Cloth Diapering at Daycare

Today I am sharing a guest post by a friend and fellow cloth diaper mom.  I asked her to share her experience with using cloth diapers on her son who goes to daycare as I know this is something people are always asking about.  I have heard a lot of people say that the daycares they contact are not open to using cloth diapers but hopefully with a little education more will see it as an easy and sustainable option as well as a benefit to their parents.  One thing I always recommend when a daycare says they won't take cloth diapers is to ask if they would be open to you bringing some in to show them just how easy it is!

 

Cloth Diapers with a Home Daycare

 

We used a home daycare from the time my son was 12 weeks to 14 months. I specifically asked when we interviewed if she was open to using cloth diapers. I was interested in cloth diapering, but had not tried it myself, so I wasn’t sure if we would like it anyhow. She said that would be fine, as she has used them before with previous children. Each day I sent 4 already stuffed Rumparooz pocket snap diapers. She sent home all the dirty ones in the same wet bag and we repeated the process each day. I gave her a CJs butter stick to keep at her house if needed for diaper rashes. I sent cloth wipes as well, however she was not interested in using them. The process was very simple and we didn’t have any problems. 

Cloth with a Large Facility Daycare

For the last 6 months we have been using a center based daycare. Before enrolling I asked several times if they would be willing to cloth diaper and they said yes. They did not even blink an eye when I asked, so unfortunately I do not have advice on how to convince a daycare that they CAN and it is just as easy as disposable diapers. 

The challenge I have had with the larger facility has been in the form of the turn over in providers. He has at least 3-4 teachers a day and all but 1 has left and new ones have come, so thats a lot of people to teach. However,  they are very organized and have forms for everything, so I have just written specific instructions on his “medications” list (they need one for sunscreen use, diaper cream use, and any medications or food allergies) not to use diaper cream without a disposable insert. We are still working on this issue, as I think it has confused some of the teachers when to use it or not, so we usually end up in disposables for a few days until it is cleared. Luckily it doesn’t happen often though. I have toyed with using a cover and disposable inserts those days, but I don’t own enough covers at this point to do that. They also require the BM soiled diapers to be separate from the urine soaked diapers, so I send a separate small wet bag each day for that use. They requested I send 5 diapers a day, for one extra if needed. I still use the Rumparooz pocket diapers and have found that preparing the 5 wet bags on Sundays to take and go has been easiest for my family. We wash every other day or every 3 days depending on our schedule. I did not try to use cloth wipes with this daycare. 

We use cloth wipes and a variety of brands and styles at home, so laundry is interesting. Luckily my husband has come on board and loves using the diapers as much as I do, so he doesn’t mind helping with the laundry and stuffing.