I Forgot About My Dirty Diaper, What Do I Do?

We all have one diaper that we forgot about for a day or two or even a week or so it happens to all cloth diapering mothers at least once. I see the question what should I do when I find a forgotten diaper? I am sad when some ask if they should toss it. You have to try to save the diaper. Cheapie or a Jules with perfect bum placement it can be saved. My first suggestion is to open the diaper. Yes it's going to smell so be prepared but if there's no poop in it it's probably going to be easy fix. If it stinks strongly of ammonia it can be fixed.

So open that bad boy up. No code brown? Then proceed directly to washing machine start by rinsing the diaper. Sniff it if you dare. If it still smells strongly off ammonia I suggest you take a scoop of oxyclean with your regular cloth diaper detergent and wash it on hot. Throw in some towels for added friction and so you don’t waste your time and detergent make sure to do an extra rinse. Sniff it. No more ammonia? Problem solved. If you don’t want to wash it with some towels do a short cycle by itself on hot with oxyclean and cloth diaper detergent and then toss it in with diaper laundry. Now to the more serious conundrum a forgotton code brown. The first question is did you dump the poop when you changed it? Yup? Anything clinging to the diaper? No. Nothing but a small stain? Awesomesauce.

Well then if you have bioklean I suggest a little spritz and wash it as I suggested you wash a number one. Here is the serious part you couldn’t dump the poop. So how bad is it? Is the poop is dried up? Then my best suggestion is to get as much off as you can without getting wet. Scrape off as much as you can I suggest and getting old credit card or a little piece of cardboard and scrape off as much as you can just like you would with a piece of burnt toast. If it's a prefold, flat, or an insert I was just actually putting it in the washing machine on a hot cycle and soaking it for a little bit to help it come off after removing as much as you can. If its not an AIO or a pocket else I wouldn't soak it if your worried about voided the warranty or hurting the elastic.

If you have some biokleen I would spray a little on the diaper and wait 15 minutes and toss it in and rinse it. If most or all of the poop has come off then wash as usual. If not, spray a little more biokeeln and wash it again. It may need some sunning to get ride of the stain completely. Worst case scenario is it got moldy. If the whole diaper is moldy I would cut my losses but if it has a little mold on it I hope is not lost. Some moms don't like to use use bleach but if the diapers already moldy not much is going to kill the mold this point. My suggestion is add 1/4 cup bleach in the dispenser or in the tub once it fills with water not directly on diaper with the regular detergent hot wash followed with a few rinses should fix the problem.

If you really hate bleach then try some oxyclean on hot and ass a few drops of GSE to the detergent dispenser and sun it. I find though bleach (I hate using it myself) is the most effective and fastest method of removing mold and mildew from diapers. To prevent future occurrences of forgotten diaper syndrome I suggest you get that diaper into the pail asap we throw ours in front of the washing machine because I cant forget them that way. When were almost home I remove the wetbag and place it on the top of the diaper bag so I won’t miss it.

Bio: Megan is the mother of three who lives in Socal.


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