Stinky Fuzzi Bunz microfibre inserts

[wheeldog]

My sister lives in Singapore, where the climate is hot but very humid. She's using Fuzzi Bunz on her 1 year old, but recently the microfibre inserts have begun to smell.

She line dries them, but not in the sun as she lives in an apartment block. She's tried boil washing them (just the inserts!) which helps for a couple of uses but then they start smelling again. She doesn't use too much detergent and has tried intensively rinsing them as well.

Can anyone advise please? I don't know if it is because they are just taking too long to dry, or if there is buildup of something.

Sounds to me like they aren't getting a thorough enough clean in the machine (since boil washing solves the problem for a short while)

Has she tried 'stripping' the nappies using vinegar and baking powder? Just add a mixtue of white vinegar and baking powder to the powder dispenser in the washing machine and run a rinse. Then wash as usual.

Does she pre-rinse them before washing? Pre-rinsing in COLD water helps remove the urine smell (hot water will 'set' the smell into the nappies)

It could be that she is leaving the inserts on for too long - that makes it much harder to get the smell out completely.

Has she run a maintenance wash on her machine recently? This usally involves running the machine empty on a 95C wash with a normal dose of powder. For best results clean the fluff filter, drum seal, dispensers etc before and after the wash (this really helped get my nappies less smelly).

Does she dry pail her inserts? If so, it might be worth trying to soak them in tea tree or lavender or vinegar or whatever really

Wouldn't recommend boil washing microfibre as it has a tendancy to break down ( I have a friend who killed her brand new fluffles in a 95C wash ).

The humid atmosphere is not going to help - especially since microfibre has such a large surface area to volume ratio - it will pick up smells from a damp environment very easily. I suppose the only thing to suggest with that is to try and dry them in a room which is the least humid (if there is such a place ) or where there are fewest household smells - airing cupboard maybe??.

Hope that helps.

Thanks very much, Coby, I will suggest these to her. Her washing machine is pretty new, bought a few months ago to deal with all the baby stuff! I'm sure it would be worth giving it a good clean still.

Can you advise as to the rough quantities of baking powder and vinegar to use? Will it come out smelling of fish and chips?!

When you say she might be leaving the inserts on too long, do you mean on the baby, or in the nappy before disassembling and washing?

Thanks again

sorry, morning sickness not good today so I'm probably not talking much sense .

I wondered if she might be leaving the inserts on the baby for too long. It's something I did becuase my pocket nappies (and LOs bottom) stood up to it but really I should have been changing more frequently. As soon as i changed them more frequently they were easier to clean. That said if she is doing a change every 3 hours I would have thought that to be OK.

To do a really good strip wash use bicarb of soda (baking powder) instead of the normal washing powder - exact quantities not really important but most people use the same amount of bicarb as they do washing powder then put the WHITE vinegar into the fabric softener section (again same quantities as you would softener - not that you'd use that on your nappies). Then wash as normal. If you like you can follow with a rinse too. No, they won't come ut smelling of fish and chips - honest . Use white vinegar not malt.

I do a maintenance wash once a month now and it really helps keep my nappies and my other washing fresher

Had another thought too, could it be that LO is teething at the moment??? This makes the urine more concentrated sometimes.

The problem with modern machines is that they only use a little bit of water to save resources and sometimes that doesn't help the problem.

Sure the stipping and the maintenance wash will help. Good on your sister for persevering in the face of stinky nappies

sorry, should mention that although I do a maintenance wash every month, your sister might not need to do one that often. My poor washing machine is on pretty much 24 hours a day at the moment

Thanks again, Coby. Hope your morning sickness gets better soon!