Showing posts with label Daycare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daycare. Show all posts

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!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Daycare and Cloth Diapers?

When our daughter was born in 2004, we never planned to use cloth diapers. After a couple of months, she developed a rash that we couldn’t get to go away. We never dreamed of using cloth, but we were getting desperate, so we decided to give it a try.

We started purchasing a variety of different diapers to try and we quickly realized how much we preferred using cloth. She was attending a daycare center full-time and after we realized how much it helped her rash by using cloth at home, we approached the teacher in the newborn room about using cloth diapers.

I started out by bringing in a pocket diaper (already stuffed) to show her how easy it would be. I also explained to her that it was for a “medical” reason because of her reaction to disposable diapers. She was very impressed with the diaper example that I brought to her and she said that she would discuss it with the director and nurse who consulted with this daycare center.

A few days later, her teacher asked me to come in and talk to the nurse about it. The nurse said that it would be fine for them to use cloth diapers, but they had 3 requirements:

#1 – The diapers had to be easy to use. They had to be one piece: Either a pre-stuffed pocket diaper, or an all-in-one diaper.

#2 – We had to supply a diaper pail to bring home every evening and return every morning.

#3 – They would only agree to try using cloth for 3 months and they would reevaluate after the three months were up if they were having any issues.

We were ecstatic! I purchased nine diapers and a pail bag for them to store the diapers in during the day.

After the first day, the teacher raved about how much she loved the diapers! They used them happily and told other parents about them too. One of the best features of cloth diapers are they keep the mess inside the diaper. Before we started using cloth at daycare, my daughter would come home just about every day in a different outfit because she had a diaper explosion. Once they started using cloth diapers, the explosions stopped. Whenever I hear of a daycare provider saying that cloth diapers are unsanitary, I shake my head because that statement couldn’t be farther from the truth!

Hope Wilson - Owner of Happy Tushies

http://www.happytushies.com

 

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