Help, anyone run a natural daycare?

[ghostlykisses]

I am working on getting my home daycare up and running. Right now I have one family (allowed by law) to help pay the bills while I get going. I first started out going mainstream with everything but as I go along I find I am unhappy with that.

I am going to phase out a lot of the yucky plastic toys made with who knows what from China. But that is a really sloooooow process. I want to go for more Waldorf style toys.

My question is really how do I get past all the stupid rules with out breaking my ethical rules?

The laws seem to tell me I must use paper towels. I can avoid them in the bathroom by giving each child their own towel which I am making myself. I do not want to use paper towels in other areas though because I stopped using them a year ago and hate going back to them, they are such an expense and wasteful.

Another one is cleaning products. I use an eco friendly dish soap to hand wash the dishes and then I dry them on the heat setting in the dishwasher. We are supposed to use the dishwasher but it does not clean things well at all and I have not been happy with any of the eco friendly soaps. I wonder if vinegar will be ok under the rules as a general cleaner?

There are two rules I don't think I can find a way around. The first one is wasting trash bags. I am supposed to use a can liner each day and throw away the bag of diapers each day. That seems like such a waste because I know the bag will not be full (I wish I had clients with cloth diapers!). The other rule I can't figure out a legal way around is the sanitary glove rule. I am supposed to use gloves anytime I am dealing with a body fluid including diaper changes. If I end up having several un-potty-trained toddlers in my care that is an awful lot of gloves each day! Not to mention they are uncomfy and get in the way. Even just having to use them for vommit, blood, or even poop would not be as bad. We have to wash our hands anyway between kids, ect. I would rather just wash my hands well between kids!!!

And how may I ask do you sanetize wood or natural objects that will make the state health dept people happy? I know they can be put in the sun and cleaned with vinegar but will that pass muster? The sun is probably a bad choice here in Florida, in a month everything will have faded and beached

[talia rose]

What you are doing is awesome!!!!!

You can try Bio-Bags which are made from non-GMO corn instead of petroleum plastic and are completely bio-degradeable. At least then you won't be wasting petroleum plastic which takes like 50,000 years to break down each day. I don't know anyone who actually uses gloves all the time but it would be good to have them around for inspections....

if vinegar doesn't pass their requirements you can look into a hydrogen peroxide bleach like those made by Seventh Generation or Ecover. That should pass.....

GOOD LUCK!!!!

[ASusan]

Can you use plastic grocery bags as the can liners? Just a very small can. And if you don't have enough (or any), I bet that your parents will bring some in for you.

[zoebird]

first, i think that you won't have too much trouble if you just do what you know will work logically. most of the law is fairly logical.

for example, the point of using paper towels is so that they are one-use. this is believed to be more sanitary than a rag because people tend to use in a multi-use fashion. so, if you have a *lot* of wash cloths marked to be "one use" rags, and can demonstrate how they are used in a one-use fashion (as a paper towel would), then that would very likely demonstrate that you understand the reasoning for the use of paper towels over rags. KWIM?

In our business-- which is a holistic health center-- i am transitioning us from a disposable process to a reuse process. obviously, the practitioners are used to changing sheets/towels between clients, and wiping down equipment. in the past, a regular spray and paper towels were used. now, we use wash cloths (i provide cloths in each room for each client--10 each day, even though the practitioners see no more than 8 people a day on average).

one of our practitioners is also a workplace health and safety expert, and she asserted that this complies with the legal standards for cleanliness (and in fact, we exceed them because the practitioners are not required to wipe down equipment between, but i ask them to anyway), even though it doesn't "read to the letter" of the law.

i think the gloves issue isn't too big of a deal. i would get as natural as i can, and just go from there.

[Magelet]

latex is natural, and I beleive biodegradable (and thus compostable in city compost). You should check the specific gloves you use, and if you have a kid with latex allergy it won't fly, but at least if you HAVE to use gloves, you should be able to compost them.

In our commercial kitchen (not a daycare, but I imagine some of the same things might apply...), we use vinegar as a sanitizer for everything except raw meat where we use diluted bleach. We also use rags, that one time use only, before being washed.

I would try to find out who your inspector will be, and talk to them about whether some work arounds might work. Like one time use cloth rags (reused after a sanitizing hot wash), vinegar or sun to sanitize toys (it doesn't take that long to sanitize toys in the sun, and if they're wood they shouldn't fade too much as compared to plastic)

[zebra15]

I can address some of your questions.
1. trust me you do NOT want a trash can of stinky diapers sitting around your house overnight. You will be taking those out at the end of the day. Some of the extra stinky diapers you may take out immediately.
2. I have never used gloves for diaper changes. I ran a daycare for a while and DS has been in a homedaycare for the better part of 9 years and none of the providers used them either. The providers probably had gloves around for the 'checks' but thats it.
3. They can not make you use a dishwasher, many people wont have one.

[dinahx]

Hydrogen Peroxide solution 1:9 is exactly equal to Chlorine Bleach. I ran a natural daycare and worked out this solution with the environmental engineer for the school district.

The requirements are kills HIV & HepB and Hydrogen Peroxide meets those, Vinegar does not.

I would never not use gloves for diaper changes. I used to go cowboy a looong time ago and I got an infection in my finger.

[SageR]

I think you should be fine washing by hand and then using the dishwasher with high heat. The dishwasher gets hot enough to sanitize which is the end goal anyway so as long as you are using it at some point you should be fine.

As far as paper towels I think as long as whatever cloth you use is single use and also gets some kind of sanitizing - in the wash or via the dryer - that should be fine too. I have a few different kinds of cloths I use - napkins for meals, wash cloths for cleaning tables, handtowels for big messes, and cut up fabric in place of paper towels (don't bother making anything or trying to have one towel per kid, they won't be able to keep track and they're much more messy than we are, they need multiples! just go to the thrift store and get some sheets to cut up- flannel is awesome). Everything gets used once and thrown in a basket to be washed that night. The kids pick this system up pretty quick and boy do they love using the cloths so it is extra nice to not be throwing everything away! I will admit on the rare occasion that we have something really nasty whatever we use gets tossed, but that doesn't happen often.

For cleaner I have one bottle with a soap/water mixture to clean and then one with hydrogen peroxide/water to sanitize. Just get the hydrogen peroxide from the first aid aisle, it is much cheaper than the Seventh Generation stuff.

I don't use gloves but I only have my own son in diapers. I think I'd at least have a box around just in case of an inspection. I think you can get small, bathroom can sized garbage bags, or use grocery store bags if you can't afford the biodegradable ones (I do use those in my kitchen, I think they're pretty pricey but we don't go through them very fast).

I don't worry a single bit about sanitizing toys. If a mouther gets one I'll give it a wipe down and set it in the sun for a bit but I really think making sure the kids wash their hands is a much more effective way of keeping them from spreading germs. I was a preschool teacher for 6 years and have been babysitting for 2 - I had a 95-100% attendance rate the entire time even in flu/cold season, and now my kids are rarely sick. I had/have almost exclusively wooden and fabric toys which rarely got/get cleaned. But I am really diligent about making sure the kids washed their hands after every bathroom break, thumb suck, nose pick, etc. Just plain old homemade soap and warm water. The practical point of sanitizing toys is so the kids aren't sick and if you can accomplish this in a different way then...I'm not telling you to lie but I would just point out that you have a dishwasher that can sanitize and leave it at that...

One more thing - I wouldn't worry too much about these few regs. For one thing, inspections are few and far between. I never met a single person from the state the entire time I was teaching and have had only one visit here at my home. For another, there are a lot of things they look at, and they won't shut you down for something like using cloth towels. They were way more interested in physical safety type stuff like choking hazards, gates, outlet covers. The worst thing that might happen is they tell you to get the disposable stuff.

Best wishes, it is a really nice thing to be able to make money and stay true to your ideals, and your future families will thank you!

[basje]

a few idea's

A good nontoxic disinfectant is hydrogen peroxide, just stick some in a dark spray bottle and you can do toys, counter tops ect. Easy as pie and no smell. Effective enough to use even after raw meats.

My cousin works at a daycare center in Sacramento CA, and she was telling me that they use cloth diapers on the kids. Although none of the children CD at home, they arrive in plastic but are changed into cloth and kept in it all day until they are picked up by their parents. Interestingly they do not because of the benefits of CD for the children but to be a "green business." I thought this was totally random but neat.

The cloth toys that you are replacing the plastic can be washed with super hot water daily along with blankets and towels. 100% silicone and rubber toys (like Sophie the Giraffe) can be run in the dishwasher.

[thatgirliknew]

Originally Posted by zoebird

for example, the point of using paper towels is so that they are one-use. this is believed to be more sanitary than a rag because people tend to use in a multi-use fashion. so, if you have a *lot* of wash cloths marked to be "one use" rags, and can demonstrate how they are used in a one-use fashion (as a paper towel would), then that would very likely demonstrate that you understand the reasoning for the use of paper towels over rags. KWIM?

.

I worked at a daycare in Kentucky and that is what we actually did. There were about 30 or so washcloths in a basket and we used those and then washed them each day. It passed inspection and things are usually a lot more strict in center-based daycares.