Well, I have promised to be totally honest about the cloth diapering and have been.... from day 1! Cloth diapering an infant was great. Tula definitely gave us loads of poop diapers but they were nothing the diaper sprayer, a good washing, and drying in the sun couldn't bring back to perfection. We had better luck in all diapering areas when compared to use of disposables with Ivy- less leaks, less blow out explosion, less diaper rash, etc. Cloth diapering forced us to dress Tula a little differently than we did Ivy simply because the poofy booty was not so pretty in some certain little outfits. But for the most part cloth diapering year 1 was a MAJOR success. Such a success that I would tell anyone and everyone that they could most definitely do cloth diapers and in fact I would even go as far to convince them that they should!
However, the second year seems to have brought some really stinky problems (haha- literally)! So I am sharing our story and honestly hoping that some other cloth diapering mama may be able to rescue me from spending dollars on diapers and filling the landfills with such yuck. It all started in August. We ran out of Tiny Bubbles detergent and in a scramble had to order something different because all of the places I had ordered from were out of stock (insert-- Stupid Mommy! Always go to amazon before giving up!). So I ordered another CD detergent- Rockin' Green (which has stellar reviews)- but after the first wash the smell was HORRIBLE! The second Tula wet the diaper everyone in the area knew because of the stench coming from her lower half. So I washed all the diapers again, a little more detergent (figuring they weren't clean), and dried them in the sun only for the smell to be worse. This cycle was repeated a couple of times before I talked to my own personal Cloth Diaper Whisperer, Cameron.
So Cameron informed me that they had made the same Tiny Bubbles to Rockin' Green mistake. She contacted GroVia and they informed her the detergent and diapers weren't compatible, wash with blue dawn, switch back to Tiny Bubbles, wah-lah good as new. Not so at the Smorsfamily house. So I called GroVia and they are the NICEST people on the planet and gave me a few more suggestions- use more detergent, soak in bubbles, extra rinse, sun dry, sun dry, and one more sun dry- FAIL! I am still in the process of communicating with these friends in far away Montana and am really hoping their next suggestion will be a cure all. But I am not sold that it will fix the problem. With every wash the diapers are getting stinkier by the day. I was gagging when I changed her, I was gagging when I sprayed diapers, I was gagging when I washed them.... and I gagged when I went to Sam's Club and forked over $40, 17 cents a diaper, for 350 disposable diapers.
Sad as I am, it had to happen.... until the problem gets fixed. Or will it get fixed? The cloth diaper gurus all over the internet seem to believe that a set of cloth diapers should last through one child and that you should even be able to use them again on your next babe. I am not sure if that will be the case. Only time will tell, but as of now the cloth diapering mama has put a sudden halt on saving the planet and my cash flow to avoid the ultimate stink!HELP WANTED!
