I'm in a Funk

There is nothing cuter than a cloth diapered baby bottom; however, sometimes you get in a cloth diapering funk. Well that is what I am calling it. You may have noticed my lack of helpful and nice cloth diapering talk as of late. There is a reason for this. I have been in a cloth diapering funk.

Literally we have been dealing with funk to the extreme. I was having some MAJOR repelling issues with my cloth and was getting incredibly frustrated. I ended up switching to ::GASP:: disposable diapers for a little while. I typically only write things that I feel passionately about and don't try to sugar coat everything in terms of diapers. There are bad days and there are good days. So I have been in a month long diaper funk; therefore, was at a lack of positive words to say. However, glorious changes have come about.

I finally buckled down and beat the funk. Here is an overview of my trials, errors, and victories.

First, my diapers started off just leaking at night. I would do the same routine I had done for months and it wasn't working. It eventually progressed to leaking during the day. Then finally full blown repelling and was not holding anything. I was extremely frustrated and tried stripping them by washing them on hot 5 times and drying. I thought the problem was fixed, but then a couple days later it was back.

I tried stripping again, doubling up on absorbency, and everything I could think of. Nothing seemed to work, so I went and bought a box of disposables and gave up. I just cleaned and folded the diapers and let them be for 2 weeks. I didn't even want the think about dealing with them with Christmas and the holidays approaching.

This all changed when I got my Black Friday Ruby Moon detergent order in the mail from Everything Birth. I had ordered 9 bags (basically a year's supply) of Ruby Moon in the Peppermint Wonderland scent for my cloth diapers. I got my package and it gave me the get-up-and-go to give my cloth another shot.

I split my diapers into three loads (I have A LOT of diapers since I have two in cloth) then I put the first batch in the washer with about 4 tablespoons of Ruby Moon. I soaked them in hot overnight and drained. Then I washed them on hot once and did a double rinse. I dried them and was ready to give them a shot again. They were like brand new. I used that batch for about a week and had no issues so fixed up the next two the same way.

I realized that typically when I wash I usually put all the diapers in the wash at once. I was overloading!! I had recently purchased more diapers to add to my stash. This way I would only have to wash every other day. Before the diapers had enough room because there was only a day and a half worth of diapers per load. When I added to the diapers were not getting clean enough because the machine was too full. Now that I have my diapers back in order I couldn't be happier. My baby's now have chemical free and cute booties yet again!

Sometimes you just have to step back (or take a break for a bit) to regroup.

Have you had any cloth diaper trials that you have had to overcome? If so, what and how did you deal?