I haven't done anything differently in my washing routine but I have notice an icky smell starting to build up over the last few weeks and now it's pretty bad. Any suggestions on how to get it out. Is Borax ok to use on diapers.

My current routine is:
Double rinse
Wash in hot w/little bit of tide
rinse on hot
then double rinse on hot again
dry

That's about it :)
TIA

Wash them several times w/ no soap. Wash until there are no bubbles during the agitation cycle. :)

Mine was due to hard water. I could smell it when she would wet. I solved it (thanks to mamas here) by adding Calgon water softener to the wash and rinse water.

Yeah, I'd definately try stripping the diapers. I was amazed at how much sudsing there was the first time I striped them!

ETA: Stripping is what Sarah was talking about...washing till there are no suds, adding no detergent :)

Thanks for the replies.
I'm doing the rinsing thing but I don't really see any sudzing.

I'm really dumb when it comes to h2o quality but I remember my sis. making a comment about our water being hard, so that might be it because as soon as he urinates I can smell him across the room. YICK! I think I will try the calgon. Do you use that in place of soap? When do you add it?

I'm going to suggest the complete opposite. Because of the fear of detergent build up issues, people tend to cut back drastically on their detergent and sometimes diapers just don't get clean enough. I started adding MORE detergent (and then doing an extra rinse at the end) and my stink problem was gone. HTH and good luck! :)

You might try both, LOL! I found that what was part of the problem was that the detergent was not getting rinsed out thoroughly and I needed more rinses. But that wasn't the whole problem. Just like brayg says, sometimes you cut back so far on the detergent (to avoid build-up) that you need to use more.

So try MORE detergent and MORE rinses!

:)

If your diapers are hemp, it may be harder to get the stink out. Hemp really loves to hold on to smells. If they are hemp, boiling them will open up the fibers enough to release the buildup.

Our prefolds got stinky after a while, and we stripped them using Sportswash, and it helped quite a bit. Good luck!

Yep, with the really hard water, the stink starts when the dipe gets wet. Ohh la la! You still use detg. I just add Calgon to the wash water, and lately to the rinse cycle too - I do a cold prewash, Hot wash and then a soapless short wash, and I add the Calgon to both the wash cycles but not the prewash. It has made a huge difference. It looks like a small bottle, but it really does last a long time. :)

where do you get the calgon? i was going to try it, but couldnt find it.

I found it at the grocery store and at Meijers. I think that's only a MI store, but it's like Walmart and Target, so they prolly carry it, too. I haven't had to look at those yet for it. It lasts a lot longer than I expected, LOL! It's in a small, white detergent-looking jug. The label is mostly blue w/ a rainbow on it.

My dipes start to stink if I let them go too long without drying them on a line. It fixes the problem nearly instantly for me.

I did look at our walmart in the laundry det. section. I thought it would be w/ all the extra laundry stuff like clorox 2, borax, etc. and i didnt find it. maybe a different groc. store would have it, like bi lo. thats about all we have here. i'll check again now that i know what it looks like. thanks for the description.

I got my calgon at a grocery store in the laundry ailse. I can't remember which store it was though. LOL