WHITE VINEGAR

White Vinegar is a great thing for a cloth mama to have (I included it on my list of needs for my baby shower). White vinegar is a very mild acid.  To mild to harm fabrics.  It balances pH levels, removes residues by breaking them down in detergents, softens and fluffs fabrics and disinfects (so good for cleaning out diaper pail and regular household cleaning too).  Our mothers and grandmother's know this.  Laundry experts know this. 

Someone recently said my vinegar advice was bad for synthetic materials in diapers including PUL.  This makes no common sense but I dug around and found out I was right.  I also dropped the issue with the person since common sense dictates that sometimes that's the wisest choice.  Also I used PUL for years and vinegar never had a negative effect. 

So if your diapers need a boost in brightness, softness or disinfecting then give white vinegar a try.  Usually 1/2 a cup.  If you have hard water, vinegar might not be as great as it might cause an odd smell.   

If your struggling to rinse all detergent from your diapers add.vinegar to your rinse cycle. 

If there is strong urine in your diapers then presoak in vinegar prior to washing (also rinse out overnight diapers and encourage older babies to drink water between nursing) .

There is a great blog post on vinegar (here).  I suggest it for further reading.  Questions in the comments are also answered. 

Can You CD Without Ammonia? - I believe so

Can Ammonia Be Avoided?
I believe it can.  I have cloth diapered 5 babies in the last 18 yrs and about to CD baby #6.  I have never had ammonia.  Either I'm lucky or it is avoidable.   I dont tend to be lucky except in cards and board games (to my family's dismay lol). 

3 Rules to avoid ammonia :
1. I only use natural fabrics.  No micro fiber, no minky, Velour or fleece (except on the outside and seperate as a cover).  Cotton is natural and its know to have less ammonia issues.  Hemp is generally natural also.  Bamboo is chemically processed and after learning this im interested in what happens to the few prototypes I made with a bamboo core before learning this.  I'll update for sure.  I suspect it wont have the issues of micro fiber and others. 

2. Regular Laundry!  And I mean that in ever sense of the word.  Wash often!  And fill your machine as you would any load if laundry (as in dont over or under fill).  Why not underfill?  More room to agitate?  Sure, but it also means a less concentrated wash.  It just doesn't work.  Dont skimp on detergent.  Washing often 2-3 days means your diapers are not sitting in urine longer then needed.  Keep your diaper pail clean and dry.  If its holding water, review your system. 

3. Change that diaper!! I can't stress this enough.  Babies are not supposed to be sitting in their own piss no matter how dry that diaper feels.  If baby pees, change baby!  Its just hygienic.   This keeps ammonia from building up at the very first step.

What about overnight?
Ok so I get you wont be waking a sleeping baby to change them.  But I do change an overnight sleeper part way through.  Also I soak and rinse that night time diaper first thing.  Then I wring it out and hang it over the shower rod.  Why?  Cuz I dont want a soaking wet diaper in my dry pail. 

I hope this helps.  I dont have expert stripping advice (obviously), but I can help you prevent future issues.  I dont promise my change and wash routine to help all diapers cuz if they aren't natural I think thaye part of the problem.  Good Luck all!!

Diaper Creams & Cloth Diapers

So one of the things you will receive as a shower gift (or have purchased yourself) is diaper cream to protect or heal diaper rash.  And the two best out there are thick, creamy diaper absorbency destroyers.   And your wondering what on earth are you supposed to do? Protect that little bum with cream or with absorbent diapers.  And why can't life just be easy enough to let you do both? 

Well actually you can.  Remember me mentioning disposable diaper liners that are flushable, biodegradable and make cleaning poop into the toliet so simple?  Yeah well they also protect your fluff from diaper cream.  So...

Solution #1: use a disposable diaper liner. 

And of course there is...

Solution #2: dont use cream. 

Ok dont worry, most of the time your cloth baby won't need cream cuz a healthy, natural, clean cloth diaper that is changed and laundered often wont lead to diaper rash.  However foods, teeth etc will lead to a rash on occasion.   So return to solution #1: disposable liners.  *of course there are diaper rash treatments that are cloth friendly and they will be covered later, this is about creams.  The cloth safe items are usually oils.  Also I haven't used them and I am skeptical as natural oils are one of the this.gs we remove when prepping cloth diapers to increase absorbency. 

Why?  I always wonder this so I will assume others are likewise curious
  The creams are designed as a wetness barrier for babies skin.  Of course as it builds up in the diaper it becomes a wetness barrier for your diaper.  This isn't so great as you need that diaper sucking up wetness not lettinng it roll off. 

If your diapers are starting to be less absorbent and you've been using cream, this is why.  Having made this rookie mistake myself years ago I can tell you that you van see the white build up on your white diaper.  Or more likely your cloth liners.  They will need to be stripped.  Since for me it was just liners, I replaced them. 

Ever since I make sure to use the disposable liners.  I still use cotton ones for absorbency but over those is my poop catching diaper build up saving disposable liner.  They are worth the money.  Actually they are worth more then the money (the are very affordable) . 

So keep your fluff fluffy and not weighed down with cream build up. See, the fix was simple and you can still have your cake and eat i it too.