

Well, your wash routine sounds great. The only thing I would add is that I have found with my HE washer I have to do "add water" or even pour in extra water, because the small amount isn't enough to get them clean. Are you using a 1/2 scoop of the Country Save?

Yeah, when stripping you really need to look and see if there are still soap bubbles or residue. If so, keep rinsing!

[twowhat?]

I wonder if it'd be worth doing JUST a spin BEFORE doing the initial rinse/spin to spin out some of the pee - if there's that much pee in the diapers, just doing a rinse/spin in a HE machine is really only going to dilute the pee by a little bit because of the small amount of water used. No BTDT but I just thought of it and it might be worth trying. Also check to see if your machine has a "bulky" setting for washing things like blankets and comforters to force it to use the maximum amount of water.