We put Dakota back into cloth diapers at night and cloth training pants during the daytime on his second birthday. (Two 1/2 months ago). Now his diapers and pants smell so bad. It's been 24 years since I'ce used cloth diapers. Is there something I should be putting in the laundry to make them smell better. I was washing every day. Now that he is not going through so many pairs of training pants I was about every other day. Okay now all you cloth diapering mamas. What do you think I should be using? Kathi
I put vinegar in the wash. Try it. It will get rid of the stink. I use it at the beginning of the cycle, then for the final rinse cycle (I line dry, so I use the vinegar for fabric softener).
throw some baking soda in the soak water or pre-wash with baking soda. Final rinse with white vinegar. They both neutralize the ammonia from the urine and poopies. Dry in the sun if possible. It worked for me, anyway. Are his dipes and pants cotton? Wool soakers might need something different, not sure cuz I never used wool or flannel.
I'm not a momma, but I did raise my god-daughter....And I worked in a laundry-service facility... Invest in some Odo-ban. It's all-natural and it will take the smell out of the nastiest smelling clothing. Trust me, I used to wash clothes for truck-drivers....Ick! *pukey face* Odo-ban works wonders. Holly
I have found that drying them outside in the sun really helps alot. I wash Abigails diapers every other day and air/sun dry them. Good for you for going cloth! Yay!
How much vinegar do you use? I tried it once and it didn't seem to do any good. I used some tea tree oil yesterday. They smelled much better. But that seems a bit expensive to me. Maybe I just didn't use enough vinegar. Kathi
I use about 1/2 cup per wash. How do you pretreat the diapers? I rinse them out as they are soiled, put them in the washer to soak with vinegar (try baking soda instead like Brighid said), then run the wash with hot water and put more vinegar in the final rinse. Line drying outside is great. It dries them super-fast, and the sun is an awesome bleacher.
I don't really pretreat other than cleaning off the poopies. Unfortunately we're not allowed to dry things outside our apartment. Kathi
I have one of those plastic balls that dispense fabric softener during the wash.A friend got it free with their fabric softener and gave it to me.I just fill it with vinegar up to the line it has on it for fabric softener and drop it in with the diapers
