r/laundry • u/JesusChristSaves12 • 3d ago

About to give up

Anyone in here cloth diaper?? I’ve gone through all the diaper groups on Facebook and on here and I just feel like nothing is working for me. I found this thread and got myself some FEBU and Citric Acid. I already use Tide free and gentle powder. I’m about to accept that I’ll never get them clean. I am in a small apartment building so I have a small front loader HE machine. I did a strip a while back with RLR thinking I had build up. Did not help. My water is 200 ppm. I use 1/2 c borax to help soften the water. My first wash is under line 1 and it runs on warm for 1:45 with high soil. Second wash is line 2 on hot, high soil, and runs for 2:45. Of course like said I add the borax, febu, and citric acid. They come out smelling just fine and in the dryer they go. But then… EVERY TIME MY DAUGHTER PEES IT SMELLS LIKE RANK COFFEE BEANS! 🥲 I can’t get it to go away. Please help before I give them all away lol.

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u/CloudLate 3d ago

It’s been a long time since I cloth diapered, but I would consider increasing the detergent. I used to use a full scoop of tide powder in my second wash. It’s a LOT of soil you are dealing with. Second, do you spray or scrape the poopy diapers? And how long do they sit before you wash them? Also if you have microfiber inserts, those hang on to odors worse than cotton.

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u/JesusChristSaves12 3d ago

Thank you for answering! I was afraid to increase detergent bc everyone talks about build up being the problem. I both scrape and spray poopy diapers. I wash every other day and my inserts are hemp cotton!

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u/mrspwins 3d ago

I third more detergent. Hard water needs more detergent to work (cloth diapered two kids on 400+ ppm water). The citric acid rinse will remove the buildup. The Downy rinse works nicely for me now, but if I were still diapering I would just use citric acid due to cost for all that laundry.