I've got two kids in diapers and two other children and I don't have time for....well.....let me start with.....I was very blessed to receive a load of used diapers from a cousin of mine. I was so happy and excited because cloth is very expensive and I got a bunch of bumGenius pocket diapers in the pile. I know she took good care of them. They are not new and they are definitely broke in but they have a lot of life still in them. She used the Rockin Green detergent and BacOut spray. The diapers all smelled really good actually! So I washed them for good measure and carefully matched the diapers and the liners together and made nice little piles and was very excited to try Damon and Bella in cloth, since I finally had a good stash. Then the horror happened. After changing Bella I noticed this extremely strong smell....ammonia fumes! Fumes people!! That's what it smelled like and you didn't have to get very close to inhale those ammonia fumes. I was very shocked. This didn't happen with my brand new diapers....what is going on here, I thought! I changed Damon's pee diaper and there it was again; knock you dead ammonia smell! As soon as urine hit those microfiber inserts...Bam! ammonia toxins escaped! I was disgusted and horrified! I got online and went on a bunch of FB pages and blogs, and websites. I saw the complaints about the ammonia and I also saw all the comments.
Comment after comment about every one's washing routines.
"first I rinse, then I squirt Dawn soap in and then I triple rinse and then I sun bath them...."
"first I rinse, then I wash without detergent, then I boil them in a big pot, then I wash them, then I triple rinse...."
"first I rinse the diaper with water and put it in the pail, then I wash them two times, and double rinse..."
"....try vinegar
".....try baking soda
".....this detergent, that detergent, no detergent, sun bath, hot boiling, scalding water (wear glove so you don't burn yourself)."
And do you know what they ALL said? The smell always came back within a matter of time. Its just part of cloth diapering they say. The microfiber ones just hold the stink and eventually you just buy new ones. Organic fibers don't hold onto the stink as much, others said. But no no no to bleach. Oh, no bleach will break down the fibers and wear your diapers out and you don't want those chemicals on your baby's skin, now do you??? No I just want that bacteria that makes all the stinkiness against my baby's skin. --after all bacteria is all...n a t u r a l! People had to boil things in the pioneer days and guess what?-- they died like flys!
All that work your all doing to your diapers is garbage. They aren't clean. Don't kid yourself. You want clean diapers??? Then you Clorox those diapers!!! That's what I did as soon as I read all the garbage of jumping through hoops to clean diapers that never ended up clean. I threw my diapers in the wash and poured the Clorox bleach in. And I had an evil smile on my face doing what you all think is against the rules of modern day cloth. My mother used cloth, my grandmother used cloth and my great grandmother used cloth. They used bleach and had beautiful clean diapers. It worked for them and its going to work for me. The next morning I put the diapers on my two babies and guess what happened after they peed? The diapers smelt like pee!! Imagine that, pee and not a coral of cows! I read about one gal who spent a LOT of money on her cloth and can't get rid of the ammonia after using all those worthless tricks. She felt so sad to cut her loses and use disposables, since neither her or her husband could stand it anymore. I wish to tell her not to give up on using cloth and Clorox Clorox Clorox! I wash my underwear in Clorox and I'm washing my diapers in them too! Use only the 'Clorox' brand of bleach. The other brands makes your whites yellow. ;) I wouldn't put a bleached diaper on a newborns skin. I would use disposables until my baby was a couple of months old. And if my child had extremely sensitive skin, I'd probably use disposables.
Funny thing is that I did finally see a recomendation for bleach after the fact. 1/2 cup once a month. I think I'll be using bleach more often. Most people were against bleach. They are more concerned about the environment then clean diapers.
\My diapers may not last as long as yours and I may have to buy a few new ones here and there, but at least I know my baby is wearing a CLEAN diaper! I have to go to the store now to buy more Clorox!
