adrie, Can you please talk me through a mineral strip? I have hard well water here and am currently using an old top loader, cold pre-rinse, warm wash with hard water nappy powder detergent, 3 rinses. I also pre-rinse everything and rinse and wring my night nappies lots of times then a hot hand rinse or 2 to get rid of ammonia smells then dry pail. I wash every second day.
I am using mixture of microfibre pockets, bamboo and cotton boosters and bamboo fitted night nappies. I'd say the bamboo is holding minerals and not getting clean enough - I usually air dry only but had to finish them off by the fire last night and there was a definite whiff of warm pee. Not ammonia. I stripped all the bamboo only a couple of weeks ago, using sodium percarbonate with a bit of sodium carbonate to soften the water, soaked in hot water overnight then washed. They were fine but the problem seems to be returning quite fast.
Hope you can tell me how to do a mineral strip and I'm going to try to use less water during the wash too - I think they may be too soupy - good description!
Unfortunately, sodium percarbonate is basically just baking soda or washing soda, and is most likely not enough.
It's true, any time nappies smell--something is wrong in the routine. No one should have to strip and it's definitely not something that would be a regular occurrance.
If you have hard water, you can either buy a product called RLR (search online) or you can make your own mix with one tbsp calgon, 1 tbsp washing soda, and one tbsp borax. This will make enough for half of a bathtub of water; if you need a full tub, mix a double batch of 2 tbsp each. Add the 3 products to HOT water and swish around good before adding all of your cloth and nappies. Soak until the water is completely cold.
If you are experiencing any mold or ammonia, I would suggest a bleach soak afterward, as that is the easiest, most cost effective method for stripping after any hard water build up has been removed.
But before that, I would definitely suggest tweaking your wash routine so you don't have to strip or bleach again.
So you are using a cloth specific detergent? If that is the kind you want to use, I would suggest you use a lot more of it, as they are weaker than mainstream detergents. Personally, I would not recommend them at all, but to each her own.
Also, you can add a water softener like borax or calgon to each main wash of nappies to help inhibit hard water buildup. Also, if after your main wash, your diapers are not soapy or slimy feeling, extra rinses are not necessary and are actually counterproductive as they will redeposit minerals onto your diapers.
Thanks for that Adrie, but sodium percarbonate is not washing soda. It breaks down to become washing soda once it has released it's oxygen and mixed with the sodium carbonate (washing soda) it actually did defunk very well, it just has recurred quite fast, maybe I needed to repeat it.
I can't get Clagon here I don't think, does anyone have the chemical makeup of it and I can source the raw ingredients? No Idea what RLR is and I won't use bleach if at all possible. Aside from the fact I don't want it near my baby's skin, it can't go down my drains - I have a wastewater treatment system called a Biolytix, basically a worm farm that eats our poos (I hope I never come back as one of those worms!) and bleach kills them quite successfully. Anything strong I use a bucket and toss it outside.
On the subject of buildups - I come from Scotland originally and we have really soft water there, detergent buildup absolutely can be a real issue where there is not hard water. Now here in NZ I have pretty hard water from a bore so have to find a different solution to a different problem, I can see why you would believe that detergent buildup doesn't exist if you have never lived in an area without hard water but it absolutely does, I can assure you.
There is unfortunately no one-stop-shop for solutions to CD issues, you have to find the source of the problem first and these can vary. Mine I think is a combo of hard water/old clunker of a machine/too much water and possibly me doing warm washes/teething child with really strong pee at the moment.
I was hoping for an easy and proven mineral removal system, as I feel that if minerals are present, they can absorb bacteria (as is definitely a problem with iron-rich water) and hold smells.
Does anyone think if I wash cold it will stop the buildup of minerals in the cloth? I thought it was the combination of the detergent binding with the minerals that caused the buildup but happy for any science to tell me how to minimise this! If it is cold washing that will be great for the power bill but I do like to do warm washes to get rid of any bacteria, but the sun here is very strong in summer so that should take care of them and i could do the odd hot wash only as a precaution. I've never had any thrush issues or bad rashes anyway. (so far, touch wood, better not tempt fate!)
I do use washing soda as a softener with every wash, it's part of the nappy specific powder.
To address another post - enzymes left in nappies can actually be a massive problem, as enzymes digest organic materials, so poop, sometimes the cloth if it is natural but most importantly, can start to digest your babies skin! This is why enzyme free detergents are recommended, I absolutely would never use them in an area that is damp and warm, ideal digestive conditions.
Also, ANY smells left in nappies indicates a residue - if it is poo or wee you can smell then they are not getting clean enough or have a buildup of something that is holding the particles or bacteria to smell. If it is perfume you can smell then the detergent is leaving a residue. Clean nappies should smell of nothing.
My Mum once wanted to get stains out of my DD'd cotton bib years ago so soaked it in bleach, rinsed it several times then put it through the machine. next time I used it, it burned her chin instantly it got wet, I was livid, she was mortified, she had no idea it could stay through all of that. I was unpacking stuff for my wee boy recently and came across it, it still made me angry! I will not be using bleach against such a delicate area of skin, that is often damp and enclosed. He has never had any rashes, it is just me being a fussy madam really.
A good trick I also found for ammonia smells (in the night nappies in the morning) is to rinse several times in cold, then in hot, as the ammonia is a gas it will not release in cold, but ti does in hot - it does work, but then maybe I am putting more minerals into the cloth this way??
I did find once I stripped them last time they felt softer and lighter so I do think I got lots of minerals out (the water went cloudy too and smelled chalky) and didn't have that reek in the morning. Funnily enough the microfibre is the least affected, definitely the bamboo is retaining a bit of something. I had no problems at all for at least 6 months of full-time use, then it came on very suddenly as he was teething, literally from one week to the next.
I have been using a bit less water by setting the machine manually instead of using the auto function as I noticed it was filling pretty high - to make it rub together better and not dilute the powder too much, it does seem to be helping so maybe another strip the way I did it before and then do this from now on should fix it.
