NTDI episode 9 - smell that funky diaper, mommy

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Things have been going well here for night time diapers. For a couple of months in a row, I've had nothing remarkable to report! I've been using Rockin' Green Cloth Diaper Detergent. Very rarely do either kids wake up with ammonia burn (although sometimes it's a powerful stink). I would attribute the stink to body chemistry, and not to something wrong with the diapers. It's pee, you know? It's going to smell when it sits around for hours without some fragrance covering the smell. I've rocked a soak a couple of times when I was trying to do the initial de-stinking of the diapers.

Now a different problem is popping up. There's a different stink. Maybe this is the Funk that I've heard about. They don't smell like pee, but they don't smell clean, either. I'm working on some solutions. The best result I've had so far is that I ran inserts/prefolds/wipes only through the sanitize cycle on my front loader, and they came out smelling fresh. I can't run the covers through that cycle, as the heat could damage the waterproofing and the elastic. I'm thinking maybe it's time to Rock a Soak again?

Even if I need to Rock a Soak every once in a while, it's a vast improvement over the hours of washing and rinsing that were never totally satisfactory.

I will admit, I've been tempted to experiment with the highly debated Tide. My diapers are out of warranty, so it's not like I'd be voiding anything there. The thing that pulls me away from that is the environmental aspect of it. I switched to environmentally friendly detergents before I ever had kids, before I knew that some people think you shouldn't use Tide on diapers. My house is old, and we have a gray water system - If it's not from the toilet, it pretty much washes out into a drainage ditch in front of our house. I used some bleach to clean my washer (I know, not very planet friendly, but right now it's what works for my needs), and after it rinsed out of the machine, I could smell it when I was out walking on the driveway. Clearly my water isn't just disappearing in to some treatment facility. Considering all of that, I'm especially sensitive to having detergents and cleaners that are safe for plants, animals, and waterways.

Anyway. For now, I think Rockin' Green is working okay for me.