As I mentioned in Cloth Diapering: Part 1, I really didn't think much of using our Kirkland detergent on our new cloth diapers. I did worry a bit about the fact that we have a front loading high efficency washer, but I asked questions online of other cloth diapering moms who have HE washers and they all assured me that it would go well. They did say I should get a cloth diaper detergent or a similar clean rinsing detergent, so I ordered some Rockin Green cloth diaper detergent but I didn't want to wait for it to arrive to get started and I thought - really how bad could using my Kirkland detergent be?
The answer? BAD!
I knew something was wrong with the very first washing. I followed the washing recommendations that the Softbums diapers recommend - cold wash with 1/4 of the recommended amount of detergent, followed by a hot wash with no detergent, and ended with a cold rinse (which is included in the wash cycle). When I took them out, I thought there was quite a lot of suds in the rubber fold of the washer seal. I'd been noticing this a lot lately with our clothes too I was starting to wonder just how normal it was. Our clothes seemed fine so I thought the diapers were probably fine too. They smelled okay coming out of the washer. When I took them out of the dryer howerver, they had a nasty funk smell to them. They smelled worse when peed in. I didn't know what I'd done wrong so I went online to cloth diaper forums and asked questions. The general consensus was that it was detergent buildup - either too much detergent, the wrong detergent, or a mixture of both problems. I reduced how much detergent I used in the next wash but we still had the same problem. I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed with that washing and could not get the suds out of the diapers no matter how hard I tried. I modified my wash routine just a tad to match another cloth diapering mom on a cloth diaper forum since that was what was working for her - a prewash on cold, wash on hot with 1/4 recommended detergent, rinse on cold, extra rinse, extra spin. That didn't make any difference unfortunately. I started sitting in the laundry room to watch the rinse cycles and I was really surprised at how many suds were in the diapers. I can't say in the water because I couldn't even see the water. I don't see how it's possible to rinse anything - let alone a cloth diaper - in such a small amount of water that you can't even see it. I tried changing my regular wash to the 'whitest whites' selection - it runs for 90 minutes and is supposed to use the hottest water. Again, no difference. Someone suggested I add a wet towel to the washer to trick it into using more water but that was pretty pointless.
It was a little less than a week later that Elena broke out in a bad rash and I started feeling like the worst mom in the world. I didn't have any cloth diaper friendly rash cream so I decided to break out the disposables on her. Gabe was doing just fine in the cloth diapers, but he also wasn't wearing them overnight and I imagine Elena's younger baby skin is a bit more sensitive than his. It took nearly a week for her rash to clear up and during this time I was waiting rather anxiously for my cloth diaper detergent and I also went on a quest to try and strip the diapers of the Kirkland detergent. What I hadn't realized before I used the Kirkland detergent is that any detergent used on cloth diapers should generally be free of enzymes, brightenrs, scents, etc and that it should be a 'clean rinsing' type of detergent - meaning it dissolves well so that it rinses away and leaves the diapers free of any residue. Since our detergent is a 'free & clear' type detergent, I thought it would work fine. Apparently not so. Kirkland has enzymes in it and it's likely the enzymes in the diapers + Elena's pee that caused a reaction and made her skin break out in a rash. It is also not 'clean rinsing' at all which makes for pretty heavy detergent residue. Lovely.
Before I started stripping my diapers, I decided to try to clean the washer itself because I was beginning to suspect it also had a buildup of soap residue. I cleaned out the soap dispencer (and found some soap residue there) and then I ran 3 back to back 'clean washer' cycles with nothing added - no detergent, no bleach. By the 3rd wash I was still seeing quite a lot of soap in the water but it appeared to rinse clean so I got started on stripping the diapers.
"Stripping" is a term used to describe getting all the detergent residue out of cloth diapers. You wash your diapers on a hot cycle (with detergent if they are dirty since you want to start with clean diapers, no detergent if they are all ready clean) and then you rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse and rinse in hot water until the water is free of suds. I learned right away that this was going to be nearly impossible in my washer. The amount of water my washer uses on most settings is barely enough to wet the diapers. Certaintly not enough to thorougoughly clean and rinse the diapers. I played around with different settings and, on the suggestion of a cloth diapering mom online, I started adding hot water to my washer through the soap dispencer. I was adding 10 pitchers of water - so about 5 gallons - to every wash/rinse cycle in order to get the water level decent. This was just way too much work. I was spending so much time in the laudnry room that I had to keep the kids entertained all day with Veggie Tales. I did start seeing very small improvements in the amount of suds leftover during the rinse cycle. But after spending from 8am - 11pm trying to strip the diapers I finally had to hang it up and just wait for the diaper detergent. They did come out smelling much better (though certaintly not pristine) but I decided to stop using them while I waited for the diaper detergent so I wouldn't have to wash them using the Kirkland again.
The week out of cloth + lots of desitin was really what Elena needed for her rash to heal and thankfully it's all gone now. During that week I spent a lot of time examining my washer and all it's different cycles while I washed regular loads. I learned that the delicates cycle uses a TON of water, but I can't put it on a hot setting and it doesn't spin the drum enough to really clean well. The soak cycle also uses a ton of water and it actually spins more than the delicates cycle - which I find amusing since it's meant for soaking clothes, not cleaning. The next best wash setting with slightly higher water is the quick wash cycle, which surprised me, becaue that cycle is only meant for 2 - 3 items you need in a hurry.
Up until about 2 months ago or so, Nathan and I used this quick wash setting for everything. We just hadn't bothered to read our manual so we didn't know it was meant for smaller loads, we thought it was for quicker washes - makes sense, right? When I read the manual though I started wondering if we were going to break our washer by continuing to use the quick wash cycle (even though we'd been using it this way for about 3 years with no problems) so we stopped and started using the normal wash setting. It was about this time that I think I started noticing more suds in the washer rubber seal after the cycle was completed. It's hard to remember though, it's not something that I really paid that much attention to. It was also right around this time that Gabe started breaking out in really dry patches of scaley skin - it's a form of excema. I thought it was the cold weather, but I've started wondering if it's because the normal wash cycles is not properly rinsing our clothes. My skin has become fairly itchy as well, I also thought it was cold weather related. And it could be, I can't be sure it's the washer. But we've gone back to using the quick wash cycle for all our loads just in case - and if the washer breaks then OH DARN I guess I'll just have to buy a top loader!
After this experience I have grown to hate my front loading washer and I feel it was a waste of money. I loved the savings becuase it uses about 60% less water than a traditional top-loader but if I have to add water to my washer in order to clean my diapers then it's not exactly going to save me any money in the end. I spent some time googling and discovered that 1) I'm not the only cloth diapering mom having major issues with this particular model and 2) my machine has pretty bad reviews all around. Nathan and I never thought to look up reviews before purchasing at the time. We saw a good deal at Coscto and we jumped on it. I will admit, it crossed my mind more than once to sell this machine and use the money toward a good top-loader. They are so signiciantly cheeper that I might not have to put out any money on my own. I'll tuck that thought away for the near future perhaps...
The cloth diaper detergent arrived on Monday and I was happy to find instructions on the back for getting the 'funk' out of my diapers. I had to soak the diapers in hot water with aprox 1 - 3 TBSP of the detergent. I only used 1 TBSP because I didn't want to get them overly soapy and I decided that if they still didn't smell nice when I was done then I'd try the soak again with more detergent. I soaked them in a big rubbermaid tub in the bathroom and not in my washer since the soak cycle doesn't fill up the washer enough and it won't let me use hot water.
In the meantime, I took the time to really clean my washer again. I did a clean wash cycle with 1/4 cup bleach followed by another clean washer cycle with nothing. I was finally able to see NO soap in the water and was happy that my washing machine was truly free of soap residue. I noticed a truly major difference in the smell of my washer. I hadn't raelly noticed that the washer had a smell until it was gone! I now felt comfortable washing my dipaers in my nice clean washer. I decided to use the delicates setting for my cold wash since it uses such a high level of water. I followed it up with a quick wash cycle on hot water. I ran 3 quick wash cycles with hot water back to back and by the end there was no more visable suds in my diapers. They came out of the dryer smelling pristine! I'm was THRILLED! I put them back on the kids and they don't stink when peed in either. More than a week later and the diaper still smell good.
Gabe did develop a rash two nights ago, but I think I have figured out the connection. I washed the diapers right after I washed my dark bath towels. Elena got her rash right after I threw a towel in with the diapers to try and trick the washer into adding more water. My dark towels have a mild funky smell about them when they get wet that I have been attempting to fight off with color safe bleach or vinegar and nothing is working. I have tried just rinsing them and rising them but they still come out of the washer feeling slightly soapy and smelling funky. We've decided to toss them. I think they left a residue in my washer that the diapers picked up. Or at least, that is my hope, because I am done with diaper rashes. Gabe's rash is not bad like Elena's was so hopefully it will clear up in a day or two.
No comments:
Post a Comment