Stripping Nappies

[PartialToACupOfMilo]

I've been using Bumgenius V3 for about 6 or 7 months now and abcolutely love them - never had a leak and dd is very comfy in them. Recently, though, I;'ve noticed that they've started to smell. At first I thought it was her wee that was more smelly (which it may be) as she's now eating a lot more solid food, but I smelled them straight out of the washing machine the other day and they smell of wee (not strongly, but still it's there) even then. I looked up stripping nappies on the web and there is so much (sometime conflicting) advice that I don't know what to do. I tried today to have a go at them, but they're not much better. I put them on a rinse wash twice, then washed at 60 intensive stains (whatever that means!) with a very small amount of bio powder then rinsed four times until the water wasn't bubbling. They smelled OK when I took them out and I though I'd solved the problem, then I dried them in the dryer - been chucking it down all day - and now they're dry I think I can still smell wee on them (grr). What should I do next? I'm considering the vinegar in the rinse method, but am a bit worried about putting vinegar through the machine and anyway how much would I need?! I've also read about putting a dishwasher tablet into the washing machine with them, but am concerned about whether dd will react badly to them (not that she's particularly allergic or anything). Anyway if someone could just tell me what they do/did about this problem It would be much appreciated
Thank you!

hi, i stripped my tots bots and i washed at 60oC intensive stains with powder i think! then 2 60oC washes with nothing. now i always run my nappies through a rinse cycle before i put them in the wash and this has kept the smell away so far. good luck!

:)

oh and put a glug of vinegar into the machine when it was on the 2nd wash. wouldn't use the dishwasher tablets though-can't imagine they'd be too good on her skin.

:)

Hi,
I had this problem I think my machine doesn't take in enough water to rinse them properly and I have stopped using them. After a little while of using them they stink of ammonia.(Much less than two hours on) this made it just too impractical. Hopefully someone will be along with some amazing advice as I would love to use mine again. :(

I would cold water rinse mine twice with white vinegar, then wash a small amount of powder or granny's soap flakes and rinse cold again afterwards and still have the ammonia issue.

purplebuns my stripping worked and has been about a year since i did it. but i know what you mean about the water-i said to dp we should get an old machine just for the nappies lol!

:)

Did you use much powder or not? I have used 60 intensive stains wash. however I think I will try again as I loved using them and it is such a waste of a lot money!

i used one tablet of surf biological with the 60+pre wash and then a glug of vinegar in the 2nd or 3rd wash at 60oC when it was at the rinse stage. it's awful when they smell!

:)

Fillyourpants website has a PDF file on the Bum Genius V4 page which as well as telling you how to use the nappies tells you how they suggest you strip wash the nappies - might work

Thanks everyone.

nicm - I always put them on a rinse before the main wash too, but I hadn't thought of putting them on a main wash without powder, I'd just added extra rinses to the end. I was telling my dh what you'd said and he told me that the rinse is cold, so a couple of powder free washes could be the way forward.

Hevster - good link - thanks :) They also mention Dawn washing up liquid - I've read that on other sites too. Can't seem to find it over though, it seems to only be available in the states.

Purplebuns - I thought the vinegar always helped... obviously not :( Hope you get your stash up and running again, it would be so annoying to spend so much on it all, then have to resort to disposibles

Plan is:

Soak overnight 1/2 water 1/2 vinegar
60 I.S no powder
60 I.S. with small amount bio powder
2 x 60 I.S. no powder
More rinses if needed

Will let you know how I get on

I wash mine at 40 with one non-bio tablet, plus a scoop of Miofresh (sold in Mothercare and Waitrose), then do an extra full rinse cycle, and no smells here. Recently started weaning, but was also fine with bf poo! I think the Miofresh pack says it may cause colour fading, but I can't say I've noticed any. Hope this helps.

Make sure you don't have any wraps in the wash if you add in vinegar as it can degrade the PUL.

Right OK, we went for it, but slightly differently from what we'd decided on. Skipped the overnight soap as couldn't be bothered with it and didn't want nappes out of action for very long - have developed a hatred of disposibles since using cloth.

Washed them with bio and then several times without powder on a 60 I.Ss, then rinsed rinsed and rinsed some more with vinegar in the final rinse and they've come out well. They do not stink at all anymore

Was planning on hanging them out to dry once done but it ended up taking solong it was really late and I was keen to see whether the slight smell of vinegar would linger after drying, so we put them in the dryer. The vinegar smell disappeared and we were back to using them the next morning. All happy in the Milo household