How much baking soda to soak nappies overnight??

Carolyn - posted on 08/03/2011

Hi, Kylie,
I am new to CD-ing, and I did a ton of research (online, asking friends, etc.) When I bought my dipes they were gently used and had a certain tingy smell to them (not bad, but just enough to notice). I tried the 1/2 cup of baking soda in the wash with 1/2 of vinegar in the rinse cylce, but this didn't help. Then after one of my son's terribly dirty diapers (the smell was horrendous!) I soaked them in about 1tbsn baking soda to 1 gallon of hot water for about 1/2 an hour. Then I washed them once in the hot/cold cycle with detergent, and once in the warm/warm cycle without detergent for that extra rinse. This worked! No more smell! Since then I have soaked all of his dirty dipes like this, and so far so good. I don't use vinegar b/c it is acidic, and I figure why add more acid? Baking soda is a base, and it really helped to kill that acidic smell.
Hope this helps!

Laura - posted on 08/28/2009

i use vinegar on dipes all the time but my little one is only a month old and now i'm freaking out! i was told vinegar is one of the best things for stink on your cloth diapers. guess its time to switch and rethink my washing routine. :o(

Kylie - posted on 08/26/2009

Thanks,

I'll steer clear of the vinegar then!! I'll try the lemon juice if baking soda on its own isn't enough. Thanks for your help.

Kylie :o)

Hillary - posted on 08/26/2009

Quoting Kylie:

thanks Jen,

I ended up using about ½ cup and soaked them for about 12 hrs so hopefully this will help. I've also read about people using vinegar to get out smells, have you tried this??

Cheers, Kylie. :o)

Vinegar will eat away at your diapers. I was told to use vinegar when I first started CDing 7 years ago, and after losing many diapers to the vinegar eating away at the diapers, I talked to someone who had been CDing for quite awhile and said that vinegar is one of the worst things for CDs. I've never tried it, but I've heard lemon juice, just a tablespoon or so, can really help with smells. I normally just rely on a teaspoon or so (depending on how stinking the diapers are) of baking soda and haven't had any stinky issues yet, even when I have to use the dryer. Some people I've spoken to have also said to do a double rinse. Run your diapers through two cycles of a rinse before actually washing them. I've done this when I haven't had baking soda and it seems to help, but not as much as the baking soda does. HTH!

Take Care, Hill

Jen - posted on 08/25/2009

Quoting Kylie:

thanks Jen,

I ended up using about ½ cup and soaked them for about 12 hrs so hopefully this will help. I've also read about people using vinegar to get out smells, have you tried this??

Cheers, Kylie. :o)

Some people swear by it, but for me it made my diapers smell WORSE!  I read that some people have water that reacts with vinegar and deposits smelly minerals or whatever on your diapers and so, for me, that's what happened!!

It took a couple weeks for my diapers to smell normal again, but it's worth a shot if you still can't get your diapers to smell good.

Also, I've heard that you can sun your diapers even if it's cloudy or cold.  Maybe try that and then finish them in the dryer if they don't dry completely outside.

If none of that works, try cotton diapers!  I love them!

Good luck!

Kylie - posted on 08/25/2009

thanks Jen,

I ended up using about ½ cup and soaked them for about 12 hrs so hopefully this will help. I've also read about people using vinegar to get out smells, have you tried this??

Cheers, Kylie. :o)

Jen - posted on 08/25/2009

I use a Tablespoon in my cold pre-rinse; I have always soaked my diapers for a half hour before I wash them. I've heard it this way: when you have baked on crud on a casserole dish, you soak it for an hour or even over night, and when you go to clean it, everything comes off much easier. Same with diapers. My diapers have been perfectly clean and not stinky since I started a half hour presoak.

Though I do use cotton diapers and no microfiber or bamboo (both fibers held in stink for me, were way too hard to clean, and thus caused a rash on baby's bottom. Every time) so this advice may not work 100% bc synthetic fibers can really hold stink and detergents easier than cotton.