Monday, July 5, 2010

Cloth at Daycare


Hi, I am Sharni of Nappy Shoppe. My youngest son, Braden, is still in cloth diapers. Although, at 2 he is starting to train. Recently he started going to a Mothers Day Out program at the local church a couple of mornings a week. He goes to the same one his older brother went to a couple of years ago. So when I called to book him in, I said, he is in cloth, is that a problem? Given that the coordinator is a good friend who has watched my business grow, I think she felt obligated to say that it was fine. I do wonder if she worried that it would be tough to do.

So given I had heard from others who had been told that they were NOT welcome to bring cloth to their day cares, I decided to make it as easy as possible for Braden's new caregivers. I didn't want them turning around saying that it was too messy or too hard to do.

So we raided Daddy's stash of diapers (You can read about Braden's Daddy here). Daddy's stash consists of AIO (All in One Diapers) with Aplix/Velcro closures. These are the simplest diapers I believe to use and remove. There is no stuffing before hand or afterward.

I then "purchased" a double wet bag for myself. I love these double wet bags. You can read my review on them here. But the big thing I wanted was a single carry bag for Braden's diapers, a change of clothes and dirties. This bag has two large pockets. Each closed with a zipper of a different colour. So I was able to tell them in the case of Braden's bag, that blue was clean and brown was for dirties. In the clean side I loaded up three diapers ready to go and a change of clothes. I hung a double wipes pouch to the bag (it matches by the way) and put several dry cloth wipes in the blue side. They have access to water there so they don't need to be made wet for them. But if I know I am going somewhere where I don't have easy access to wetting my wipes, I can pre-wet them and have them ready to go for the day.

So on our first day, off we went. Braden wearing his mini starwars backpack with his lunch in it (which included a stainless steel bottle with sippy adaptor) and with me carrying my double wet bag. The double wet bag is brown with blue paisley, so it looks like a decorative bag. We didn't need any other bag because the wet bag held all he needed for the day except his lunch.

I explained the zipper concept to the "teacher". She said it looked simple enough. So off I go to run errands without an active 2 year old in tow. And boy did I get a lot done!

Several hours later, I pick up Braden, who incidentally is having a ball playing with the other children. I asked his teacher, did all go well with the cloth diapers. And she says she was surprised how easy it was. How cute the diapers were, and that the bag system worked great!

The next time we go, he wet through everything however. I figure out they are so used to using disposables they are not changing him as frequently as I would at home. So I had to adjust the diapers that were being sent with him. I chose Monkey Doodlez AIO diapers. Because of the fabrics that are used in this diaper, they last longer than some of my other AIO's that only have a microfiber inner. It still closes with Aplix, still easy to use, just means that if they do not change him as often as I do, his clothes will not be wet through. The other thing I have sent is a Thirties DUO diaper stuffed for nap time with two inserts. And because I don't have to unstuff this diaper, I can just empty the wet bag into the pail without having to do anything else.

So its now about 2 months of going to Mothers Day Out for Braden at time of writing. And a new teacher started this week in the room next door, and I overhear his teacher is telling the new one all about these wonderful cloth diapers!

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