We stripped our diapers for the first time yesterday. I understand it's something you're supposed to do monthly or so as a part of regular maintenance, but we haven't had a big odor problem before. It's not too bad when we first take them off of her (though the night diaper can be intense) but now that we're down to washing every two days, the wave of ammonia smell that hits you when you open the pail to put the diapers into the machine is brutal. So we stripped them, which is basically a really thorough wash. Our normal wash for the diapers is pre-rinse, hot wash, then rinse, and we use about a third of the regular detergent amount. For the stripping, we started with clean diapers (after a regular wash), then did a regular cycle but with the full detergent amount. Then we rinsed maybe 6 times.
We used disposable diapers while we were in the US and I am really happy to be back home and using cloth again. Sure, there is the wonderful smug feeling, but the main reason for the happiness is that the fuzzibunz are just way way better at containing poo. I have not experienced the poo-up-the-back phenomenon with the fuzzibunz, but it felt like we experienced it every other day with the disposables. The disposables are great for the pee (you can go a lot longer before she is uncomfortable because it just absorbs so much), but they just cannot compete at the poo containment. And we're not that good at the elimination communication yet; I can usually get one poo per day in the toilet but the second one is less scheduled and it usually goes in the diaper.
