Natural Fiber Stink

theultimatesak

So I thought synthetics were more prone to stink?  My natural fiber diapers definitely have something weird going on.  They don't smell when they come out of the washer, but when I go to change him out of a wet diaper it smells like stale cigarettes.  It's not ammonia, and it's not animal-like, it's just...gross.  The problem is mostly with my Grovia AIOs, OS Simplex, and Sbish snapless diapers.  My synthetic AIOs (Freetimes, TB, etc) don't stink at all.  I just started using my prefolds again after a very long hiatus, and they don't stink either, so I'm thinking it's something that's been going on over time.

EOD Wash Cycle:

warm prewash no detergent

hot wash/cold rinse w/ Charlie's

cold rinse

There are definitely no bubbles in the rinse cycle because I'm weird and look almost every time. And I soak all overnight diapers in hot water before throwing them in the wet bag.   

Detergent-wise, Charlie's has been then only thing that cleaned but didn't irritate my son's skin.  We've tried and failed with Tide, Ecos, Ruby Moon, All F & C powder, BG, Country Save, Tiny Bubbles, and something else I'm forgetting.  

I'm thinking of either bleach or a washing soda soak?  Thoughts?  

freezorburn

I think of washing soda as more of a water softening agent, so if you are worried about mineral buildup, then that might be your solution.

Otherwise I would go with bleach.

Maybe try one, see if it works. If not, go to the other.

stoneycakes

I just battled a really weird odor problem with mine, too.  I did a washing soda soak and it is completely gone in my daytime dipes.  DS's ON smelled a little funky this morning, though.  I'm not sure if it's the same odor or just toddler pee.

blondolphn

I was going to ask if you tried a hot water strip...
The real question is after the smell goes away how to keep it from coming back....

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zaraceligon

For my the best thing is to boil them. I use bleach once a month.

freezorburn

Have you cleaned your washing machine recently? What about a thorough clean of your dryer?

I try to run a clean cycle for our washing machine every other month. 

We've been here a year and I had a weird smell coming out of our dryer for a while, and everything that came out of it was slightly damp and also had traces of the smell. We have a condenser dryer, which I had no experience with prior to living here. Rather than venting to outside, it condenses moisture into a reservoir that needs to be emptied. Well, I finally figured out that there is a part called a condenser (duh) that needs to be cleaned periodically. Like, with the amount of laundry I do I should probably be doing it every 2 weeks, and it hadn't been done in a year. So I cleaned this thing, and also vacuumed out the innards of the dryer, and it is working way better now and no weird smell.

This makes me curious about whether vent-outside dryers need additional maintenance. I'm going to check when I go home in a few weeks, as my brother is living in my house while we are abroad and I know the full history of my dryer there. And it wasn't drying to my satisfaction when we moved, so I'm going to look into it.

haileyq

Is RLR a washing soda?

nanabanana06

RLR is similar to washing soda, but personally I think it works better. I use a detergent that uses washing soda in it. None of my dipes get a funk anymore, and I feel they are softer. Probably because there is so much water softener in my washes that it's taking some of the mineral hardness out of the dipes as well. Which is nice lol.

bumpuser5078523

I found that if my simplex sat damp too long, it would smell funny. I made sure to hang it right away and not let them sit too long. I also bleach most of my diapers every few months.