# Brown/grey stains on PEE diapers???



## petitpois (Feb 24, 2012)

Please help! As I prepared to do a diaper wash, I just noticed that a bunch of pee diapers (trifolded prefolds) are looking stained from the outside in, as if they'd soaked up or reacted to something in the wetbag. I use Planetwise wetbags at home for pee diapers (poop diapers go in a pail), and the little Kushies wetbags for daycare and short outings. These diapers are all cotton prefolds, some with a microfiber layer, some just unbleached cotton, but they all stayed for a few days in the wetbags straight from daycare, which I don't usually do.

Has anyone else seen this? Is it related to the ammonia released after sitting around with no oxygen and/or contact with the wetbag material, or what? More importantly, how do I get rid of it? Before I realized how many of these I had from the same conditions, I used some bakingsoda-based anti-stain prewash treatment, and was considering bleach, but I'm hoping someone can give me some more informed suggestions!

The grey-brown color of these stains reminds me of another diaper with a stain that I have not been able to get rid of (which I always thought was a poop stain - we use a disposable liner so sometimes it's just on the edges), despite using the anti-stain treatment (which _does_ usually work on poop stains, food, etc).

I'm just going to cross my fingers and hold off on this diaper wash until I get some ideas -- thank you for any input!


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## petitpois (Feb 24, 2012)

OK, I decided to google it and found some confirmation that it's the ammonia from the pee -- here's someone with a similar experience after leaving pee diapers too long (but with a different color stain, dark purple - it looks like bright pink or blue is also possible)

http://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-997146.html

However, I didn't find any suggestions other than patience ("they washed out eventually"), and maybe bleach  I guess maybe I'll strip the diapers this weekend, and just be sure to rinse them sooner in the future. Still interested in advice / perspective if anyone with experience comes across this...


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## short mom (Mar 24, 2013)

I have found that sun is the best stain remover. After washing let them sun dry. It really is amazing what sun "bleaching" will do. If that does not work try lemon juice before you wash.


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