Adventures in Cloth Diapering: Part II

You might remember my blog post from the winter about how we are using cloth diapers (Adventures in Cloth Diapering).  I’m sure many of you thought “this won’t last long,” but alas!  We are still going strong with the cloth!

In general it’s been going really well.  Other than the day I went out to lunch with my friends Megan and Devon and her diaper leaked a bit - which NEVER happens!  That didn't do much to convince Megan, who is a bit of a hater when it comes to my cloth diapers, that these things are actually awesome.  

This pic was taken at the leaky diaper lunch.

I didn't have a spare pair of pants to change her into after the leak. 

I told her this better be the one and only time she is in a 

bar without her pants on!

We did just experience our first issues with washing, however.

A couple weeks ago we noticed that while the diapers would smell fresh and lovely when we took them out of the washing machine, after Tess’ first pee they would smell a little rank.  I couldn’t quite identify the smell… it was just kind of… dirty. For lack of a better word. 

She didn’t have any diaper rash, a great relief, but I didn’t want my sweet little babe smelling like a dive bar urinal either. 

Tess does not want to be stanky!

It was hard to figure out what to do since the diapers smelled awesome right out of the dryer.  So I did some experimenting.  I noticed that if she just pooed in a diaper, and didn’t pee, they wouldn’t smell. 

I then thought, maybe it’s something about being wet.  But if I took a clean diaper and soaked it in clean water from the tap, they didn’t smell either.  Also, the more saturated in pee the diaper was, the worse the smell.

OK – it’s something about pee.  What now?

To the internets!

I found some cloth diapering websites that had described a phenomenon where the urea from urine that breaks down into ammonia gets sort of “trapped” in the fibers in the diaper.  When the clean diaper then gets soaked in urine again it kind of “releases” the ammonia causing a stanky stank. 

The ammonia residue can build up in the diapers when you aren’t using enough detergent in the wash. You can also get a detergent residue in the diapers when you use too much, so I use VERY little.  I figured this was my problem.

I went through this process of cleaning the diapers with a shit-load of detergent (I usually use about 5 ml per load of about 15 diapers, this time I used about 30 ml).  Then I did what is called “stripping” the diapers.  Basically, I just did about 5 cycles without detergent to rinse them super well.

After this, Tess could soak those babies and they would smell fantastic. 

Victory!

I bought a bunch of different brands of diapers to choose my favorites, 

and I'm not as big a fan of these Bumgenius All-in One diapers.

They fit weird... I think Tess' rise is too long.

I prefer these Royal Fluff pocket diapers.

You have to stuff that absorbent insert on the left into the liner on the right.

I bought them on Zulily for $6 each last summer - so cheap! 

They have the best fit, the best snaps and they dry faster than the all-in-ones.

Then a couple of nights ago I noticed in the bath it looked like Tess was maybe developing a little diaper rash.  It wasn’t full-on diaper rash, but just looked a bit more red than usual.  Since we haven’t been dealing with ANY diaper rash I was not happy with even just a bit of redness.

Great, so what? It’s either stank or rash???

Back to the drawing board.  Or lab bench, as it were.

Again using my scientific mind, I tried to develop a hypothesis about the rash.  I figured I haven’t been rinsing the detergent out well enough now that I’m using more, and that’s what is causing her rash.

So yesterday morning I set out to do a day of rinsing diapers once again.  I started with my usual “pre-wash” – you have to first do a quick little wash so you start your real wash with clean water.  After my pre-wash cycle was done, I went to put the detergent in for the real wash, and noticed that the fabric softener dispenser in my machine was full of water and had little chunks of congealed softener floating in it.

I kind of panicked because fabric softener is a big no-no when it comes to cloth diapers.  It can ruin their absorbency and also cause diaper rash. 

Not only can't you use softener on diapers, but you have to use special detergents.

This is what I use - Charlie's Soap, I get it on Amazon for super cheap!

I obviously don’t use fabric softener on my diapers but I LOVE me some fabric softener on my clothes!  It makes clothes smell so fresh and clean!  And the feels!  Oh man – using a towel that only had a dryer sheet used on it?  Gross. I might as well use a damn roll of cardboard to dry off!

I realized that the fabric softener that I use on my other loads of laundry has congealed and blocked the outflow from the dispenser.  This means little chunks of softener may have been getting into my diaper loads! 

It had been one hell of a day so far and it was about 7am.  I’ve been having this issue with  my wrist, really since I had Tess, and it was hurting like crazy that morning.  Also, I got stung by a bee the day before and it was SO sore (I know, who gets stung by a bee???). I got an email overnight from my vet that my dog Twickers needs surgery – minor, but still expensive!  And of course, I worry.  Between freaking out about my dog (and my bank account) I was simultaneously icing my wrist and bee sting, while also having to do battle with my washing machine.  Good grief, Charlie Brown.

This was from a couple months ago when she discovered how to blow raspberries.

First, I couldn’t figure out how to get the detergent/bleach/softener dispensers out of the drawer to wash them properly, so I had to look up the manual for my machine online.  I’m a Mac user so the idea of actually reading a manual for something is reprehensible.  I have a folder somewhere I stick unread manuals into, but never actually open them up.  There might be some useful info, but it’s all hidden amongst the endless ridiculous instructions and warnings meant for someone with half a brain, like “To turn on, press the on button” and “Beware, fire is hot” to protect the manufacturer from a lawsuit. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Well… you wouldn’t believe all the great shit you learn when you actually read one of these manuals! Once Andy was able to help me free the dispenser tray, I was floored by how much gunk there was on this thing!!! I can’t believe any softener – or detergent - was getting through at all! 

First things first, I cleaned that bad boy inside and out with bleach and dish detergent so there was no remnants of softener or anything else.  Then I realized there was all kinds of spilled softener and detergent and hard water deposits and who knows what else all underneath the tray drawer, so I cleaned that too.

This whole drawer can be removed.

I was able to wash all these pieces and clean underneath 

once I actually figured out how to get it out!

While reading the manual, I also learned that the tub should be cleaned once a month to get rid of all that nasty residue that can build up in there from detergent and softener (and in my case, probably all the dog hair).  There is a “tub clean” setting that clears all that mess, so I ran that cycle as well. 

Look at all these settings!

I wasn't even using the square buttons along the top.

Another major discovery during my manual reading was a setting called “water plus,” which makes the washer inject extra water into the load of washing.  This was a major discovery. I have a water-efficient front loading washer that I love.  It probably somehow washes 20 towels with a thimble-full of water and it’s all tree-huggy and fantastic, but is no good when it comes to cloth diapers. 

Water plus! I love you!

Since cloth diapers are designed to be super absorbent, they absorb all the water that a water efficient front loader injects into the drum so the diapers don’t slosh around in any water.  They just get saturated and then tumble around inside an otherwise dry machine.  What I’ve been doing to get around this is starting a load, the machine injects the amount of water it thinks it should for a load that size, then I turn the machine off and start it again. 

BUT with the “water plus” setting on my machine the machine was FULL of water! I was psyched since now I don’t have to start and stop my machine a hundred times when I wash diapers AND I get waaaay more water this way.  This water plus nonsense is going to save me a lot of time, and also some electricity since I won’t have to run my machine for 5 minutes then another 5 minutes then run it for real anymore. 

Not only that, but I discovered that not only does my machine not put enough water in for the wash cycle, but probably hasn’t been putting enough in for the rinse cycle either! DUH! 

They say the final rinse in a load of diapers should not be sudsy, if the water is completely suds-free that means all the detergent has been rinsed out and they are good for baby’s bum.  Well, now with my fancy “water plus” setting, with plenty of water to effectively rinse these diapers, the water was still super sudsy after my usual amount of rinses!  I ran rinse, after rinse, after rinse - all day long!  STILL SUDSY!  That detergent (and apparently maybe some softener too) was really soaked into those diapers, and just couldn’t get out without enough water in the rinse cycle!  I’m damn lucky she hasn’t been getting any diaper rash with all the residue that could have been lingering in those diapers.

HOPEFULLY, water plus is the answer to all my issues. I think I was probably using enough detergent before, there just wasn’t enough water in the wash or rinse cycle.  Imagine trying to wash dishes with a little trickle of water – not going to get very clean, are they? 

Clean!

I imagine a lot of my fellow cloth diaper-ers (who likely care about being environmentally friendly) probably ALSO have water efficient front-loading washing machines.  You’d think there’d be more info for the cloth diaper-er who owns one of these machines!  Someone should write a manual.

In the end I think I was victorious.  One small step for a clean bum. One giant leap for parenthood!

"Cheers to parenthood, Mom."

This manual was quite the revelation, though. I feel like I’ve been doing laundry all wrong for a decade!  Apparently you are also supposed to dilute fabric softener with warm water before putting it in the machine???  All news to me!  I can’t bear to part with my softener – I need my soft bath towels!  But I definitely do not want these friggin’ fabric softener clegs getting stuck in there and f’ing up my diapers!  Might have to start using one of those Downy Ball things…

I might also have to go dig up that dusty folder with all my manuals.  Think of everything I might learn about keeping food cold and dishes clean if I sat down and read my fridge and dishwasher manual!  Who knows, my iPhone might be able to do something other than text and look at Facebook! Imagine!