Help- I'm officially a cloth nappy user!!

Thanks Hasie, (now why after I typed "Hasie" was I so damned tempted to type: 'hoekom is jou stert so kort?') ha ha ha Never mind me....

What you're saying about Probac does make sense however. I'm going to keep an eye on my nappies.

I have another question: what washing powders / liquids do you ladies use?

Do you use the same for your normal laundry and your nappies or separate ones?

I just bought two samples this morning of Skip liquid and Omo liquid. It seems ok to use them on our cloth nappies.

Hey ladies, I'm not saying it IS the probac causing the mildew, was just wondering if it could have been... Mildew needs spores to start, probac contains spores... Washing in HOT water will kill spores so if you leave nappies in the dry bucket then wash in hot water, it should kill the spores. But the water has to be above 75 degrees Celsius.

Amanda, congrats!!! Hope you have a wonderful pregnancy!!

GwenE, glad your nappies are fine now.

Hope mine will also be back to normal. I BLEACHED all the inserts and then washed everything 4 times. There's no sign of the mildew, so I think it worked.

Amande, we stay in Joburg and its so dry right now, so I was quite surprised to find the mildew. I've been spraying my inserts with the probac and that's the affected parts so maybe that's where i went wrong.

Oh dear! You're making me stress about the Probac! I've been using it for months and I haven't had mildew. I'm in Cape Town. Is it perhaps the weather / more humid where you are? I only squirt a few squirts and throw it in dry bucket. And my nappies are in that bucket sometimes longer than 2 or 3 days...

I've only squirt it on the cover area where the poop might go through the liner.

I put tea tree oil in the dry bucket.

What could be the cause then? I don't want to mess up my nappies! eeeeekkkk!

p.s. found out yesterday we're having a girl (2nd baba)

Yes, I came right by soaking the affected nappies in diluted bleach and then leaving them out in the sun to get rid of any residue stain. I also ironed one that just to make sure! Since then I haven't had any problems I rinse my bucket in hot water and put a few drops tea tree oil. I also make sure they are very dry often putting them in the tumble drier for 10 minutes just to make sure. Hope you come right I know how distressing this can be.

Thank you Hasie. I was actually wondering the same thing because the newest nappy with mildew on is the one that I sprayed with probac before the last wash. I'll go and buy bleach later and then I'll bleach everything and strip them and then sun them and hopefully that will work.

Will use sunlight soap to remove the tough stains from now.

Hi Karien,

I wonder what the chances are of the probac causing the mildew. Probac is a natural stain remover and is made out of live spores, which are fungi... I was worried about this when I read the label on the product as my kids are hyper sensitive to all kinds of allergens and fungal spores, can cause allergies in the same way that dust mites does.

Vinegar promotes the growth of fungi. So stripping them with vinegar won't cure your problem. I'm also not sure if bicarb will kill the fungus, but I'm sure it won't promote it. In a case like this, I am wondering if a once off chlorine bleach (like sterri nappy) won't be the easiest thing to do as chlorine will certainly kill off the fungus. But then you will have to strip wash the nappies a few times afterwards to rid them of the chlorine.

I am not sure which natural sterilizers will kill off fungi, maybe tea tree oil? But then it will have to be the dissolvable one, which can really mix with the water and penetrate the cloth.

I know Gwen E went the chlorine route and her nappies came out allright. I used to bleach my nappies daily (back in the day when I was uneducated...) and after a lot of stripping, they are fine. So I don't think the damage caused by one chlorine bleach episode will be to detrimental for your nappies.