When to throw away prefolds

[enochswalk]

I bought some second hand stuff last week. Im still new at this and did exactly know what to look for. She didn’t mention they went through 2 kids, and were about 4 years old. It was late and dark, so I briefly looked in the bag, paid the lady and left. The point of this purchase was to get covers (and the PUL is scratchy and frayish) my fault

ANYWAYS- included were a bunch of size L GMD, and 2 osocozy. Like half of them were darkly stained, the thread is coming off, the pillow fluff is torn, and the seams are coming loose. First I thought, lemme cut some up and make inserts out of the middle part. But I cant get the ammonia odor out! I did 2 bleach soaks, washed like 3 times, sunbathed them. They dont smell when they’re dry, or immediately after she pees. But after like an hour or few of being in the hamper they smell sharply and stingly of strong ammonia

Should I just eat the loss and toss these? I was also thinking of cutting them up and using as reusable wipes. But idk if even the smallest contact of urine will trigger the ammonia smell

 

[jhoney]

@enochswalk Rockin Green has an ammonia buster called "funk rock" that has worked well for us. For a while I was having the same issue. They'd be fine on them reek after a bit, including overnights would reek of ammonia by morning...Turned out we weren't using quite enough soap for our hard water but The Rockin Green stuff helped get it out initially.

Also, after I got a bamboozled with a previous purchase I now ask about how long they've had them/how long they've used them. Seems to have saved my butt this time around. Last time I lost like $70

 

[markiplier]

@enochswalk Did you do a trip with RLR? I’d do that then do some washes.

 

[enochswalk]

@markiplier I have not. Maybe I’ll try that, but Im leaning towards maybe its not worth it

 

[cees]

@enochswalk You may need a higher concentration of bleach in your soak. Keep bleaching until there are no visible stains.

 

[markxiii]

@enochswalk Gross. Is your bleach fresh? After about 6 months open it is no longer strong enough to clean the ammonia. One other thing to try is putting them out in the sun for a day or two for “sun bleaching”. But given that they’re also frayed and threads loose… maybe cut your losses and learn for next time.

I recently bought used Alvababy pockets online and the elastic was shot. I’m still using them because my kiddo is 18 months but I won’t be able to use them on a smaller baby.

 

[enochswalk]

@markxiii I bought a brand new bottle of bleach to do the 2nd bleach soak. Could this ammonia reek like “contaminate” my other diapers? Because my normal batch doesn’t smell bad at all, just these ugly old guys