DS is ready to move into the next size and I think I'm falling off the CD wagon. On paper I still love everything about CDing. I like that it's eco friendly and economical.
DS is a pain to do at least 75% of diaper changes, but I could purchase more all in ones and it would probably be ok. I've been using mostly prefolds. But his poop is such a pain to get off. I've been using my peri bottle from the hospital, I was told that could work just as well as a diaper sprayer- but maybe I'm wrong? And he's having stink issues. I keep stripping and after a week the stink comes back. I'm not sure what to do. Use more detergent? Less? Wash more often? I've been doing every other day in an open basket (darn, can't remember the right word for it!) but I could do it every day, or at least rinse them every day if needed.
Any suggestions on how to deal with these issues so I'm not running into the arms of sposies? I had wanted to reuse the previous diapers for future LOs but with these stink issues, I'm not so sure!
ETA: Oh, and I use liners too and still have problems getting poop off. Maybe I should just switch to flushable?
Re: Falling off the wagon
A diaper sprayer has far more pressure than a peri bottle and will remove more poop.
What detergent are you using? How much? What kind of water do you have? What kind of washer do you have (front or top loader)? I have a top loader and had horrible stink issues when I was using Rockin Green. I switched to Tide (ultra) and have had no issues. I do rinse, hot wash with soap, rinse, rinse and then line dry and then when they are almost dry or dry, i dryer fluff. The stink issues can be too much or too little detergent, not enough water in your wash cycle, wrong detergent, etc. You may have to do a little trial and error to find out your best wash routine.
I'm using bumGenius and the recommended amount for a front loader (it comes with a scoop). I started with bumGenius and then tried Rockin Green and that's when the stink started. So I stripped and went back to bumGenius and I still get stink a lot.
My routine thus far has been: cold rinse (sometimes 2), hot wash with extra rinse and usually a second rinse. I add the extra water function and turn it on high soil. I line dry when I can (barring time and weather constraints).
The last time I stripped I added some vinegar to the last two rinse cycles and that has seemed to work a little better, but now 2 weeks later and the stink is back. Did get them a lot whiter though!
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A peri bottle doesn't have the pressure needed to get poop off well. I'd either get a sprayer or use a scraping method.
What kind of stink - barnyard or ammonia? If it's barnyard you need more detergent. Ammonia usually means use less detergent and you have detergent buildup and need to strip. You could try a different detergent. It seems RnG can cause some to have stink issues that you can't really get rid of. I use Tide Ultra Original Powder HE and have never had any problems. Is the stink in all of your diapers or just the prefolds? I think you could bleach the prefolds if you wanted, which would get rid of anything in them causing stink issues. I'm not certain if you can bleach other kinds of CDs (I think you might be able to, but I don't know the specifics).
Diaper sprayers are amazing. We weren't lucky enough to get ploppable poo and probably won't for a long time. I would not be CDing without it.
It's totally worth the expense, and will be useful for other things-- cleaning the toilet, rinsing out puke buckets when the kids are sick, and also for use as a bidet while potty training (the thing I hated most about potty training my first was having to rewipe his butt forever.)
I would also try switching detergents. *None* of the CD-specific "designer" detergents did a thing for us-- we always got stink, and I tried four different kinds. We use Dropps now and occasionally liquid Tide and have had no issues at all.
For Dropps, I use two packets for a big load of dirties (two to three days worth.)