Help with My Stinky Bgs!

Hi, J.! I also used cloth diapers. First I did rinse cycle with baking soda or borax, and then wash cycle in hot water. Hope that helps you!
S.

stripping them with RLR worked for me when nothing else did.

Hi J.,

I also use the Bum Genius 3.0 and love them! Here's how I wash my diapers:

1. A cold rinse with several drops of Tea Tree Oil (a natural antibacterial -- this really helps get out the smell).
2. The longest, hottest wash with 1/4 to 1/2 the usual amount of gentle (I use Seventh Generation) free-and-clear liquid detergent.
3. An extra rinse (or a few).
4. Dry the diapers in the dryer.

Occasionally I will add some Ecover eco-friendly color-safe bleach.

I also use cloth wipes with a solution of water, baby soap, olive oil, and a few drops tea tree oil (see www.naturalbirthandbabycare.com/homemade-baby-wipes-recip... for the recipe).

All that being said, the diapers smell like pee when my daughter has peed. But they smell fresh and clean after washing.

Best of luck,
R.

Use Tea Tree Oil in the water with your normal detergent (you can add some baking soda if you wish) Tea Tree Oil (TTO) is a natural anti-fungal (I use it when we wash our underwear separately) it has killed mold in our humidifer, etc. It is safer than bleach and other soaps out there. You can find TTO at Trader Joe's (cheap), Whole Foods and online.

Good Luck,
J. W. MPH
Wellness Educator in Materanal and Child Health

I haven't used cloth diapers yet, but I have done lots of research.

I know many cloth diapering moms say to use vinager, but Borax is a no-no. Could you try washing in hot water, no soap, and with vinager? Then wash in hot water with soap? You could also try running a cycle with vinager with nothing in your machine. The smell may be in your washer as well (just a possibility).

Have you tried Charlie's soap? This laundry soap was recommended to me by the eco-friendly moms on TheBump.com. Here are some links that might help you get some better answers (since I'm not a pro yet) :)

The eco-friendly family board on thebump.com:
http://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/4493296/ShowFor...

Jillian's Drawers website for laundry soap:
http://www.jilliansdrawers.com/products/clothdiapers/natu...

Sunshine Diapers website for laundry soap:
http://www.sunshinediapers.com/WebStore/index.php?main_pa...

A blog by a Cloth Diapering mom - she is very knowledgeable and has great tips!
http://babyrabies.com/

My advice its to pre-treat with a little BacOut before washing. We use a combination of BGs and Thirsties and before tossing them in the pail I squirt a little of the BacOut on them and have never had an odor problem. If you are not familiar, the product is made by BioKleen, an environmentally friendly, safe-to-use on diapers, no-chemical company whose products are widely available on the internet. I believe drugstore.com has it at a reasonable price, though I buy it in bulk from babyworks.com.
Good luck!

I use BG's exclusively for about a year. My two-year-old uses them for bed and nap-time and my 7 month-old uses them all of the time. I have never had this problem myself, but we don't use water-softener. I have been told in the past that this is common with those who do. My friends who had this problem did use the spray and had good results. They also found that they weren't washing them as often as is recommended. We always make sure that no diapers are left in the pail for longer than 48 hours.

Hi J. ,
It definitely sounds like you an immediate problem . I have been a long time customer with a wellness company who have great non toxic products . One of the products I use especially with odors is a product called Solumel . You can add it to water in your washing machine , carpet cleaning machine . It gives an extra cleaning and deodorizing power . I had to even use it in my car fabric when one of my girls got sick .

Shay Snyder
www.workathomeunited.com/shay
Helping moms earn some extra money for their household budget.

They're not getting clean. You can use bleach on BGs -- check out the cottonbabies.com site.

When that happens to me, I add Bac-Out to the wash. I found it at Jewel. Or wash with more detergent and rinse twice.

I had this problem too. I tried a little bleach and I tried some vinegar and water softener as we have hard water. They both helped but didn't get rid of it. It wasn't until I got the BG odor remover and basically treated all of them after using them that the smell completely went away. I am sure after a certain period of time it will probably come back. I prefer the prefolds too for the same reason.....they just seem to get so much cleaner.

I'm not sure if it is the same issue, but I use BG 2.0s with my 16 mo daughter and had an problem with her diapers smelling of pee when they came out of the dryer. The lady I purchased these from suggested I was using too much detergent. I use Purex Free & Clear and I only needed to use 1 Tbsp for each load. She had me run the diapers through a full hot wash a couple of time to get rid of the excess detergent that had built up in them, and since then they've been fine. You could contact Sarah at pinstripesandpolkadots.com and she'll be able to tell you more. Good luck and thanks for using cloth :O)

I agree...the dawn detergent will work! Good Luck!

Here's the deal with the smell: you need to strip the diapers with Dawn. You have a build up of detergent, so when the pee hits the diaper, look out world! Never use vinegar or baking soda with these diapers, it will just make it worse.

Go buy some original Dawn. Soak the diapers in some dawn, with very hot water, until the water is no longer hot. Then put the diapers in the washer and do three hot washes with no soap. I actually hand-washed my diapers, rubbing a little bit of Dawn into each one, then letting them soak.

BG recommends throwing a little bleach in once a month too.

Also, DO NOT USE BACOUT on BG --it will just make the situation worse and they will start to leak.

Hi,

I also use BG and have had that problem. We have hard water but a water softener. I do a pre-rinse of all the poopies in cold water. Then I do a hot wash with 1/4 scoop of Charlie's soap. Then two cold rinses. About once a month or so (and more often if they start to get stinky) I add about 3/4 cup of bleach to the hot wash (I always use the extra large setting). I let it agitate for few minutes then I stop the cycle and let it soak for an hour or so. Then I finish it with two cold rinses and do one more hot wash with no soap and a cold rinse to get the bleach out. This seems to help with the smell although they tend to have a little lingering bleach odor for the next use. I get my diapers from Mom's Milk Boutique (www.momsmilkboutique.com) and that was the advice I got from the owner. She also suggested make sure you go no more than 48 hours without washing dirty ones. They sell a bumGenius odor removing solution but I haven't tried it. Good luck.

A friend of mine uses BG's and she uses Borax in cold water wash/rinse then 2nd wash w/ Planet detergent. Once a month she uses 1/4 cup bleach w/ hot water wash and 2 rinse cycles. Her daughter is almost 7 mo old and uses only BG's and never had a problem. Hope this helps!

Hi,

I too am cloth diapering, although my son is only 2 months old. I have read that when there is a strong urine smell,bleach can be used. I have started washing my covers in bio-kleen bac-out and it seems to be working. I also washed all of my diapers with some oxy-clean baby in conjunction with Charlie's soap just recently. I think that helped....I don't know if either of those would work with your BG's, but thought I would share!

Good luck!

Great stuff-
When I used training underwear sometimes the pee smell didn't wash out. Then I stumbled upon "Kids 'n Pets" for urine odor. Works great on clothes, carpets, and mattresses too. I think they would be fine for diapers too- check the bottle and your diaper maker. The active ingredients are enzymes. Read instructions- soak thoroughly and then allow to completely dry. I have found it at Target and Jewel.
. . .found their website
http://www.kidsnpetsbrand.com/index.htm
Works very well on a lot of stains and smells- use this first before you resort to chemicals.
Oh-it's $6 bucks!
Hope this helps

We use a scoop of oxi-clean with every load(along with seventh generation baby detergent) and vinegar in the Downy ball, as a rinse. Ours have never had that stinky pee smell. I have experienced that smell when around other people's cloth diapered babies, so it must be a common problem.

J.:

contact Ellen at BellyBum Boutique.. ###-###-####.. or go in and talk to her.. the store is at 4347 N. Lincoln ave... she knows probably everything there is to know about cloth diapering... what she doesn't know she knows where to find out.

P., RLC, IBCLC
Breastfeeding and Parenting Solutions

I would order some of the bumgenius spray, and use that on every diaper before you stick them in the pail. The smell is VERY common with these diapers, and I never had a problem once I started using the spray.
Good Luck!!