Ammonia Burns, Every Momma's Nightmare

Ammonia burns are terrifying. Burns anywhere on your baby aren't pleasant, but it's even worse when it happens on an area you personally try to protect. The fact that I knew exactly what (luxurious) materials were brushing Bug's bottom made me very proud, so I can imagine the panic that sets in when you see the redness turn into blisters and sores. 

I really feel that in order to effectively combat ammonia burns we need to know what they are and what's causing them. I live in the southwest and have incredibly hard water, so ammonia burns were almost inevitably looming in my uninformed future. 

What Causes Ammonia Burns?
When the urine in your diapers/inserts dries out, it can leave behind uric acid crystals. If we aren't using enough detergent (which is very common since many resources say to use as little as possible) or wait too long between washes, the crystals don't get washed out. 

If you have hard water where you live, the minerals in your water will penetrate the fibers in your diapers, making convenient little pockets for uric acid crystals to hide out in. 

We wash and dry the diapers and put them on baby's bottom as usual, but you will notice the stench of ammonia creeping into your home. As soon as your baby wets their diaper those crystals convert into pure ammonia, right against your lil one's bum! I don't have to tell you that ammonia is some pretty nasty stuff. It's a very caustic (capable of burning) base (as apposed to an acid). 


Does My Baby Have Ammonia Burns? 
Bug's ammonia burns began as redness on his thighs and some bumps on his "package" that turned into sores and blisters. One of the surest ways to know if your baby's rash is an ammonia burn is to smell their diaper right after they pee. 


Diapers will usually smell like urine, but if the smell of ammonia is so strong it makes your eyes water (or even just strong enough that you know it's ammonia), your baby most likely is suffering ammonia burns. Be sure to talk to your baby's doctor to rule out the possibility of a yeast infection! 

The beginning stage.
I thought Bug's diapers were just too tight, but it got much worse.

How Do I Treat My Baby's Burns?
Your doctor can prescribe a cream that will heal the burns, but it will most likely not be cloth safe. I personally don't have the money to spend on sposies while we treat burns, so I did some homework and came up with this cloth safe way to treat Bug's bottom without destroying our stash. 

Coconut oil is a staple in our home. We use it with every change. When dealing with burns I added 1-2 drops of Lavender Essential Oil to a dollop of coconut oil and slathered it onto Bug's bottom generously. I also gave him oatmeal baths every night until he started to heal up enough for me to give him regular baths. I felt horrible putting soap on his open wounds.


How Do I Treat My Diapers? 
This is the tricky part. If you live somewhere with "soft" water, you can use continuous hot washes until the stink is gone. 

1/2  a cup of vinegar in the wash will also help to get those nasty uric acid crystals out of your diapers. ONLY if you have soft water! 

NEVER, EVER under ANY circumstances add vinegar to hard water! The minerals that make the water "hard" will react with the vinegar and make it worse. Bad. Very bad. 

If you are blessed with hard water, as I am, these are the steps I used to get every last little crystal out of my diapers and inserts. Every step is necessary, and I promise that it won't destroy your diapers. 

1. Start with clean diapers and inserts. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Using tongs, SLOWLY add diapers one at a time (about 3 per batch, you don't want the water to boil over) and boil 15-30 mins (anything with PUL or snaps should only go in for 15 mins so nothing melts). Take them out and put them in a bowl or colander.
   
   OR you can turn up your hot water heater, fill the tub with super hot water, and let the diapers soak in there. If you have a super-sized stash, this might be the way to go  ;)
2. Throw them into the washer and wash COLD, NO SOAP
3. Add up to 1/4 cup of bleach to the wash and run it through a HOT wash + extra rinse.
   (DO NOT use vinegar in hard water, EVER! It'll react with the minerals in the water and make everything worse. I promise, the amount of bleach we're using is so diluted it won't hurt the diapers)
4. Run through 2 more HOT washes (without the extra rinse) to make sure the bleach rinses out. 

How Do I Prevent Ammonia Burns? 

• Don't be afraid to use detergent on your diapers!I'd rather use too much and rinse until the water runs clear than use too little and go through ammonia burns again. If your diapers smell at all after being washed, throw them back in with a little more detergent. I look like a fool sniffing my diapers and inserts, but it keeps Bug's little heiny happy. 
  
• Consider a wet pail, or rinsing all diapers before putting them into your dry pail. This will remove some of the urea before it even has a chance to convert into crystals and hide out in your diapers.
• Wash your diapers and pail and/or liner often. Ammonia can build up in the pail without you even noticing it. I throw my pail liner into the wash every time I wash diapers and rinse out the pail.
• Store your diapers somewhere cool and dark. Heat accelerates the creation of uric acid crystals. Leaving your pail topless (ooh la la!) will also help tremendously, and it will actually keep smells at bay. Try it!
• Use a water softener or baking soda in your wash to bond with the minerals in your water in a good way. It distracts them from the awesomeness going on in your diapers.
• Always begin your diaper washing routine with a cold wash. This will rinse away anything yucky in your diapers, including urea. It will also help to keep stains from setting in.
• Strip your diapers. If you live with hard water, this is a must. Eventually mineral build-up will occur, leading to detergent and ammonia build up in your diapers and very unhappy heinies. I strip mine whenever I notice something is a little off with the diapers. Usually it's just a weird smell-- not bad, just weird. My laundry soap rinses away completely clean so I notice any kind of smell.

You can find my diaper washing and stripping routine here. 

Don't feel bad, momma! You knew something was wrong and went on the hunt to make it right. None of us ever want to see our babies in pain, and now that you know how to help your little one everything will be ok! I know, I've been there, and I felt like the worst mom in the world for letting Bug's bottom get so bad before I figured out what was happening and how to fix it. Hang in there! 

Dirty Little Secrets (or "Cloth Diaper Washing for the Modern Mama")

One of the most complicated aspects of cloth diapering (besides choosing a diaper) is washing. As mentioned in a previous post, we have ridiculously hard water which only makes things worse. The fabrics in our diapers are designed to absorb and hold moisture, including the uric acid crystals in your lil one's urine. If you have hard water, this can become a nightmare if your diapers aren't being washed properly (we would know, and I'll post our adventures through ammonia burns here-- just know it isn't pretty). 

The first bit of advice I can give is to not be afraid to throw your detergent of choice in the wash. When I started cloth diapering, EVERYTHING I read suggested miniscule amounts of detergent when washing, half the amount you would for a small load of laundry. I make my own laundry soap (which can be found here), and was afraid that using too much would somehow destroy my diapers. So, via the instructions I read online, I used 1/2 a tablespoon of detergent when washing my diapers. 

It worked great for a few weeks, but then I noticed our diapers smelling REALLY bad when Bug peed in them. I thought maybe I let them sit in the wash too long before drying, so went along as usual for another couple of weeks, until Bug started getting redness and blisters (ammonia burns). I sacrificed one of my least favorite diapers to put commercial diaper cream on his bum, only to find it wasn't helping at all. 

After A LOT of research and failed attempts we found a way to get the diapers fresh and clean and non-toxic once again. Moral of the story-- don't be afraid to use detergent! I'd rather use too much and just run rinses until the water is clean than use too little and go through all of that again. 

This is the routine we use to regularly wash our diapers (I do mine every 3 or 4 days). 

1. COLD wash, NO detergent
2. HOT wash + extra rinse WITH detergent
3. HOT wash, NO detergent
4. HOT wash, NO detergent 

If you have hard water, the minerals in your water will penetrate the fibers in your diapers and inserts, trapping soap and uric acid crystals, and causing stink issues and build up (and ammonia burns if you aren't careful). Regardless of the detergent you use, I personally recommend using this stripping technique every few weeks to keep your diapers fresh. 

1. 1 COLD wash, NO detergent
2. 1 HOT wash + extra rinse WITH detergent 
3. 1 HOT wash + extra rinse + 5 drops Grapefruit Seed Oil and 2 Drops of Tea Tree Oil
4. 1 HOT wash + extra rinse and 1/4- 1/2 cup baking soda
5. 1 HOT wash, NO detergent
6. 1 HOT wash, NO detergent

You can use 1/4 cup bleach in step #3 in place of the essential oils, but I prefer not to use bleach if I can help it. 

Dish soap will not help strip your diapers unless you are trying to get out diaper cream build up. 

My First Steps.... And a Laundry Detergent Recipe!

My first venture into the world of eco-friendliness was making my own laundry soap (after deciding to cloth diaper, but that's a whole 'nother beast entirely!). Since I'm lazy, I wanted a detergent that was safe for the diapers as well as efficient enough to handle whatever finds its way onto the boys' clothes (I don't even bother trying to identify it anymore). 

I soon realized that the lovely mineral-rich water here in the Southwest would narrow my search even further (yay! .... not.). After a gaggle of google searches, some math-whiz conversions by yours truly, and a little trial and error, I present to you... (cue harps and singing angels)... My laundry detergent!

This recipe was adapted from one I found here at Ecocrazy Mom. Of course, I didn't want to make a bucket full so I used my Mighty Math Powers to scale this down to fit into the canister I had on hand (which happened to be a Gatorade container). This soap has worked very well for us on everything we put into the washer and rinses away with just a hint of lavender scent. 

If you'd like your clothes to smell all fancy you can add something like Purex Crystals to the washer as per their directions. I, however, think that defeats the purpose of making your own detergent to begin with and opt for essential oil-infused felt wool dryer balls. I'll post a tutorial on how to make those one of these days. 

Laundry Soap Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Cups Baking Soda  (water softener, detergent booster, deodorizer, and brightener)
• 2 1/2 Cups OxiClean Versatile Free (better stain removing power, detergent booster)
• 1 3/4 Cups Borax (water softener, brightener, deodorizer, disinfectant, removes soap residue, detergent booster)
• 1 Cup Washing Soda (very effective water softener, degreaser, brightener)
• 1/2 Bar Dr. Bronner's (veggie-based all natural soap-- this is what does the cleaning)
• 3-5 drops Tea Tree Oil (anti-bacterial, antiseptic, anti-fungal)
• 3-5 Drops Lavendar Oil (anti-bacterial, and smells amazing in my opinion)

You'll also need a food processor (or you can do it the way I do with a cheese grater and a blender) and a mixing bowl and fork.

Instructions:

Grate your soap and pulse into a powder. You can do this with a cheese grater and blender or with your food processor attachments. 

You DEFINITELY want to powder your soap. I skipped this once and it made for a very uneven mixture. The soap also didn't dissolve very well in the wash.

I used 1/2 bar of Lavender soap for this, but sometimes I use 1/4 bar Lavender and Tea Tree Oil depending on how I feel. You can use any scent you like. 

Pour the Dr. Bronner's into a bowl, stir in the remainder of your dry ingredients and mix well. 

Add your essential oils and mix well. I use a fork to break up the little clumps that form where I drop the oils.

This is optional, but I love the disinfecting properties of tea tree oil and I love the smell of lavender oil.

You can use lemon oil if you need extra de-greasing power or any scent you like, really. I try to use complimenting scents in my soap and essential oils. 

Store in a sealed container of your choosing. I just happen to have an empty Gatorade container on hand, so that's what we use. Not as cute as some other blogs, I know.... But we manage ;) 

To Use:

• In an HE top-loading I use 2 tablespoons for our regular laundry. 

• For cloth diapers, 1.5 tablespoon does the trick. 

• Since this is a non-sudsing detergent, it is safe to use in your front-loading machine as well. 1.5 - 2 tablespoons for regular laundry and about 1 tablespoon for diapers. 

Coming Out of the Crunchy Closet

My name is Candice and I am (apparently) a crunchy mom. Why do I say "apparently"? Because I would never in a million years have ever thought that I would ever be considered "crunchy". Taking a step back, I can see where I may have earned this label.

It started out innocently enough--- wanting to cloth diaper to save money on disposables (those buggers get expensive after a while!) and then deciding that I'm too lazy to use a different soap for my laundry and my diapers (don't judge me, I'll take a little convenience wherever I can get it). So, I started making my own laundry soap (I'll post the recipe eventually).

At about the same time Monkey (my 3 year old son) was constantly spraying his little brother, Bug (1 year old) with whatever cleaner he could get his sticky little hands onto. He showered Bug in Comet cleaner and called him a snowman.... So, in an attempt to save Bug from being blinded or poisoned, I threw out all of the cleaning supplies and opted for a homemade multipurpose cleaner and vinegar.

Then I realized that I had all of the ingredients I needed to make my own dishwasher packs! Once I learned that white vinegar can be used as a rinse aid, we said goodbye to the last remaining commercial cleaning product in our home.

About a month ago a friend of mine saw that I cloth diapered on Facebook and asked if I wanted her stash (heck yes!). She then said, "I didn't know you were crunchy!". Here I was just trying to be cheap and keep my kids from eating poison, and the next thing I knew I'd fallen into a whole new niche (as if being a military spouse wasn't enough). I laughed at her and said that I was just doing to save money.

Fast forward to now. I now make my own almond milk, refuse to buy certain unhealthy foods, and am starting to make my own cloth diapers. I've even thought of attempting to grow a garden in our barren El Pasan backyard (it's actually very green, and I live in Horizon..... but you get the idea!). And to top it all off I looked into a cow share! So, this is me. Coming out of the closet before you all today and sharing my journey with you.

Hello. My name's Candice, and I'm a crunchy mom.