- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Cloth Diapering
Athena0809
member
HUGE ammonia problem, please help!
Athena0809
member
It's so bad DS is sleeping in 7th Gen tonight 
(by the way, $13 for 31 diapes? How do sposie people do it?!?) Anywho, I believe the CDs have so much ammonia build up they are burning and hurting my baby so bad that he wakes up in the middle of the night screaming arching his back and when I open the diaper and expose his skin he starts scratching and looks relieved, poor thing! AND even if he pees a couple times as soon as you open the cover the smell would burn your nose!
This is what I've done, please tell me what I've done wrong and what I could do. Normal routine first. Wet CDs go straight in the dry pail, soiled, scraped off solids then sprayed with Bac-Out, wash every other to every third day cold rinse first (I just read on another post I'm supposed to warm rinse first? I've always seen cold rinse first) so, cold rinse, hot wash with RG Hard Rock (hard water here) cold rinse, few drops of GSE oil then another cold rinse. To treat ammonia: I've done an overnight soak with Hard Rock then wash as usual, stripped with blue Dawn, plus many many cold rinses and last time I added 1/4 of Hydrogen peroxide as suggested on a website. I leave the pail cover open so the CDs have a chance to "breathe" too.
I've looked everywhere locally for RLR or Calgon and can't find them any.where! But is there anything else I can try before I order online? One last Q, a while back when I first looked into ammonia build up, on a blog I read about a mom boiling everything even all her PUL or AIO or anything waterproof. I've noticed the problem is mainly fitteds and his night time fitteds have buttons (SBish OBFs) can I boil them? Ok, ok, I promise this is the last Q for real, for "stay-dry" homemade liner, is it fleece, which kind? I should pay more attention to the posts here.
Sorry it got long! TIA
This discussion has been closed.
Re: HUGE ammonia problem, please help!
Bac-Out can burn if too much is used and if it doesn't completly come out of the diapers - speaking from experience here. When I do use Bac-out which is RARELY I dilute it with 1/2 water. You can buy RLR and Calgon on Amazon, most grocery stores and Walmart sell Calgon in the detergent aisle, you have to really look for it because they ususally only carry 2-3 bottles at most and it always seems to be on the top shelf at the end of the isle. We have a safeway and a kingsoopers/kroger here. Kroger had it, safeway didn't. If your regular grocerystore doesn't have it look at another store. They may also special order it for you if you ask.
Don't boil anything with snaps or PUL - you are just looking for trouble
It also sounds like you have detergent builldup. HOw much hard rock are you using. You might want to strip with dawn or rlr (rlr is my favorite) then rinse rinse, rinse, rinse and rinse again (5 times) again in your washing machine. If you want to try switching detergents try Tiny Bubbles it is EXCELLENT for hard water.
Something else to try, if you have the following available on your washing machine, prewash, heavy duty wash, extra rinse. put baking soda 1/4 cup in the prewash and 1/4 cup vinegar in the wash - that should neutralize the ph.
Do you have a diaper sprayer. If you do, you can spray off the diapers enough that you don't have to use bac-out at all. I have a sprayer and have used bac-out MAYBE 5 times since I got it 6 months ago.
I'm in NE Oh and our grocery stores carry RLR and Calgon.
I know walmart carries calgon (it's in a bottle that looks like clorox 2 stain fighter stuff).
I wouldn't boil anything PUL or AIO's. I wouldn't even boil my workhorse fitteds with snaps.
are you using a TL or FL?