Cloth diapering... for the millionth time.

Yep, another cloth diaper post. This one will be quick though. I have a little tip that I recently discovered that seems like common sense, but I've never done it and I haven't heard (read) anyone else recommend to do it. Feel free to skip this post if you don't care about cloth diapers or if words like 'urine' and 'fermentation' make you queasy.

So.... If you have a diaper sprayer (which I highly, highly recommend. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't cloth diaper without one) spray every diaper, not just the poopy ones. Why? It really helps cut back the ammonia. When pee sits in fabric for more than a couple of days, it starts to ferment. And that fermentation leads to ammonia which is AWFUL. Microfiber is especially prone to holding in urine even after it's washed. Most people who use microfiber will experience the evils of ammonia sometime while cloth diapering. I did! By rinsing out every diaper, you get rid of the urine that would normally be sitting in your wet bag (or pail) until laundry day. Some people do laundry every day, but others wait every 3 days. That's plenty of opportunity for your diapers to get stinky (not to mention the ammonia burns that infest your baby's bum...). I started rinsing every diaper a couple of months ago and it has made ALL the difference. I haven't used bleach since, and don't always do an extra cold rinse before I wash them. I've had little to no build up and my microfiber smells normal.

I should note that when I say 'every diaper' I mean every synthetic fabric. I don't rinse out my cotton prefolds. Natural fabric, like cotton, doesn't trap urine and washes much easier. In fact, I'm kind of waiting for the day when my microfiber stops holding in water (which they will probably when we're using them with our next kid. And NO that wasn't an announcement...) so I can replace it all with natural fibers, like prefolds. The one down side to prefolds are they don't give the baby the 'stay dry' feel, so I usually lay some fleece down so the cotton doesn't touch the skin (if I don't Lillian will sometimes get rashes). But the positive of prefolds is that they hold a lot, but they are able to 'let go' of the urine and not ferment it to ammonia nastiness.

So there's that little tip for ya. Spraying messy diapers takes maybe 30 seconds, so spraying diapers that are only holding liquid takes maybe 10. I still wash every other day and have started to add a few drops of tea tree oil (a natural antibacterial/antifunal oil) when I add the detergent. The diapers come out clean, stainless and ammonia free.

 So yes, 16ish months later and we are still using the cloth diapers and we still love them.