# UPDATE:STINK GONE! Stinky hemp inserts- I need a solution or a clothespin for my nose



## AmyY (Jul 22, 2004)

Oh I'm so disgusted. Annika just called me back to the room to nurse her back to sleep, they have just been asleep for a few hours and the room stinks of urine and garbage, the smell of stinky hemp! The room (and house for that matter), by the way, is free of garbage and the only urine is in the diapers.

I've been having stink problems generally but am working through them with greater success with my FBs, Wonderoos, and microfiber/microterry inserts and doublers. But the hemp, my gosh the hemp! I swear it's making my eyes water!

I did try using two microterry towels with just a hemp doubler for night time but it's just not enough. The minimum I seem to be able to get away with for night time is a microterry towel, a hemp insert, and a hemp doubler.

Solutions proposed to me so far include washing the hemp separately and with bleach; and boiling the hemp. I haven't tried these solutions because I'm a mom of toddler twins and most anything I do that's not focussed on them is met with wild screaming. My laundry routine is simple and I need it to stay that way.

I am thinking of trying the trick where you turn up the thermostat on your water heater to wash the diapers and then turn it back. On my water heater this involves a complicated series of events which DH swears will break the mechanism requiring him to spend time fixing it - again, time neither of us has. But this would be easier, in my situation, than the bleach or boil suggestions. Do any of you have experience with this? Does the little screwy thingy that you have to turn with a screw driver to change the thermostat break off easily?

OK details: I'm washing no more than 15 diapers plus inserts and wipes at a time. Full load of water, as hot as available at the time (max under electric 120, max under solar on a sunny day is higher but we're having lots of clouds the last couple of months). Using Xtra detergent, switched from Tide. Stink problems started when I started CDing full time a couple of months ago and I've about got them tamed with all but the hemp which just gets more and more disgusting as the days go by. I can't even describe it, if you've had it you know. Ghastly.

TIA for any advice!


----------



## ~*~MamaJava~*~ (Mar 7, 2004)

I haven't had hemp stink







: but as far as I know, the boiling and bleaching are the only thing that's going to work. You could try throwing some vinegar in the wash...that seems to keep the reek down in my diapers. I'd put in 2 cups.
Boiling them isn't a big deal; just do a few at a time in a big pot on your stove. You don't need to stand over it.
BTW







on the screaming-if-you-step-away thing. My toddler has some lovely days like that too.


----------



## sarakay2 (Mar 17, 2004)

We had hemp stink way-back. I was going to boil them but Dh said, "No Way"

Now, just to avoid that awful stink I add about 1/4 cup bleach to a full washer of cold water and then add my hemp. I let it sit for maybe 20 minutes, spin out and wash normally. I only do this maybe everyother month or so. Never had stink again.

I can't spend the $$ on endless strip washes and if the stink continued I would have had to stop cding. Nothing has bleached out or faded from this and the only hemp I have that has holes are the ones from my first Ds and they are over 3 yrs old.

I don't think I would try this on anything other than hemp though. I know its not good on PUL and nothing else we had ever had an issue.

I hope you find a solution that works for you. Take care


----------



## Izzybee (Feb 20, 2004)

I had hemp stink so bad I almost died. I ended up stripping all my diapers, they had detergent buildup. Lots of washes with not detergent and the hottest water (130F) as I could get. The stink is gone.
I tried a little bleach before this, and didn't get rid of the stink


----------



## grnmtnmama (Jun 14, 2004)

someone here had success using their microwave to sterilize the diapers. inserts would be a great candidate for this as they don't have any snaps. if you do a search i think you find her methodology.


----------



## Adamsmama (Oct 24, 2003)

The only hemp stink I've had is with Joey Bunz and I ended up bleaching them and they are fine now.


----------



## jessemoon (May 31, 2004)

If boiling the diapers or turning up the water heater isn't an option...what about adding big pots of boiling water to the rinse cycle? I did this 7 times to get rid of my stink and it worked! I will probably have to do it again in a few months, but it wasn't really that hard....just meant that I kept dashing into the laundry room with stock-pots full of water afternoon.

You also mentioned that you were using extra detergent...this could be part of the problem. Spend an afternoon stripping them and you should be fine for a while. Once they are stripped and don't stink as bad, try using less detergent, not more. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but it worked for me.

Good luck.


----------



## Pinoikoi (Oct 30, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *jessemoon*
If boiling the diapers or turning up the water heater isn't an option...what about adding big pots of boiling water to the rinse cycle? I did this 7 times to get rid of my stink and it worked! I will probably have to do it again in a few months, but it wasn't really that hard....just meant that I kept dashing into the laundry room with stock-pots full of water afternoon.

You also mentioned that you were using extra detergent...this could be part of the problem. Spend an afternoon stripping them and you should be fine for a while. Once they are stripped and don't stink as bad, try using less detergent, not more. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but it worked for me.

Good luck.


I did something similar. I ran a hotwash with nothing in it, but added pots of boiling water to it. Stink was gone, and it was pretty easy to do.


----------



## AmyY (Jul 22, 2004)

Thanks mamas! I knew I could count on you! I tried a few of your suggestions and the stink is gone! I plunged my face into a pile of hemp inserts just a while ago and was rewarded with the blessed smell of - clean hemp!

Here's what I did: I got 1/2 cup of bleach, filled the washer halfway with water and put the hemp inserts and doublers in, then added the bleach and let it sit about 45 minutes. Then I spun it out and followed with a cold prewash to just get out as much bleach as possible before - adding the rest of the stinky dipes, inserts and wipes and washing and rinsing over and over about 4 or 5 times with no detergent on the hottest water I could get today. Result - fresh as a daisy, those dipes and inserts!

I think the piece I was missing was that stripping dipes is also for stink. I had the impression that it was just for leaking and I don't have that so I just kept trying new detergents (although Xtra is a brand from Walmart not an amount :LOL ). Since I barely use any detergent, maybe a tablespoon or two, I never imagined I would have buildup. Who knew?

I went back into our room not long ago and smelled - the fresh night air!









Anyway, thank you mamas for all the suggestions. I plan to keep them all in mind. I'm so happy!


----------



## imgr8ful (Feb 25, 2005)

yay! glad the stink is gone - i've noticed a little stinky hemp, i might have to try some bleach...

did you put it straight in with the water or did you put it in the bleach thingy?


----------



## Izzybee (Feb 20, 2004)

I'm gonna try that with my dipes. I didn't like stipping them the way I did.


----------



## AmyY (Jul 22, 2004)

I put in the inserts, filled the washer with water, and as it got high enough to be about an inch or so above the inserts I poured the bleach straight in the water. I have a soak cycle on my washer so it was easy, then I spun it out and then did a prewash. Then I added the dipes and microterry inserts and washed the whole thing several times.

By the way, today, with batch number two of dipes (no hemp today) I tried the two cups of vinegar plus extra washings. That worked too, maybe even a little better.

I think part of my issue is that I wash so often that I really have to watch for buildup. The whole stash gets fully washed every other day, and so even using very little detergent I have to be on the lookout for buildup. I think I may even try using detergent one wash and vinegar the next or something of that nature.

Thanks mamas and good luck to others with little stinky butts running around your house! :LOL


----------



## broodymama (May 3, 2004)

Did the stink stay gone even after the 2nd time wearing? I'll get rid of the stink with something similar in one wash, DS wears it and no stink, into the pail, then when he wears it again after another wash the stink is back. agggghhhhhh!

So is your stink away for the "long term"?









LB (who is still battling the stink)


----------



## AmyY (Jul 22, 2004)

Ladybug - I am just trying this out but I suspect that I will have a chronic stink issue to deal with like you have. My girls' nighttime pee smell combined with their having to have hemp to get through the night without leaks, seems like a stinky combination. I'm going to try the thing where one wash is with detergent, then next go-round is with vinegar and then periodically bleach out the hemp and see if that works. I have to remember that it was equally a pain emptying the diaper genies (we used two! and emptied every other day!) and keeping in sposies and sposie wipes cost us mucho bucks. And the chemical toilet smell of the sposies is just as offensive to my now CD-loving nose as the pee. So whatcha gonna do? Oh well I hope this all works. Good luck to you!


----------

