So my diapers were starting to smell like ammonia. I first noticed it after a long night, so I wasn't too concerned. Then I started noticing it during the day. I wasn't sure if it was Jaxon's urine changing & becoming stinkier or if it was build-up on the diapers. But one day when my husband noticed it while Jaxon was wearing a "fresh" diaper, I knew I had a problem. So I decided it was time to rock a soak. Since we have a front loader, this is easier said than done. I have tried soaking stained clothes in my washer in the past and it really doesn't work. There is just never enough water in the machine to really soak things.
So I decided to use the bathtub. I followed the instructions on my Rockin' Green bag. I am not sure what I was expecting from this. I just wanted the diapers to stop stinking. I honestly didn't think that my diapers could be that dirty after just 4 months of use. But after just 45 minutes in the tub, I found this:
And this:
Um, gross. But at least it was working! After the diapers soaked for 2 hours, I put them in the washer and rinsed them. Then I ran a regular wash cycle.
It must have worked because they no longer smell like ammonia...not even when he wears them overnight! I am so happy it worked because I didn't know what else to do to get the smell out. Have you ever had ammonia smells in your diapers? What did you do to get rid of the stink?
Today is day 2 of the Flats & Handwashing Challenge with Dirty Diaper Laundry. For a recap, here is a link to the rules of the challenge. Things are going very well for us. No leaks, no issues, and really, no problems at all. The nighttime diaper from last night held up very well. It was not even soaked like I thought it might be. So either he wet less or the diaper is just that absorbent.
I washed diapers this morning in our extra sink (it's in a downstairs kitchen that we don't use). That allowed me the use of the sprayer on the sink, which was helpful to add some pressure when rinsing, but not really necessary, I don't think.
Yesterday I read that someone was soaking their diapers in water with Bac-Out, kind of a wet pail solution. I thought that seemed like a good idea. So yesterday, I filled one side of the sink with cold water and a few drops of Bac-Out. I left the diapers from yesterday in there overnight. Judging from the color of the water, that saved me from having to do some washing. So today, after I finished homeschooling the older kids, I rinsed those diapers in cold water first. My little helper was in the sling watching.
Take a look at this...see that one diaper near the front left that is kind of yellowy looking? That was from a massive explosive poop that Jaxon had yesterday. Classic exclusively breastfed baby stuff - nice and icky. Wait til you see what that diaper looks like when I'm done washing.
So then I filled it up with hot water and 1 tsp of Rockin' Green. I wasn't really sure how much detergent to use. But since I was washing less than what my machine would normally wash, I thought I should go easy on the detergent.
I didn't see a lot of bubbles, but I could feel the detergent in the water. I tried to do some rubbing on each diaper and swished them around in what I thought could be a substitute for machine agitation. I left them down there for about 20 minutes while I went and made lunch. Then I came back, agitated again, and drained the water. I then rinsed each diaper by laying it in the bottom of the sink and using the sprayer. Then I wrung everything out and went back upstairs to hang things up to dry.
I use a drying rack. Normally that works well for pockets, prefolds, and inserts. But for flats, it's not the best. There's not enough room, really.
And, since today was windy, it fell over about 4 times before I finally brought it inside and put it under the ceiling fan. If I was using flats full time, I would invest in some sort of clothesline, for sure. On a clotheline, with the wind and heat being what it was today, those diapers would have been dry in a couple of hours. But here's the really cool thing about the handwashing. Check out that diaper right on the front of the drying rack.
That was my extra dirty diaper that I was sure would not come clean. I felt like it came as clean or cleaner than it would have in the wash! There were still a few small spots, but the sun got those out within the first hour of drying.
So all in all, I'm declaring day 2 a success.I did notice one thing that I'm concerned about, but it is not really an issue with the flats, more like an issue with my pockets that the flats have alerted me to! The nighttime diaper didn't smell when he woke up. At all. That's a good thing. But usually when baby boy wakes up in the morning, there's an ammonia smell. I attribute it to the time spent in the diaper (usually it's 11-12 hours). But there was no smell this morning. So now I'm wondering if my inserts are funky and causing the smell. Any ideas?
***Thanks to Cotton Babies for providing Ozocozy flats and Econobum covers for me to use during this challenge***
