Stripped!

Update on our ammonia stinkies: all diapers are stripped and doing well. 

I have added an extra rinse back in and I think we are good to go. I do think, however, that next time I buy detergent I will get the Hard Rock. We get soap scum build-up quite quickly, so hopefully that will help the diaper routine.

Did the cats pee in here?

The ammonia nasties have hit our house. With only a few hiccups in the wash routine, everything was going so well when bam! - ammonia stink. I hadn't read much about the ammonia problem because I wasn't having it. I had ignorantly thought I would smell it on washed and unwashed diapers. Now I know the smell comes out when combined with urine. I don't even know how long I've been having the problem; it was my mother who noticed it when watching Little Man this past week.

It's interesting that the ammonia smell can come from detergent residue not rinsing out, as well as from not using enough detergent. How's a mom to know which one is the problem? I'm first tackling the problem as if it were residue not rinsing out and if that doesn't work I'll go for the not enough detergent.

Two days ago I Rocked a Soak for 60 minutes and ran them through a hot wash without detergent, plus a couple of rinses. No dice. Last night I Rocked a Soak overnight, ran them through a hot wash without detergent, and rinsed a couple of times. They are now in the dryer while I'm at work. I was hoping that would solve the problem, but now I'm thinking I need to strip them more.

I thought running them through the wash and rinse without detergent was stripping them, but as I read up on stripping diapers, I see that I should rinse in hot water too. I don't have a hot rinse on my machine, so I will have to do a warm rinse.

I am also going to add an extra rinse to the end of my regular routine. I was doing one for awhile but have been lazy and cutting it out.

I think for now I'll stick with the amount of detergent I'm using and add back in the extra rinse. We have hard water, and I'm using 2 scoops of Classic Rock with the highest water level possible. If this next stripping doesn't work, I will try 3 scoops.

I guess the cats didn't pee in here after all. My apologies to Shepherd and Figaro for jumping to conclusions.

Nighttime Diapering: Foiled!

We were good to go with our nighttime diaper. We've been using several different kinds of diapers with their regular inserts, plus a Loopy-Do. Everything was working fine, until...Little Man started sleeping on his side. Side-sleeping changes everything.

So back to the drawing board. I know I've read posts and reviews out there about side-sleeping solutions, so I'll be on the lookout for those again. For now, I admit, we're using disposables at night. I think I may even stick with that for right now, before I go on a hunt again. We are having some sleeping issues, and while I tackle that, I don't think I want to add the dryness hurdle.

To the Beach with Cloth Diapers

We have gone away for long weekends since I've been cloth diapering, but this is the first time I will be gone for a week. Our condo has a washer and dryer so I'll just have to tweek the wash routine a bit to get it right, and we'll be good to go. We're not allowed to hang out anything on the balcony, but I'm hoping putting a drying rack out will be allowed.

Whether or not I was using cloth diapers, I'm thinking about the regular diaper to swim diaper switch...keeping a swim diaper on for an extended period of time wouldn't make a lot of sense to me. But then again, do you make the switch just when you think you're heading down to the water? I have 2 swim diapers, and I know some Moms use their pocket covers as swim diapers, so I may try that too.

Here's to a fun-filled first Ocean experience for Little Man!

Spray that Poop: Musings on a diaper sprayer

When I started using cloth diapers, my son was still exclusively breastfed, so his poop washed right out so easily. When we first started solids, the poop was still washing out easily, and I still didn't feel the need for a sprayer. As days of solids moved into weeks of solids (and more food actually went down the hatch than on the floor) I started to see the benefit that having a diaper sprayer might have. Someone referred to it as peanut butter - stuck on that diaper, making your wash routine work that much harder to get those diapers clean.

I caved in, admitting I needed a sprayer, and spent the money. As I waited for the sprayer, I still wondered how a light spray would really help get that poop off. And then it arrived...

Holy Batman, that thing can spray! I quickly learned to hold the diaper as far into the toilet as I could after I ended up with poop sprayed all over the toilet, on the floor, and on me. I try to hold all the ends of the diaper together, as if making a parachute, and then spray as close to the water as I can. Sometimes I still have to wipe around the toilet rim, but that's better than around the bathroom.

No more poop languishing on diapers in our house - that diaper sprayer is a magic wand.

Wordless Wednesday: Diaper Laundry

The final step in disposing of disposables: Cloth Wipes

I've been using some cloth wipes off and on for about a month now. A week ago my box of disposable wipes was about to be finished and rather than refilling it, I said, "Enough is enough." To cloth wipes we go...

Thanks to Dirty Diaper Laundry, I folded my wipes in that pop-up effect, placed them in the wipes container, filled a spray bottle with water, and we were ready to go.

I don't use a wipes solution at this point (although I've learned from experience not to say I won't do that). I just spritz one end with water, wipe with the wet end first, and then pat dry with the dry end.

Since I'm just starting with cloth wipes, I don't have any particularly useful insight, but overall I like them better than disposables. Using disposable wipes with cloth diapers was a bit of a pain in the tush, if you'll pardon my pun. I had to use the wipe and then have a little trash can in which to throw it away, while then dealing with the dirty diaper separately. Now I can throw the wipe right in with the dirty diaper; one less step. It's nice that the wipe easily wipes up the ickiness in one fell swoop. The cloth wipes are also much thicker than the disposables, so I don't feel like I'm getting poop on my hands or that they will break through. In fairness, I used low-end, inexpensive, store-brand wipes, so I'm sure the more expensive, quilted wipes were much thicker.

Right now my biggest issue is the softness on Little Man's tush. Even with the store-brand disposable wipes I was using, they were soft and maneuvered nicely as I wiped. I have two brands of wipes I've bought and the fabric is just not as soft as I would like it to be. I'd be happy to review other kinds of wipes to find what I like best, but I'm just not able to buy many brands to find just the right one.

What is your favorite brand of cloth wipe?
Do you use a wipes solution? If so, which one?