Way back here, scroll down a bit on that post, I wrote a little about cloth diapering. At this point, even months ago it stopped feeling like something different and more like something regular. Pee, pee, pee, pee, poop, pee, pee, pee, wash, rinse, rinse, hang to dry, repeat. However, after a few months of the above cycle a little build up starts happening. No nothing you can see, but you can smell it a little. Diapers start coming out of the wash a bit less crisp and clean and a bit more smelly.
I previously wrote that I wouldn't blog about cloth diapering, but I have to write this so I remember it next time I need to do it. Anyway, when that smelly gets noticeable (took us 7 months) or diapers start getting less absorbent it's time to strip them (so I hear from the cloth diaper world). I read a bunch of different ideas on how to do this, combined a few, and did a test run.
One tip I read a lot of places was to use hot water. Our hot water heater isn't set very high, and I wasn't going to go hang out in the basement with bugs to change it. Instead I heated up some pots of water and the tea kettle on the stove. Note, the front right pot is not involved in diaper cleaning it's chicken poaching to make chicken salad for dinner.
I also hear that the diapers should all be clean before doing this, as adding extra hot water will set stains into the diapers. No one wants that. So I washed all the dirty diapers, then put in anything that was clean and in his dresser, minus two diapers he would need for the rest of the evening.
Filled the washer all the way up with hot water and added an extra kick of hot water from the stove. Then before adding anything else I let the washer chug along for a bit. I noticed no soap bubbles, sometimes too much soap can be the issue for the build up, guess mine is just stink for stinks sake.
Noticing no soap bubbles I decided to add about a 1/2 cup or Bac-Out. I spray it on all poop diapers, which at this point is few! It says it gets the stink out. It is also good for carpet stains and regular laundry stains. Bonus, it smells amazing. Then I added about two cups of vinegar. What can't vinegar do? I let the washed chug away for an extra long time, meaning when it got close to draining I would set it back at the beginning.
When it all drained out I put it back on hot wash, because my washer does not offer a warm or hot rinse cycle, and I read that was recommended. I let is chug along for a while rinsing everything out and then let is spin. When it finished I crossed my fingers and started pulling the diapers out.
So Much Better! The stink has been vanished from 15 of the 16 diapers I washed, one managed to hold oh to it...random. In a perfect cloth diapering world today would have been a sunny day and I could have put them all out on the deck to bleach themselves even cleaner, but it was pouring rain when I did this (saturday).
Other methods I heard about and didn't follow
-boiling, no way I'm putting diapers in my pots
-the dishwasher, thought it might melt the plastic snaps and it just sounds strange
-using dawn dish soap, too much rinsing involved (nancy said so)
Did you just read a whole post about diapers? Sorry.
I previously wrote that I wouldn't blog about cloth diapering, but I have to write this so I remember it next time I need to do it. Anyway, when that smelly gets noticeable (took us 7 months) or diapers start getting less absorbent it's time to strip them (so I hear from the cloth diaper world). I read a bunch of different ideas on how to do this, combined a few, and did a test run.
One tip I read a lot of places was to use hot water. Our hot water heater isn't set very high, and I wasn't going to go hang out in the basement with bugs to change it. Instead I heated up some pots of water and the tea kettle on the stove. Note, the front right pot is not involved in diaper cleaning it's chicken poaching to make chicken salad for dinner.
I also hear that the diapers should all be clean before doing this, as adding extra hot water will set stains into the diapers. No one wants that. So I washed all the dirty diapers, then put in anything that was clean and in his dresser, minus two diapers he would need for the rest of the evening.
Filled the washer all the way up with hot water and added an extra kick of hot water from the stove. Then before adding anything else I let the washer chug along for a bit. I noticed no soap bubbles, sometimes too much soap can be the issue for the build up, guess mine is just stink for stinks sake.
 | |||
| The usual suspects, bac-out, vinegar, diaper soap, baking soda |
 |
| Getting clean and fresh |
So Much Better! The stink has been vanished from 15 of the 16 diapers I washed, one managed to hold oh to it...random. In a perfect cloth diapering world today would have been a sunny day and I could have put them all out on the deck to bleach themselves even cleaner, but it was pouring rain when I did this (saturday).
Other methods I heard about and didn't follow
-boiling, no way I'm putting diapers in my pots
-the dishwasher, thought it might melt the plastic snaps and it just sounds strange
-using dawn dish soap, too much rinsing involved (nancy said so)
Did you just read a whole post about diapers? Sorry.
I've been using EcoSprout diaper detergent and every 2nd or 3rd weekend I just do my hot wash, add an extra scoop of soap and let them soak for 2-3 hours. Even that makes such a huge difference. I did the Dawn a few times and while it helped, it didn't make it worth all of the million rinses it took to make sure that it didn't build up and make things worse. I'm interested in this bac-out. What is the main purpose? Stains? Stink?
ReplyDeleteGlad you found something that works. I have a couple of diapers that I need to sun but it hasn't been sunny enough. Lame. I've added a bit of lemon juice to fresh-out-of-the-washer diapers and put them out to sun and they get SO nice.
I loved your blog on cloth diapering. The more we talk, the more people get interested, the less yuck I leave on earth for my kids to deal with later on. :-)
I know the stink that you are talking about! We cloth diapered our boys (well, okay, we used them for Jack, but just a bit into Henry, my husband asked that we stop and switch to disposable. And having 2 in diapers, it didn't take much to talk me into it) and we talked about doing the same for Selah, but just haven't gotten around to finding the diapers I want to invest in (when the boys were babies, Bumpkins AIO's were pretty much the best out there- the market is swarming with so many other options it makes my head spin). A friend who also clothed her babies mentioned tea-tree oil in the wash with hers. Can't remember what exactly it's supposed to do (it's been a few years), but that might be one to research.
ReplyDeleteDid you say chicken salad???! That's just mean to make me read that and not feed it to me.
ReplyDeleteHey, I could read a dozen more blogs on cloth diapering and not get tired of it! Thanks for the tip. We're almost ready to go on trip 1, and my rumparooz are still waiting for a little rump to fill.
ReplyDeleteFunny how I have just arrived at the same stinky place. The Bum Genius website said to add 1/4 cup bleach to the hot cycle once a month. Whoops, missed that little detail. I tried it last night and I think my bleach dispenser dispensed the bleach all over the garage floor and not into the diapers. I'll try again, maybe with Susan's wash machine. I have heard great things about the Bac out. I was also going to try Funk Rock by Rockin' Green.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we had no rain here today- weird!
Wow, glad to hear people like reading about diapers! Courtney, I've heard using bleach is a last resort. I'm a big fan of bleach, but have yet to let it near any diapers. This hot water, Bac-Out, Vinegar method seems to have had some positive results.
ReplyDeleteThis post is from last Saturday, not this beautiful sunny Saturday...silly.
This is great. I haven't found a single helpful laundry add-in that gets things cleaner here in Bolivia (which is why all my kids clothes have stains on them, even after I scrub them with a toothbrush), nor do I have hot water in my washer. So, my proven method is to actually boil the diapers (in a big, boiling-diapers-only pot- we call it "diaper soup") once a month. Seems to do the trick. :)
ReplyDelete