Ack! I just smelled ammonia.

ktpaladino · May 2014

My daughter is almost 4 months and I smelled ammonia for the first time today as I was putting my dirty dipes in the wash. I do laundry EOD religiously. My wash routine is cold rinse, hot wash with Tiny Bubbles, extra rinse. Two 40 min timed dryer cycles. We have city water so it shouldn't be hard or soft, right? My stash consists mostly of GroVia and Best Bottoms stay dry hybrids. How do I nip this in the bud before it escalates? Is it normal to have a bit of an ammonia smell after the dipes have been sitting in the wet bag for two days?

Rrrrrachel · May 2014

Yup.

mmm50 · May 2014

I think a little ammonia smell is normal when they are in the bag before they are washed. We soak overnight and nap diapers for an hour or two in warm water and then spray with BacOut to try to nip any issues in the bud and make our pail smell a little better.

blondolphn · May 2014

Is it sad my reaction, was at least she is asking and is concerned about her baby's bum?

Let us know how they smell out of the wash.

Into+the+Kitty · May 2014

Do you keep your wetbag open? The airflow helps with smell. I've always found that the diapers sitting at the bottom smell stinky.

ktpaladino · May 2014

blondolphn said:
Is it sad my reaction, was at least she is asking and is concerned about her baby's bum?

Let us know how they smell out of the wash.

I don't understand the first part of this?

ktpaladino · May 2014

They smell fine out of the wash. They do have a strong pee odor that I can smell through her clothes after she goes, BUT it is not ammonia-y yet at that point. I try to leave the wet bag open when possible but sometimes it starts to make the nursery smell a little funky so then I zip it up. I just thought that ammonia problems could start off small and then become a big issue, so that is what I was trying to prevent.

ktpaladino · May 2014

mmm50 said:
I think a little ammonia smell is normal when they are in the bag before they are washed. We soak overnight and nap diapers for an hour or two in warm water and then spray with BacOut to try to nip any issues in the bud and make our pail smell a little better.

Where do I buy BacOut? Laundry aisle?

blondolphn · May 2014

We've had people with severe problems, and instead of addressing it early bleached everything, all the time. And then wondered why their baby was having problems....

Seriously though, let us know after the wash how they smell.

unaveragejane · May 2014

I don't think being on city water necessarily effects the hard/softness. We have hard city water here.

countrycotton · May 2014

I can't find bac out locally. I order it off of soap.com but you can also get it from amazon. I keep it in an old hair spray bottle with a 40/60 BacOut/ water ratio and spay every diaper once or twice before it goes intend wet bag. Poop gets lots of sprays. Some people just add it to the cold cycle of their wash routine. I Never had a smell issue before, but now I use it as a preventative, still no issues.

mmm50 · May 2014

Yes I've always had to buy BacOut online-- either soap.com or Amazon- wherever I am ordering other stuff from. I bought a spray bottle and a gallon, and now I just refill the spray bottle.

ktpaladino · May 2014

@blondolphn‌ they are smelling OK out of the wash for now. So people use bleach for ammonia problems? I thought bleach on everything except workhorses was a total no-no. I don't really like to use much bleach on anything, ever. I can see why that would not be good for baby's bum!

ktpaladino · May 2014

I'm totally ordering some BacOut. Thanks guys!

Are there any other preventative steps I can be taking right now?

blondolphn · May 2014

Your not supposed to. But we had a person pop in who was bleaching every wash and couldn't figure out why they still had a smell. It was sad.

unaveragejane · May 2014

We really only get ammonia issues in our ON diapers. Rinsing them out and soaking them in hot water helps a lot. (I'm not sure what you're using ON, but I wouldn't soak a pocket like I do flats or fitteds.) Every so often, I have to do an extra soak with the clean ON diapers in hot water and washing soda b/c we have really hard water.

I was able to find BacOut at Kroger in the laundry aisle. It was very hard to spot b/c it was way down on the bottom and mixed in with other laundry additives and cleaners like Fels Naptha (sp?).

Just FYI, you can use 1/4 cup of bleach in a regular wash cycle to treat certain problems (like to kill yeast or bacteria), but it can void the warranty on some diapers. BG actually recommends doing it once a month. If you ever do use bleach in your diapers, you have to be sure to rinse several extra times to get it all out.

freezorburn · May 2014

Don't use bleach to treat an ammonia problem. It will result in toxic fumes.

Rrrrrachel · May 2014

It's their go to for everything.

Into+the+Kitty · May 2014

I've heard from science experts that the best cure for heartburn is to drink a quarter cup of bleach.

PipSqueak0313 · May 2014

I've been lurking on the Baby Center board the past 24 hours ( sorry, I was up all night with a sick kid so I needed something new to read) and there are a few interesting threads on detergents vs alternatives over there.

flummadiddle85 · May 2014

unaveragejane said:

We really only get ammonia issues in our ON diapers. Rinsing them out and soaking them in hot water helps a lot. (I'm not sure what you're using ON, but I wouldn't soak a pocket like I do flats or fitteds.) Every so often, I have to do an extra soak with the clean ON diapers in hot water and washing soda b/c we have really hard water.

I was able to find BacOut at Kroger in the laundry aisle. It was very hard to spot b/c it was way down on the bottom and mixed in with other laundry additives and cleaners like Fels Naptha (sp?).

Just FYI, you can use 1/4 cup of bleach in a regular wash cycle to treat certain problems (like to kill yeast or bacteria), but it can void the warranty on some diapers. BG actually recommends doing it once a month. If you ever do use bleach in your diapers, you have to be sure to rinse several extra times to get it all out.

Just don't tell them you used bleach.

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