Leaky Cloth Diapers

Over the past month I've had to deal with leaky cloth diapers. It's NOT fun when you hold your child and pee gets on your hip! It never happened until now (and still never happens with #2). I did trial and error on a lot of different things! I got some great help and advice from some friends, but the best ever came from a store/website called Jillian's drawers. Their customer service is phenomenal and their advice is spot-on!

So I thought I'd write for the record what I did on here so that I can refer to it later, and maybe help anyone else if they have the same issues and is as ignorant as I was going into this.

Things I had to change to get my pocket diapers to stop leaking in chronological order:

1) My detergent. All Free and Clear is NOT good for cloth diapers. It only has about a 25% success rate in cleaning cloth diapers without stink or buildup. Here is the detergent guide that aided me in my search for a new detergent. The first one I tried was Rockin' Green Hard Rock, but as the detergent guide says, I definitely definitely had some major stink issues with this detergent. I got a refund :) Next I tried Charlie's Soap along with Charlie's hard water treatment. This has worked great so far, but only when I use both.

2) Soften my water. Hard water also causes stink and leak issues with cloth diapers, and as our water softener is broken beyond repair, I had to order water treatments to put in each load. The difference in my cloth diapers is very noticable!

3) Strip the diapers. Since I'd been using the wrong detergent with hard water for so long, it was time for all that buildup to go. RLR Laundry treatment did an awesome job, and the diapers were as soft as if they were new when I was done! Actually, you're supposed to strip your diapers once a month! Bumgenius just said to bleach them once a month, but this did not help with absorbancy.

4) Put the diaper shells (I have pockets) in the dryer. Both the PUL (polyurethane liner) and the elastic in the diapers were starting to go. The PUL was not repelling liquid, allowing it to go straight through the cover! YUCK! Sticking it in the dryer (again, not in the bumgenius washing routine instructions) reseals the PUL dots (or beads, or something). But apparently most cloth diaper manufacturers use the same kind of polyurethane for their PULs. Drying also tightens up the elastic. The elastic around the legs always needs to be snug.

5) Bought new diapers. The one year warranty is up, so I tried another brand, Fuzzibunz, using some Christmas money (that's how much I love cloth diapers, haha!). They work great!!! Plus, they have adjustable elastic even though I got the one-size, which helps it last longer by not over-stretching it.

I'm still learning and maybe some of what I typed above isn't accurate. But it sure has helped for me, and I hope it helps anyone else! If you, reader, have any further ideas, comment on this so I know! Thanks