Stink Problems?

Once in a while, your diapers are going to stink. The stink may be an ammonia smell right after your little one urinates in a fresh diaper or it may be the barnyard smell that a diaper has after it is washed and dried.

A diaper that stinks like ammonia right after your little one urinates has ammonia build up. The best solution I have found to combat ammonia build up is this:

• Rinse diapers, even just pee ones, before putting in your diaper pail or wet bag. The longer a diaper sits with pee on it, the more ammonia stink it gets.
• Make sure you have plenty of water in your wash cycle. In an HE machine, this may mean adding water through the soap dispenser. I get my diapers nice and wet by doing a rinse with no spin before I wash my diapers. This makes them heavier, which adds more water in my HE front loader.

A diaper that stinks like a barnyard or has a fish smell after it has been cleaned is simply a diaper that has not gotten clean. There is still poo and pee residue in it. This either means you did not have enough detergent in your wash cycle or you tried to wash too many/few diapers in a load. Yes, it is possible to wash too FEW diapers in a load. I know it is the common practice to use a quarter of the recommended amount of detergent when it comes to washing cloth diapers, but it is okay to add more if your diapers are not getting clean. A quarter of the amount was not enough for my diapers, especially given that I have an HE front loader. Half seems to work best for me.

Ideally, you want between 12 and 15 diapers, depending on your washer capacity. You need enough diapers to swish against each other. Too many and there isn't room to swish. Too few and there isn't enough to swish against. That 12 to 15 diapers means the cover and inserts.

 12 diapers

 12 diapers close up.

Think about it: If you are washing 12 pocket diapers and you use both inserts, that is is 12 covers and 24 inserts, for a total of 36 items in the washer. If you use cloth wipes and wash your diaper pail liner or wetbags in the same wash with your diapers, that is more in the washer. See how it all adds up very quickly and your wash can become to full?

 15 diapers

 15 diapers close up.

I have a pretty large wash capacity, but I have found that about 15 diapers is just right for my wash loads. 12 is almost too few and 18 is pushing the limits. With two in cloth full time and another in cloth just at night, this means I pretty much have to wash every day. I have been know to wait two days and just do two loads in a day.

 18 diapers

18 diapers close up.

In the pictures, there is a mix of pocket diapers, hybrid diapers, prefolds and covers, wipes, and wetbags.