do your bamboo diapers smell like dirty dish water? read this:

*note* this post is not for my regular readers. Although, I know you REALLY want to talk about stinky diapers and how to clean them. Really, you do. Skip this post and I'll be back to the regular blah blah blah soon.

If your baby's diapers stink, like really smell dirty when they are wet, but there is no sign of poop, you probably have detergent and/or mineral build up in the diaper fibers. Too much build up can lead to your diapers repelling and well, stinking. Much like you do if you have ammonia build up, you are going to need to strip your diapers. Stripping diapers is easy, but it can be a process. Here are some simple steps to strip detergent/ mineral build up from your diapers:

1. Take your clean diapers and put them in the washer or tub
2. Fill it with HOT water-- as hot as you can stand
3. Allow the diapers to soak for a couple of hours, adding more hot water through a tea kettle or pot of almost boiling water, to the tub, as the water in the tub cools. 
4. Agitate the water every now and then, to allow the water to really penetrate the layers of bamboo
5. Drain the water and put the diapers in the washer (if they are in the bathtub) 
6. Run a hot water wash without detergent  

You do not want to use detergent during this process because it will only add detergent to the build up, and be pretty much pointless. 

OR, you can run 3-4 hot water washes with extra rinses without detergent.

At this point, it is helpful to use RLR. RLR is a laundry additive that helps break down minerals and leaves your diapers nice and bright. And let's be honest, it has the most awesome packaging around. Truly. So to use the RLR, you are going to do a regular hot wash, with a little bit of detergent. Just sprinkle the RLR into the washer drum and start your wash cycle. After the wash cycle is done, run another few rinses, or if your diapers were pretty grungy, run a couple of hot washes without detergent. RLR breaks down all of the nasties, but if there are too many nasties in there, RLR will break them down and bring them to the surface of the fibers, but they will need a few more rinses/ washes to fully come out.

Once your diapers are free of detergent/ mineral build up, it is very important to change your wash routine to keep build up from forming again. Like with ammonia, you can do one or a combination of the following:

1. change your detergent amount (you will most likely need to use less)
2. get more water into your washer during the wash cycle
3. add another post-wash rinse 

You need to be sure you are using the right detergent for your water type. If you have hard water,  you should use a detergent formulated for hard water and/ or add calgon to your wash routine. If you have soft water, you are going to need to use a detergent that is formulated for soft water, so it is easily rinsed out. If you have regular old city water, then you can probably get away with using a cloth diaper safe detergent and playing with the amount you use, and the water levels in the wash cycles to find a good, stink free balance.

I love using RLR about once a month just as maintenance and to help keep any build up at bay. If you have hard water, you can use it more often. Just be sure to do those extra washes/ rinses after you use the RLR, to wash away all the grossness.

If you have any questions or need clarification on something, please let me know! I'm happy to help :)

have ammonia in your bamboo cloth diapers? read this:

*note* this post is not for my regular readers :) I know you guys are uber tired of me talking about bodily functions and internal organs and poop. So just skip on by this post, and I will get back to your regularly scheduled nonsense soon. This summer has seriously been ridonkulous in the worst way possible.

Ammonia build up can be cause by a couple of things-- allowing urine to dry in the bamboo diapers, bacteria formed when urine and stool mix and too much detergent and/or minerals that build up in the diaper fibers.

Bamboo is a blessing and a curse because it is super absorbent and can work splendidly as an overnight diaper, but because it is so absorbent, it absorbs more than your typical cotton, fleece or microfiber diaper which can make it more difficult for your normal washer and wash routine to get all of that urine out. Allowing the urine, especially in an overnight diaper, to dry completely before wash day is a main factor in ammonia build up.

So you might be wondering, "How will I know if I have ammonia build up?" Oh, you will know. It will start out innocently enough, with maybe a slight smell when you take the diaper off the baby in the morning, or maybe a red spot on their little bum. But soon it will turn into an eye blazing, nose burning, butt blistering problem if you don't take care of it. A slight ammonia smell in the diaper pail is normal. As long as the diaper isn't smelling like ammonia after the baby wets it, you are fine. If the diaper doesn't stink when your baby wets it, it means your washer and wash routine are doing a good job of washing out all of those ammonia crystals, and you really don't need to worry about changing anything. But if the diaper is smelling after the baby has wet it, it is going to be a problem.

If you have ammonia build up, you need to get rid of it. It isn't good for your baby's butt and honestly, it can make cloth diapering a nightmare. First, you will need to strip the diaper. To do that, you can follow the steps below:
(you can do this in your washing machine, if you have a top loader, or in your bath tub)

1. Take your clean diapers and put them in the washer or tub
2. Fill it with HOT water-- as hot as you can stand
3. Allow the diapers to soak for a couple of hours, adding more hot water through a tea kettle or pot of almost boiling water, to the tub, as the water in the tub cools. 
4. Agitate the water every now and then, to allow the water to really penetrate the layers of bamboo

I like to use Bac-Out during this process. If you have Bac-Out, you can add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of it to the water as you are soaking them. Other people prefer to do a detergent soak with Rockin Green or Funk Rock. I prefer not to do this, as I fear a detergent soak will only lead to detergent build up. People have mentioned using Dawn dish soap to strip your diapers, only do this if your diapers are repelling because of a barrier cream. If you do decide to use a detergent, funk rock, or dawn to strip the diapers, you will need to really rinse them out to get all of the detergent and soap out of there.

After you have soaked your diapers in the hot water, rinse them and transfer them to the washer or drain the washer and do a rinse/ spin cycle and then start a HOT wash with your regular detergent. Wash the diapers, rinse them, and then wash them on hot again, this time without detergent.

By this time, your diapers should be good and stripped. If they smell like ammonia the next time the baby wets them, repeat the process but this time use either the bac-out (if you didn't use it before) or do a detergent soak.

Once you do not have an ammonia smell when your baby wets the diaper, it is time to get proactive to keep that ammonia away. I recommend using a wet pail to combat ammonia (I'll explain that in a minute) but some people are not comfortable using a wet pail, and that is totally fine. You can help keep ammonia at bay by doing one, or a combination of the following:

1. add another rinse to your pre-wash rinse
2. add funk rock to your pre-wash rinse
3. change your detergent amount (you might have to add more, sometimes you need to use less)
4. get more water into your washer during the wash cycle
5. add another post wash rinse 
6. add bac-out to your pre-wash rinse 
7. do a 30 minute bac-out soak before after your pre-wash rinse and before your wash cycle
8. change your detergent. If your detergent isn't getting the diapers clean enough, it isn't going to be able to wash out all of that ammonia and you are going to get build up. 

I believe it is really important to rinse at least the overnight diapers, after you take them off the baby. This will wash out most of that urine and help prevent those ammonia crystals from forming. To do this, you can rinse them in a bathtub or with the diaper sprayer. If you chose to rinse them, you can either wring them out and put them in your dry pail, or put them in a wet pail. If you chose to wring them out and put them in a dry pail, you need to be diligent about washing your diapers within a day or so, so bacteria and/or icky mildew doesn't form. If you chose to use a wet pail, this is one of the ways you can do it:

1. get a bucket or a small (5-10 gallon) garbage can
2. fill it with cool water, about half way
3. put 1/8-1/4 cup bac-out in the water, as the bucket is filling (optional)
4. rinse the diaper and doublers and place them into the pail

On wash day, you can either take the pail to the washing machine and dump the entire contents of the pail into the washer, or you can pull the diapers out and place them in the washer, and then dump the leftover water into the toilet or tub. If you don't have a lot of diapers in the pail, it is easy to dump the water, and then put the diapers into the washer. Then proceed with your normal wash routine. Because our laundry room is really a laundry closet, and I wash a TON of diapers and our wet pail weighs approximately eleventy billion pounds, I keep the pail next to the toilet/ bath tub and then drag the pail to the washer and pull the diapers out, then dump the leftover water into the toilet. I wear gloves while doing this, and while rinsing because I'm not looking for a spot on Dirty Jobs... although... it wouldn't be so bad if Mike Rowe decided to come for a visit...

If your changing area and place to rinse the diapers are far from the laundry area, and you prefer to keep the wet pail by the laundry area, you can rinse the diapers and then transport them to the laundry area using a small bucket, bowl or pail.

If you do not want to rinse your diapers and put them into a dry pail or wet pail, then you can spray them with bac-out after you take them off the baby and place them in the dry pail. The key to preventing ammonia is going to make sure your wash routine is flawless, but in the days of high efficiency/ low water washers, this is not always possible so other means of prevention are necessary.

Please let me know if you have questions or if something isn't clear. I am always happy to help and want to make sure that your cloth diapering experience is a good, frustrating free one.

desperate measures

I've made it a rule to never complain about my kids, and I try really hard to stick to that. Of course they aren't perfect, but most of the time it isn't their fault when they are driving me crazy and I don't think it is fair to them to announce to the world that they might be making me a little bit batty at the moment. Kids are kids. They need things. They want things. They don't have the capacity to be patient for things. And when you have 4 kids,  who all need and want and aren't patient for things, all at the same time, you can get a little batty a little faster than you would like.

M has been gone for 5 weeks. 5 weeks of no contact, except for a short letter here and there. And it isn't like he's sending me a postcard with a picture of some gorgeous beach on it. He sends letters saying someone stole his laundry detergent and he needs me to send him some, and hand drawn pictures of him jumping out of planes. And believe me, I am thankful that I do get to hear from him at all, even if it is about how he probably got some swamp flu from trekking in the mud all day, but I want to *talk* to him.

So it has just been me, and the kids, for 35 straight days now. No reinforcements, no backup, no breaks. And they are generally good kids, except like I said, they just need and want a lot of things, and they need them and want them RIGHT NOW. I'm tired... so, so tired. I just want... sleep. That's it. I'll take 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Maybe even 6.

Last night's plan of paying the big kids 2 coins each if they slept until 7 this morning totally backfired, and both were in my bed at 6:13 this morning, asking if they could have their coins. (Yes, coins. Not nickles or dimes, or even quarters. They just want coins. Any kind of coins. Just to put in their piggy banks. Thank goodness for all of those random Euro coins I keep finding) So tonight, I've gone rogue. The battle is on. I need my sleep and I am going to get it.

A and MJs room has been stocked with a cup of water and a snack bag for each girl, along with a stack of books and some toys they haven't seen in awhile. W and CB's room is stocked with juice and dry cereal, bananas for each of them and a computer with a dvd. This is the one time I am very glad W can read, because when he wakes up he will see the note I have left for him: "DO NOT WAKE YOUR MOTHER UP, UNLESS YOU ARE BLEEDING OR THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE. And here's a dvd for you and CB to watch. REMEMBER,DO NOT WAKE YOUR MOTHER UP AND NO FIGHTING. Love and kisses, Mommy".

7 hours kids. Just, 7 hours... that's all I want... desperate times are calling for desperate measures.

third and fourth

Before W was born, I was the perfect parent. He wasn't going to be allowed to watch TV or play video games, the computer was going to be off limits and we were going to only have educational toys. He was only going to eat organic and healthy... Fast forward 18 months and he's playing with my cell phone while eating marshmallows while watching Baby Einstein. So I wasn't mother of the year then, for sure. But I was pretty strict about only eating in the high chair and sitting properly on the furniture, no jumping on the bed and only going outside with shoes and shirts on.

Then CB came along and I got a little more lax. We didn't always eat at the table. You could often find her sitting on the back of the couch, eating her snacks. They didn't always wear shoes outside and when it was hot they were shirtless most of the time. They got away with making more of a mess than I would have like and things definitely weren't as controlled as I preferred, but oh well.

Then A and MJ came along. These girls, my third and fourth, get away with so much it isn't even funny. I kind of feel like as long as they aren't bleeding or their arm is bent the wrong way and they aren't in danger, it will be ok. There is so much that just doesn't matter to me anymore.

Sitting on the table? Fine, as long as they are quiet. Eating in the living room? Awesome, just put a blanket down and we will call it a picnic. Wearing 2 different shoes? Perfect, at least they have them on. Cereal for dinner? At least they are eating and I don't have to do dishes. Jumping on the bed? Exercise. It will wear them out before bed. Spill your plate? Fine, I'll clean it up later. No need to freak out or get upset. Things happen. A already knows how the Wii remote works, and mimics the motions as W plays Mario Kart. MJ and CB really enjoy playing Dora games on the computer. Hand eye coordination, right? (Justification is my favorite thing in the entire world)

Either I have become incredibly apathetic or I've relaxed a lot. I don't know. And all of the above really makes me sound like a horrible mother, but I don't think I am a horrible mother. They aren't out of control, they are just... curious... and there are 2 of them. And one of me. They are good kids. They listen, they play nice, the care for each other and their brother and sister, so I think we're doing ok... but my goodness they have changed me. And I am so glad they have.

and the winner is...

So blogger apparently got hungry and decided to eat the comments that were submitted yesterday. I tried to republish them from my email but only get an error message saying "This comment no longer exists" or something similar. I guess it is trying to hide the evidence of its binge. Thankfully I had saved all of the comment notifications so I published them under my name, in the order they were received.

And the winner is:

Marie! Congrats girl :) I will send the planner to your inbox in a couple of minutes. Thanks for playing, everyone.