Washing routine?

The million dollar question for cloth diapering parents... "How do you get rid of the stink in my diapers?"

Let me start out with a background on my own cloth diapering adventure with my two boys. I had my first child in 2008. We started out using prefolds and prorap classic and Bumpkins diaper covers. I used the wet pail method with my white Chinese prefolds. We used this set up until I purchased my first pocket diaper called FuzziBunz. I never looked back at my prefolds once I used the FuzziBunz diaper on my child. I quickly sold off my collection of prefolds and covers! During the time I used prefolds I never had an issue with stinky diapers. After about 9 months of constant use of pocket diapers with microfiber inserts I had my first trouble with stink issues. It just about drove me crazy because they would come out of the washer smelling clean, but wow the smell one my baby wet in them.

What I did was washed with no soap and then checked to make sure all the soap was out of them. To my surprise there was LOTS of soap in my washing machine. It took me at least 4 more full washes on hot and rinsing before I finally arrived at no bubbles and no more stink.

Then fast forward to 2008 and my second bundle of monster love arrived. We used pocket diapers on him from the beginning. The first time I noticed a smell issue with him is when he started getting teeth. I tried the washing with no soap and was rather surprised that there was no soap in them. So that sent me on to my washing detergent. I had been using Purex free and clear on my diapers with both of my children. So I decided to switch My detergent to Tide free and clear. As you would guess my stink issues cleared right up!

Fast forward a year and a half and a move to Arkansas. We started having stink issues again. At this time Rockin' Green was new on the market and I gave it a try! I ordered a bag, and the day it arrived I was doing the rock soak! I was so excited to see that my diapers were whiter and had NO smell! We had great luck for a long time and then all of the sudden and the monster was older one morning we woke up to stinky diapers once again. So I just decided to switch back to Purex free and clear for a few washes. Stink was gone and then I switched back to Rockin Green and life has been good ever since!

So after 7 years of running a cloth diaper store I have learned the following!

1. "All" Free and Clear Laundry detergent will work great and then all of the sudden start major stink issues and possibly leaks.

2. All the years of personal cloth diaper use I have never had to strip my diapers. I will confess that I have messed up more than once and used fabric softener on my diaper stash! (yes I had to do extra washes to get that out!) do not use fabric softener on your cloth diapers!

3. I am really starting to believe that cloth diapers build up immunity to laundry detergents used over long periods of time, and need to be switched around when stink issues arise.

So if you were to come and and tell me you were having stink issues this is what I would tell you to do!

1. First wash your diapers without laundry soap, check your washer and see if you have bubbles in the washer. If you do have bubbles keep washing until you see no soap in the water. If no soap bubbles, keep reading.

2. Look over your washing routine. Are you doing a cold rinse, normal hot wash, and then an extra cold rinse to make sure soap is removed.

3. Use a little more soap or a little less soap per wash. ( Normally more soap is needed)

4. If none of the above helps, I would say it's time to change laundry soaps for a few washes and after the stinks are gone you can switch back to your normal cloth diaper soap.

Washing your cloth diapers should not be time consuming or aggravating. Don't over think the process! Washing your cloth diapers is easy. Each manufacturer has their own washing instructions and can be rather confusing at times. Just keep it simple and you will have clean diapers!

Please leave us a comment and tell us what you did to battle the stinkies in your stash of cloth diapers!

Gena
www.forthemonster.com