Stinkies......

So, it happened. It took almost 5 months, but it happened! What am I talking about? The dreaded stink, of course! If anyone out there uses any type of microfiber, no matter how cheap or costly, you either have, or will have dealt with stink. It seems that microfiber is just more prone to this problem for some reason. I'm not going to research the science behind why microfiber gets the stink so bad, but I'm sure it must have something to do with being synthetic.

On with the story. I use purex and the only problem I have had has been with my microfiber inserts, and with my BumGenius! AIO. Great diaper, but hard to take care of in some ways. What was happening was, my diapers were coming out of the wash smelling nice and clean. But then, as soon as C peed, it would smell like ammonia. It got pretty bad too. I was at my wits end with this problem.

Here's what I tried that DIDN'T work, in this order. (I'll get to what works in a minute!)
• Bac-Out in the wash
• Rockin Green as a detergent in the wash.
• I "rocked a soak" with Rockin Green for 12 hours.
• I Rocked another 12 hour soak, this time with Bac-Out.
• I washed with Rockin Green and rinsed about 5 times. There were no bubbles in the rinse cycles, but I rinsed extra anyways.
• I gave up on Rockin Green and tried Country Save
• I did two wash cycles with Country Save and an extra rinse cycle.
• Bac-Out with Country Save
• I tried Tiny Bubbles detergent.
• I tried Bio-Kleen Detergent
• I tried vinegar in the wash with an extra rinse.
• I finally gave up and tried clorox bleach *gasp* Even bleach didn't kill the smell!!!!!!

Want to know what worked? I bet you do! I messaged the friendly folks at Diaper Junction's Facebook page and asked them what to do. They suggested stripping with blue dawn, and trying a water softener.

Now here's the thing......I didn't do the blue dawn (dish soap) because I don't have my own washer to use. I have to pay for each load, and I imagine it would have required my entire weekly laundry budget to get all the dawn out of the diapers. I decided that that would be my LAST last LAST resort if the water softener didn't work. And if it came to that, I was seriously contemplating throwing out my microfiber and replacing them with natural fibers because it wasn't worth the effort to me.
I still have microfiber, so you can guess what happened.

What worked:

• 1/2 cup White King Water Softener (we don't have Calgon for some reason where I live, just White King. It should be the same though) in the pre wash.
• 1/2 cup WK in the wash cycle
• One extra wash cycle to get it all out.

It worked. It was like magic, almost too good to be true! I put the BG AIO on my little one, put her to bed, and hoped for no smell in the morning. When I woke up, to my surprise, there was hardly any ammonia smell at all. I am confident that after a couple more washings, the smell will be all the way gone, but I'll let you know if it's not.

Water softeners like Calgon and White King are fairly cheap. I got a giant box for 4.59 at the grocery store. My new wash routine will include White King in the wash cycle every time from now on. If you live in a hard water area (if you live in the US, you can almost count on it), then I highly recommend using a water softener of some sort to clean your diapers with. The stink I was getting was caused by detergent building up on my diapers because of the minerals in the hard water were trapping the detergent in the fibers of the inserts. I knew we had hard water, so I don't know why I didn't think of this before!

Here's another tip about water softeners. I suggest getting a powder version. You can use it for many things around the house, even for washing dishes by hand, or in the dishwasher. You will be surprised at how dingy your clothes actually were after one use! I let my glass coffee pot soak for about an hour in a sink full of water and 1 tbsp. of WK, and it came clean! All the coffee stains and spots were gone! It can be use to clean glass and counter tops and showers as well. It gets soap scum off really easily. Just mix it with some water in a spray bottle, leave it to work for a bit, come back and wipe away! I am all about such a versatile product. I really think this is mommy's little secret to a sparkly white tub, spot free dishes and stem ware, and stink free diapers! Who knew it would be that easy!

Tonight I am going to be experimenting with the sewing machine........more on that later! Until next time, Happy Diapering!

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