Okay, I had a week free of cloth diapering. I desperately needed a break since they were inducing anxiety attacks every time I would wash a load and find more mold. If you missed the beginning of this saga you can read about it here. So after one week away I was ready to try again to conquer the mold once and for all.
So what I did. Well I walked away and that was the first big thing that helped. Then I talked to a wonderful friend at church, Kathy. She cloth diapered all of her children when she was raising them (many moons ago) and asked her what to do and the first thing out of her mouth was "Borax." This was already an avenue I was thinking about so I jumped on it. First I googled it and then I purchased it and many days later I felt motivated to try it out.
In my google search I read that you can mix vinegar and Borax together and no nuclear explosion would occur so I decided that the combination together would give me a better chance at killing the mold spores. So I filled up my bathtub with the hottest water my tap would create, then a poured a fair amount of Borax into the tub. The directions said one cup for every gallon of water but I was not going to be exact since that seemed like a lot of effort for such a big task. I let it dissolve and put my cleaning gloves on and swished the water around. Then I took my vinegar and dumped a bunch in, again not an exact amount. Then I threw in the inserts and the two diapers that were affected. At this point I realized I could ruin the diapers but didn't care since to me they were no good anymore moldy so might as well see if this worked. I soaked them for a while and then went through and squeezed them/hand washed them in the solution.
From there I tossed them into the washer and put them through the wash cycle. Then I removed them from the washer and took them to my kitchen sink. Here I went through them with a "fine tooth comb" or more literally a toothbrush. I poured straight bleach on any and all of the black spots I could find. I would say over 80% of the inserts were affected with at least one black spot and of that about 10% were pretty bad. It took me about an hour to do this and my head was spinning, most likely from the fumes. After this I put them through the wash again with a second rinse cycle. Then I hung the two diapers up and put all the inserts in the dryer on high for 40 minutes. After taking them out of the dryer I inspected each insert for any spots and found none. I then stuffed the diapers.
I plan to start using them again on Monday. Today we were out of the house the whole morning at the church workday and then tomorrow we have church all morning and then we plan on going to the pumpkin patch in the afternoon- and there is no rush in my mind.
My friend Heather gave me the idea of separating the poop diapers from the pee diapers in two different wet dry bags. This would help me to see if it is the poop that is causing it by inspecting them prior to putting them into the washer to see if I see any mold on them. For the most part now though, Olivia has been having solid poop so I don't think this will be necessary. Plus, I still plan on using the flushable liners until I'm confident that the mold is gone for good.
So Tuesday will be the day of reveal since that is when I'll wash diapers. I will hopefully be following up with good news!
"God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised." Hebrews 6:10-12
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