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An anonymous asked the following question in the comments. I have a feeling a lot of others are wondering the same thing:
"Assuming not all of us here are stay-at-home moms, how do you work cloth diapering around Daycare? I know that alot of them don't allow cloth for sanitary reasons."
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Baby Cheapskate by Angela Wynne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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31 comments:
I was wondering the same thing. I constantly tell my husband that if I was a SAHM, I would totally do cloth diapers. I'm curious on how others deal with this situation.
when you throw in disposables 9 hours of the day, it certainly messes with the thriftiness of using cloth, but I'm a HUGE cloth advocate.
My day care is disposables only. They allow for cloth with a medical notice of allergy, but otherwise it's disposable only, and I'm not one to raise a fuss. I've even asked if they'll use gdiapers, but it's a no.
As I understand it, here is their reasoning: Day cares can receive a multitude of accreditations past the basic CPS "ok" and health code minimums. In order to receive some of these accreditations, there are some bigger health code hoops to jump through than just putting a dirty cloth diaper into a wet bag and then the wet bag into the cubby. Cloth can add numerous steps in the changing process for a day care.
It certainly cuts into the "bottom" (sorry) line from an economic standpoint to use disposables at daycare and cloth at home, but from an environmental standpoint you're still saving literally tons of landfill space.
IMO there's no reason for CD to be all-or-nothing.
In-home daycares are a lot more likely to allow cloth (mine does). I've also seen bigger daycares/preschools that allow it, as well.
Also, you can use biodegradable disposables while you're at daycare, which can help you feel less guilty about the poundage of evil plastics and gels you're putting into landfills.
I figure when we go to cloth, it will not be all-or-nothing. I'll still toss a disposable in for chruch to deal with so they don't have to worry about cloth, etc.
Gdiapers or Nature's Baby Care are a happy medium if your daycare won't allow cloth. Gdiapers can be flushed so they're not filling up landfills, and Nature's Baby Care can be composted (if no poop). So at least they're not plastic...
We use 7th Gen disposable dipes at daycare, but I think they are warming up to the idea of cloth dipes. I once "accidentally" left my daughter in cloth diaper. They checked out the BGs and thought "pretty cool". ;)
If parents push it, I think things could change. Just don't expect them to wash your diapers. I mean, I would think they would be all for having less garbage to throw out.
My home daycare does them, and most of the centers we interviewed also allowed them. It really wasn't as big of a deal as we thought it would be.
I don't think they require any more work that a disposable diaper change. Change the diaper and throw it in our wetbag instead of the trash. We deal with the separating (pocket dipes) and washing.
We started w/ Fuzzi Bunz when my 13 month old was just a few weeks old. I too dreaded him starting daycare because of the high cost of disposables and dealing w/ diaper rash from the disposables. We live in central FL and the center's policy states to supply disposables for your child, but doesn't specifically state no cloth. I checked out FL laws for daycares and found that cloth diapers are permitted by law and decided to try to have the Fuzzi Bunz allowed. (I think most people honestly picture prefolds and plastic covers when they think of cloth!)
I started bringing my son to daycare each morning in a cloth diaper and then purposely changing the diaper in front of the teachers to a disposable before I left. After a few weeks, I would change the diaper to another Fuzzi Bunz (instead of a disposable) and leave a wet bag for them to place the dirty one in. I then left dispsables for the rest of the day. By this point, several of the teachers had started to get inquisitive about them. Then one day, I accidently on purpose brought the wrong diaper bag into daycare. Daycare got Fuzzi Bunz and I had a pack of disposables in the car just in case. Guess what! No phone calls, and I picked up my happy son 8 hours later who was wearing a clean Fuzzi Bunz!
Daycare bags each dirty cloth diaper and then puts it in my wet bag. They do not unstuff the pocket son it's an extra step for me at home, but a lot cheaper than disposables. They then store my diaper bag in the locked cabinet that parents leave their diaper bags in.
I used to keep a supply of 5 disposables at daycare in case a new teacher was in the room that wasn't familiar, but I stopped doing that 8 months ago.
All the teachers in the center know my son mostly because of his diapers, and I always get compliments about them.
Three days ago, my 13 month old lost the distinction of being the only child in cloth at the center. His 6 week old little brother started on Tuesday, and I didn't send a single disposable with him. The little guy was instantly recognized because he wa wearing his brother's outgrown smalls.
Since switching exclusively to cloth at daycare, I have had only one teacher complain and it was on my son's first day in the toddler room. Funny thing is that another teacher talked to her the next day, and she's had no problem ever since. I also have had one teacher almost ruin two diapers by using someone else's rash cream on my child. She saw that his bottom was a little red, thought that he was out of cream and slathered on someone else's for some strange reason. The bad part was that I am allergic to synthetic fragrances and didn't know te cream was on him until it was time for a change at a friend's house. I couldn't change my own son because of the smell, the diapers had to be stripped and my husband had to bathe him before I could even hold him again!!
If you haven't already asked and been turned down at daycasre, it can't hurt to try easing into it like I did. The worst they can do is tell you no.
There is nothing unsanitary about cloth. I don't get why people say this. In FL, the law says they have to flush solid matter. So, I will send flushable liners with my dipes. It cracks me up that they dont have to do this for sposies though.... poo is poo. Pretty sure this law was made with prefolds in mind b/c pockets and AIO fold up in little balls just like sposies. Makes no sense to do the extra step of flushing.
My center puts the sposies in a Diaper Champ that is in a pull out drawer on the changing table. My wet bag will go in the same drawer right next to the Champ. I don't think this requires any extra effort at all on their part. They initially wanted individual bags for the dipes so they didnt have to reach in and chance an encounter with soiled dipes. But, since they saw my wet bag is huge and zips, no problem.
My issue was with getting the idea rejected on the phone. Once I took a BG3.0 in to them, every one said no problem. I hate to say it but I can see prefolds/covers being turned away just from the perception of difficulty of use but pockets?? We need to keep asking until its common place. Also, know your state's regulations. Don't depend on the director's information. Be an informed consumer. There are ways to make it work.
My home daycare does them--and I use prefolds with covers. We just get a bag sent home with the dirties--no biggie!
My daycare was great with cloth. I supplied my own diaper pail and bag which they dumped each diaper in (I used prefolds and covers). Then each day I would take the diapers home and launder them myself. I used cloth until my daughter was 6 months and then switched to disposables because she started leaking all the time and I figured the amount of laundry I was doing was offsetting any benefit of reduced trash (with disposables).
If you use prefolds, you still can save yourself money by just doing cloth at home. I spent $100 in total for my supplies--12 prefolds, 2 covers, 3 vinyl pants, 2 snappis, 15 wipes, and a diaper pail and PUL liner. I only chose to do cloth for monetary reasons.
I became a SAHM four months ago and I do cloth only at home (wash every 2-3 days), so when we go out, we do disposables (we are out at least once every day, so we do a minimum of 2-3 disp a day). I've done it for four months and I've made my money back and then some!
If you do the same thing--just do cloth in the evenings and overnight--it might take you a little longer to realize your savings, but you will still cut $ off your bottom line!
If you save 4 diapers a night for 30 days (not including weekends where you could use them almost exclusively), that's nearly $20 (figuring 15 cents per diaper), so it would take you five months to break even.
I used to work in a nationally recognized daycare and I believe we did not allow cloth because of Health Dept. rules and daycares have to follow all HD rules to a "T"! No exceptions! So, check with your state health dept.
All the day cares I looked at said they would use my cloth diapers (I used Fuzzi Bunz). The day care I ended up using is great. They even dump the dirty ones for me before they go into the wet bag. And the diaper cream hasn't been an issue (the few times he needs it) - I use flannel liners, so whatever cream gets used doesn't get on the diapers.
Any ideas on laundering if you have to use a laundromat?
This may help (re: cd and laundromats):
http://tinyurl.com/5u3mwe
Strangely enough, when my son started his daycare the school required cloth diapers! We had to send him in cloth (prefold and wrap), and they would change him into a disposable for pick-up. That way the school had most of the responsibility for laundering (through a diaper service). It might not be surprising that the daycare was a montessori school. Regardless, it was a great introduction to cloth diapering--so easy. I haven't continued with cloth now that I'm a SAHM; however, I am seriously considering it for my second child in order to save money.
Our daycare center lets us use cloth diapers (we use BumGenius, fyi) and there have been no problems. The only difference is that they put our diapers in the wetbag instead of the trash bin.
No one had ever asked them about cloth diapers before, so the teachers were pleasantly surprised to learn about them. All the teachers love them, or at least it would seem from all the questions we have answered!
With my 3 month old we have committed to using cloth at home. If we can use cloth other places we do, but don't feel bad about using some disposables. Since the baby started at daycare(just a few weeks ago) we have been using disposables there and cloth (mostly prefolds) at home. We have asked and our daycare is willing to use cloth...now we are working on getting some AIOs and or pocket diapers so that we can go cloth almost all of the time. We found that once we explained how easy the AIOs are to use the daycare was more than willing to give it a try.
So glad you posed this question - I know I was concerned about this as we got ready to start daycare. We live in Maryland, and had been told by a few daycares that we toured that they didn't allow cloth due to state laws. Being the nerd that I am, I checked the MD state laws to see exactly what they said. And then I called someone to verify what I thought they said.
It turns out that the state laws didn't mandate disposable diapers, but rather that any dirty diapers be kept in a sealed container, regardless of whether they're cloth or disposable. Armed with that knowledge, we visited yet another day care center, and they didn't bat an eye when I mentioned that we had our son in cloth. Though it was no problem, we still had our own knowledge of the laws on our side. That helped a lot.
We send 4-6 diapers every day, along with a zippered wet bag, and we've also got a few disposables stored at day care, just in case. It's all worked out really well so far. Good luck to those who are looking into it!
When my daughter went to daycare, we used cloth at home and disposables at daycare. A family member keeps her now, and she will do cloth on the days that I remember to send them with her. Really, it's not big deal to do half-and-half -- we're still doing something that helps our environment.
I do know that when my son was in daycare and had just potty-trained, the workers were not allowed to empty out poop undies. I'd hate to have a pile of poop sit in my cloth diapers all day!
All-in-ones ("AIOs"). On and off just like a disposable, only washable! Dad and daycare favorites! I make these. Here's a link to what a typical AIO looks like : www.gonecloth.blogspot.com
I am in California and my daycare center has no problem using cloth diapers. We use Bum Genius diapers. When they change her they put her dirty diaper in a wet bag I provide (with a large zip lock bag inside to meet state health code regs) and each night I take them home.
When she started daycare I took a diaper with me when I asked them to use cloth so they could see how easy they are. Most state health code regs do allow the use of cloth diapers. I think the problem is the daycare itself not wanting to use them. They probably have visions of plastic pants, pins, and swishing diapers in the toilet when the hear the word cloth, that is why it is good to take a pocket or AIO to show them when you ask them to use cloth. I also threw in line about my daughter having sensitive skin but I think the would have had no problem regardless.
Our daycare makes you bring a container/ziploc for them to put the dirties in.
I used to work as an infant teacher for a daycare here in Minnesota. The center I worked for had no problems with cloth. The parents that chose to go this route used prefolds. They would bring in a stack of already folded cloth (aka: in thirds and folded over) and we would just place what was dirty in a plastic bag that we kept out of the way to avoid contamination.
Now- this was for an exclusively breast fed child and her father ended up being a SAHD before she was toddler aged, so I can't speak for what we would have done when she was older. But at the time we never had to rinse or anything- I would place particularly poopie cloths in separate bags just to keep it all clean.
This being said- I am now looking for childcare for my own child and I have come across centers that told me it was against the law to allow cloth in centers. I know this isn't true...but I can see how they would try to use that as back up for their own preference.
In the end your gonna come across places that are okay with it and places that are not. You just have to decide what you want.
Good luck!
For those who have to or choose to use disposibles... I have been loving my Nature Boy and Girl biodegradable diapers. Hubby did the math... they're only 3 cents more per diaper than Pampers and work just as well! You can order from the company site, but their shipping is really slow... we have had better luck with drugstore.com to order these from. Plus, we compost ALL of the diapers in our back yard, so no extra waste. Not quite as environmentally friendly as cloth, but better than regular disposables...
The State of Florida (where I live) prefaces their cloth diaper regulations with "When children require cloth diapers". My son's daycare is stringent about all of his dietary restrictions; it wouldn't surprise me if they require doctor's note indicating that the child cannot be in disposables due to allergy or other health reasons.
I'm good friends with several of the teachers, and while they're tolerant of cloth diapering (even the BumGenius, FuzziBunz, or Bummis varieties), it's really much more difficult for them to handle the feces in a timely manner (i.e., right after each change) because the student/teacher ratio is at least 4:1 (depends on age - this is the state standard for infants). So, to leave the room to flush the feces means calling in another teacher - whom may or may not be readily available - so that you can then go down the hall (because there isn't a bathroom attached to the classroom) to the closest restroom and properly dispose of the feces. It doesn't sound like a lot when you're just dealing with your own kids and you don't have surprise inspections from the state, but it's a lot to manage for the daycare staff.
With that in mind, when we made the switch to cloth diapers, we made a partial switch so that the teachers at daycare wouldn't need to mess with his cloth diapers (and my disposable budget has still decreased by 70%).
The other thing to keep in mind if you really want to keep your kid in cloth diapers while at daycare is to be really nice about it. Understand that these teachers have to go through some extra steps for you and your child because of this choice (and let's face it - CDs are a choice), so do something extra nice for them once a month or so. Bring in extra toys for the classroom or extra books or bring the teachers gift baskets of fruity anitbacterial soaps.
Just like every teacher knows which children they hope go to their classes when it's time to transition, they also know which ones they don't - and you don't want cloth diapering (or your behavior about it) to prejudice them against your kid! (And it happens... Trust me!
My daycare allows for cloth diapers (they are accredited). We provide the diapers and a wet bag and take them home everyday. It isn't any more difficult for them. They kept it next to the trash so they toss my diapers in the wet bag and the others in the trash. We also use FBs (Fuzzi Bunz) that are stuffed so it is just like slapping on a disposable, it just has snaps. I loved that my daycare was willing to accomodate.
As far as washing we do diaper laundry twice a week, Wed & Sun. When someone gets home they load the washer up and they are in the dryer before we go to bed. I really find cloth diapering to be very easy to do once you figure out your routine.
I had assumed my day care would not allow cloth diapers, but after doing some research online and about state regulations, I asked if they would allow cloth. They took a few months to think it over, talk to their nurse consultant, and write up a policy on cloth diapers. We will begin using cloth at day care within the next couple of weeks. I have to supply an airtight container for storage of the dirties, sanitize it at home every night, and provide 2 days worth of cloth dipes plus disposables for backup.
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