Holy ON Ammonia, Batman!!

amye84

DDs fitted was awful this morning after 11 hours ON. The ammonia smell burned my nose badly I don't think it's a too-much detergent thing bc when they wear the fitteds at nap for a shorter time they don't smell like ammonia. Just overnight. I'm worried about burns tho! And the other night DD woke up at 1a for a snuggle (ha) and I could smell it then, so I changed her. Do I need to strip? Is this just par for the course for ON fitteds? I really don't like it...

Any help/insight appreciated! 

emsrdh03

Some people will say ammonia stink just happens with overnight diapers, but I refused to believe it was normal.

 It took some experimenting on my part, but I finally found a detergent and wash routine that got rid of it completely.  His fully soaked, toddler pee, overnight diapers now smell like nothing but urine in the AM.  Not even a hint of ammonia!

Stripping with nothing but LOTS of hot water washes and switching to Tiny Bubbles or Eco Sprout is what worked for me! 

amye84

emsrdh03:

Some people will say ammonia stink just happens with overnight diapers, but I refused to believe it was normal.

 It took some experimenting on my part, but I finally found a detergent and wash routine that got rid of it completely.  His fully soaked, toddler pee, overnight diapers now smell like nothing but urine in the AM.  Not even a hint of ammonia!

Stripping with nothing but LOTS of hot water washes and switching to Tiny Bubbles or Eco Sprout is what worked for me! 

Thanks so much for the tips! I also am refusing to let that nasty smell be our "normal". Yuck! I would rather put them in sposies ON than have my girls sit in that smell for hours. I will try the hot water strip and switch detergents.

How many hot washes do you recommend for the strip? And we have hard water. Are either of those detergents better for hard water?

Thanks again, you've given me hope!

emsrdh03

There is definitly hope!  Yes I have very hard water and both those detergents work great!  In fact I think Eco Sprout was developed by a dad with hard water who was specifically trying to get rid of ammonia.

As for how many hot washes?  I probably did 3 or 4.  I turned the water heater up a little hotter than normal, some people will say you can add a bot of boiling water, anything to get it HOT.  Followed by one cold rinse.  If you have any detergent buildup, do as many washes as it takes to get rid of all the bubbles.

hispenguin

I also agree that a pee smell is normal first thing in the morning, but ammonia is not.

I have hard water, so I have to strip about every 4 months with RLR to manage build up issues in general, but I have found that rinsing the fitted covers, and soaking the inserts to my fitted diapers in some warm water then wringing them out helps to get out a lot of the pee first thing in the morning so there's less sitting on the diaper until wash day.