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Troubleshooting smells
Smells happen because your diapers aren’t getting clean enough. So let’s talk about this a little more, and learn how to fix it. There are usually two types of smells when it comes to cloth diapering: barnyard (poopy smell) or ammonia (strong pee, burning eyes kind of smell).
Try these steps, in this order:
- Make sure ALL 3D poop is off the diapers. You should not be putting any solid poop into your washing machine (exclusively breastfed newborn poop is exempt from this). A diaper sprayer is a super effective way of removing solid poop, but letting your poopy diapers soak in the toilet during the day and then swishing off works well too!
- Do a longer pre wash. Maybe your cold rinse isn’t cutting it. Run a heavy cycle with warm water as your prewash. Then run your normal cycle.
- Run a daily pre rinse. Nighttime diapers (which typically hold a lot more pee than any other time of day) might be causing the strong smell. Either put the nighttime diaper in a bucket of water in the laundry sink after the first change in the morning, or, run them in a pre rinse with any other diaper laundry immediately. Do this daily until your full wash day.
- Not enough detergent. Use a bit more of your detergent. It’s true that you don’t need a lot, but if the amount you’re using isn’t getting them clean, you might need a bit more. This can take some trial and error, and of course a larger load means more detergent than a smaller load.
- Extra rinse. Don’t skimp on the extra rinse. Always include an extra rinse after washing your diapers. This helps get the rest of the detergent out (which is responsible for lifting the dirt/stinks etc. off of the laundry load). Sometimes if this isn’t being fully rinsed off it can actually trap smells.
- If you’ve tried all of the above, it might be time for a reset. You should only have to do this max. once per season. Put your inserts in the laundry sink. Fill halfway with water, and halfway with white vinegar. Allow them to soak for a few hours. Squeeze all of the liquid out of them. Then repeat with your diapers. Finally, finish by running your wash routine as per usual.
And don’t forget, make sure you are cleaning your washing machine at least once a month! And yes, if you have a front loader, this means also cleaning the silicone lining, which is a mold trap.
We hope this helps! If you need more specific help, please ask in our Facebook VIP group! There are lots of experienced cloth diaper parents (including us!) who can help you!