Stench!

My nappies smell when they come out of the washing machine. They have this old musty smell, what can i do to get rid of the smell?

1. Tea Tree Oil...a few drops in with the soap of every wash.

2. Baking soda...a few teaspoons in the diaper pail/wash

3. Dawn dish washing soap....wash diapers with it in the washing machine!

4. Hang to dry in the sun.

5. Don't leave wet diapers in the washing machine over night.

Tea Tree is the BOMB! A disinfectant and "cure-all".

Jul - would tea tree oil be safe on a blanket (that super soft fuzzy material). Dylan's blanket now has this nasty smell to it no matter how much I wash. It was a gift from my parents so getting rid of it is not an option (plus - he adores it).

Sounds like polyester fleece. Tea tree oil should be just fine.

Gr8, additional considerations for diapers are that you make sure not to overstuff the machine (I remember reading that the maximum a European washer can take is 8 diapers, but I haven't verified that, seeing as I have a nice giant Maytag, B'H!). Also, that you do an extra rinse cycle at the end to get rid of detergent that might still be left in the fabric, and that they be really bone dry before they are stored. Oh, and not to let more than 3 days go between washings. I'm guessing that you already do all this stuff, but it's worth repeating just in case you changed your routine recently or someone else has been helping with laundry.

Tea tree oil is a miracle. An absolute miracle.

guilty as charged

now what do I do? I have done teshuva, and haven't left them overnight in the washing machine for a long long time but the smell is still there. and it's bad! Btw, it's only the inserts that smell.

zeph, about overstuffing the washing machine, is it a question of the weight of the nappies or a physically overstuffed washing machine iykwim?

I DO have a Euro washing machine and I think the 8 diaper thing is a bunch of bunk. I'll fill up that load as much as I can. I just use the TTO (Tea Tree Oil) IN EVERY and I repeat EVERY SINGLE wash.

All it takes is a few drops. I would get a dropper and fill that puppy up and give it about 10 drops in each load. For espically icky loads I'll do twice that. Put it right in with the detergent soap.

People have all kinds of fancy things that they do. Extra rince cycles (I've done that once or twice in the course of 2.5 years...some of that time with two children in cloth at the same time). Washing without soap on repeat cycles as much as it takes until you see the water running clear (not sudsy...this makes sure all the detergent is out). Hell, people even boil diapers to strip them if it gets bad enough (something I would only suggest do do with wool products...DO NOT AGITATE!!! WASH IN LANOLIN!!!)

But, in this situation, TTO should do the trick. And yes it should be fine for the blanket. The way I see it, if you can put it in your washing machine, you can put a few drops of TTO in there.

Of course, the smell of the TTO might not be your cup of tea. Then you have the option of getting rid of that with a drop or two of lavendar oil or the like. But I NEVER do that and if you need to, we will cross that bridge when we come to it together.

As for TTO, it is gentle enough to use on baby's skin...though I wouldn't put it DIRECTLY on the skin without a carrier oil unless it was an EXTREME situation.

In the event of diaper rash, for example, I might mix up a bottle of carrier oil (I use Sweet Almond Oil...grapeseed or apricot would also work. Even your olive oil for cooking would work, though the scent and consistancy might be a bit heavy to work with. I'd just fill a bottle with that and then drop in a few drops of TTO, so that I could just faintly smell it in there. It may burn a little bit for a few minutes, so the carrier oil would take the edge off. For a diaper rash that was not festering and totally out of control (the VAST majority of diaper rashes) I would not use it at all but would just use a very healing lavendar oil with camemille. Again, I'd just start with a few drops and then work it out from there.

TTO can be applied to pimples (great pimple buster), bug bites (helps with the itch and facilitates healing), etc...

Great astringent/antibacterial properties.

I belive it can even be ingested, though I have not tried this and would be wary to do so.

Take a look at baby's diet and room. Is the musty smell also in the closet? Perhaps there is mold there or it needs cleaning. I'd be surprized if diapers that were treated with TTO after EVERY wash...not left for more than 3 days or so in a pail, as Zeph said...and then hung out in the sun to dry would be able to retain that smell. I'd be in shock really. I'd do the TTO and the sun. If that doesn't work, wash again without soap (perhaps there is a build up) and just a few drops of TTO again and then hang to dry in the sun. I just can't imagine that not working.

will try the tto.

If you are using tto like than then the overfilling won't be as big an issue. However, I once spoke to an aromatherapist who, when I told her I used 5-8 drops per American washing machine every few months, thought I was overexposing the baby and using WAY too much. Which, if you take that approach to aromatherapy, lands us right back to overfilling... Obviously, you'll want to consult your friendly neighborhood aromatherapist, it could be that mine was overly conservative.

As far as tto being used internally... it can. For yeast infections.

It works, and quicker than those nasty creams. But it burns. Oh, how it burns. It's only for the brave. Or desperate.

Looks like you got lots of good advice, but just it case I'll add my two cents. Could it be your washer? I just had to do a major cleaning of a used washer that had been sitting in our basement and at my old apartment building it seemed other people were washing moldy clothes. Any combination of baking soda, tea tree oil, vinegar, lots of washes/rinses, and a wipe down got them smelling fresh again.

Do you really only need a few drops of TTO in a washing machine to do the job?

Where do you get TTO? I am willing to try anything at this point.

I got a little vial at Harmon's. You probably can get it at any drug store.

yep. Health food stores. Corner drug stores. It's all over the place now.

And I'd rather run the risk of over exposing my kids to a healing oil then putting them in disposables with all those chemicles or putting them in moldy mildewy dieapers with all the smells and other issues that go along with that.

I don't know how people CD without TTO. Or a bidet. But that is likely for another post...

They sell TTO at Wal-Mart in the First Aid section. Honestly, I think if you use fleece, you could wind up with repellancy issues b/c it is oil after all.

Finally found it reasonably priced ($5.99) at Trader Joe's and threw Dylan's blanket in the wash. Wow!!!! What a wonderful product! Even DH was blown away by how great his blanket smelled.

Thank you again!