Cloth Diapers and Day Care?

[ldeliberato]

Hey Everyone!

I'm new to this forum, but have been popping in to read people's opinions since my husband and I found out we were pregnant in September.

My question may have already been talked about and I apologize if I missed it, but am hoping to hear your opinions ;)

I want to use cloth diapers for multiple reasons, which was all a part of the plan as I wanted to stay at home full time. However, I'm now thinking I will need to work at least part time. Do you think it is possible to still do cloth diapers with the baby in day care? I don't know what kind of day care we will be looking at (one step at a time ;). If any of you has had experience is this I would love to hear how it went for you!

Thanks!!

[samstress]

we put dd in a montessori when she was one and they happily accepted her (cloth diapers and all). 

i was told by a few places that they couldn't do cloth "due to licensing issues" which i'm guessing is a bunch of nonsense (they're all licensed by the same agency).  i politely said, "thank you for your time" and went elsewhere.

hopefully you won't have trouble finding a place that can accommodate you.

Edited by samstress - 12/22/10 at 7:30am

[~Katie~]

Moving to diapering

[KarenMT]

I've had two DDs that I cloth diapered.  I have had babysitters/nanny's here at the house as I work from home so a slightly different situation.  What I found with caregivers is that 1) a lot of people have no idea what modern cloth diapering entails.  2) The more straightforward you can make it the better.  What I have typically done is use pre stuffed pocket diapers with disposable liners laid in them.  If you show someone who has never dealt with a cloth diaper a pocket dipe with the velcro tabs and the disposable liner they are usually pretty amazed.  In their mind cloth diapering is prefolds, pins and rubber pants.  I then show how with a soiled diaper they just dispose of the liner and put the rest of the diaper in the daily wet bag.  At my home I've used cloth wipes but with a day care I'd just say to use disposable wipes as cloth wipes get a bit messy for poopy changes.  I've yet to have a sitter or even DH have an issue with a pocket dipe.

[kanga1622]

We use an in home daycare provider and she has no problem using our cloth diapers. We went over and showed her the basics a day or two before he went the first time. We use cloth wipes and send prestuffed pockets. We send two wet bags (one for the diapers, one for the wipes) and then DH separates everything for washing when we get home. We also send a third wet bag for dirty clothes since he will occasionally have a poopy blow out or decide to dump milk down his shirt.

I think you will just have to ask and be upfront. When we started calling for DCP, we found more than one that was willing to try it. We never called centers because I had already decided that was our last resort (DH worked in a center here and I didn't like the rotating personnel model that all the centers in town use).

We have had no issues with our diapers and she is always open to us when we have questions and asks us when she is stumped. We told her what snap setting we use so she started with that but then has switched it up a bit as we've increased the stuffing in our daycare dipes (he actually naps there so they needed a little more soaking power).

[camprunner]

I did it for both of mine at daycare centers. They weren't happy about it at all but both of mine were very sensitive to sposies.  One thing I did with my second was to never put in her a disposable. I then took her to her 6 week check up with our family doctor and told him that the only diaper I'd put on her where she didn't break out in a rash was a cloth diaper. He wrote me a doctor's note for the daycare. She did start breaking out when they insisted on using disposable wipes and I had bought the allergy free ones!   They definately believed me after one day when they changed her diaper and she was fine. The next thing, they offered to change her before I took her home and she had a huge blister on her bottom! They didn't doubt me after that.

Do be wear of a daycare that says they have to because it's the law though. One of them that i put dd1 in, told me that and then tried like heck to get rid of us. It got to the point where I didn't trust them to keep her and we moved her.

[Evergreen]

My kids didn't go to daycare until they were out of diapers but this one will be going at 3 months old. Luckily, I had talked to my youngest's daycare director well before even thinking of getting pregnant and asked if she would take a cloth kiddo. She said it would be no problem, they'd just bag up the dirty diapers and store them with the soiled clothes and the parents would be responsible for taking them home and washing. They see a lot of potty accidents having about 20 toddlers daily so dealing with poopy underwear isn't that much different than poopy cloth diapers would be.

[dayiscoming2006]

If you get pockets, you might wanna get some sleeve style pockets so you don't have to take the inserts out hours after they've been soiled or peed on. Just a thought I had. :) 

[ldeliberato]

Thank you all so much!! Great advice and good things to look out for!

[Virginia884]

I am an admin at a daycare center and am dealing with this for my own soon to be daughter. My center will do cloth for her, even though in the past (before me and the other current admins) other staff were told it wasn't "allowed by the state". That is BS and totally incorrect.

Many state licensing organizations actually say that you MUST use cloth diapers if the parents want, or if a doctor's note or religious exemption is presented. I googled for the Ohio daycare standards, and while I didn't find anything explicitly saying them must do it if you want, I did find guidelines that talk about what the center must do with dirty cloth diapers until parents take them home at night. You might have to provide the dry pail for them to use at the center, but that's a small price to pay. Therefore, I HIGHLY doubt cloth diapering at a licensed home or center in Ohio is "illegal" or whatever. Educate yourself before you talk to possible centers. You might end up knowing more than they do about the regulations! Hope that helps! 

ETA: Guess my link was bad... here's the text I found

5101:2-12-15.2 Diapering and Toilet Training for Licensed Child Care Centers

CCCMTL 3

Effective Date: September 1, 2007 (No Change)

Most Current Prior Effective Date: September 1, 2007

(A)      Diapering shall be handled in conformity with the following methods.

(7)      Soiled diapers to be laundered at the center shall be stored in an appropriate germicidal solution, out of the reach of children, until laundered. If a commercial laundering service is used, soiled diapers shall be held for laundering for no more than five consecutive days. Soiled cloth diapers from home shall be stored in an individual plastic lined, covered container and sent home daily.

Edited by Virginia884 - 12/30/10 at 5:39pm

[Galatea]

Do not ask them on the phone b/c they often lie about it.  Bring a simple pocket or AIO diaper with you when you tour the center.  Say, "BTW, this is what we use.  I am sure you will be fine with it!" and then demonstrate changing the baby.  There is no law banning cloth - they just don't know about modern cloth and are lying out of laziness.

[blackbird13]

I was actually surprised at how little problem we had finding a daycare that would be ok with cloth diapers.  The only stipulation was that we had to bring some sort of sealable pail to put the diapers in--not a problem at all.  I expected it to be a fight, but (at least in our community, which is a little on the hippie-liberal side) we had no resistance at all.  Moral of the story?  Don't be afraid to ask, you might be surprised!

[Mosaic]

I found several centers who wouldn't due to "health care regulations", even when I showed them a printout of the regulations showing that they could. So yes, some don't want to deal with "the hassle", but I would never, ever recommend you just show up with cloth and expect them to be happy about it. That trivializes their concerns when it's just as easy to recognize and address those concerns in a manner that set you up for a positive parent/caregiver relationship.

I found a couple of centers that would happily do cloth! And it doesn't have to be the expensive, dummy-proof kind, either: we use prefolds, covers, and snappis. We bring them back and forth daily in a small wetbag which gets put in a locked cabinet with the wipes, etc. (In my state anyway, if you do provide a pail, it needs to be out of the children's reach or otherwise childproofed, and depending on the room set-up and space restrictions, that may not work). Regulations do stipulate the number of wipes that need to be used per wet and soiled diaper, so we use disposable wipes at daycare for that reason. Also, here they cannot do anything other than bundle the diapers up (so no removing poop/liners for disposal elsewhere), so we need to do that to the extent possible at home. It's helpful to talk to them beforehand to figure out exactly what they need to make it easier on them.

[Galatea]

Originally Posted by Mosaic 

I found several centers who wouldn't due to "health care regulations", even when I showed them a printout of the regulations showing that they could. So yes, some don't want to deal with "the hassle", but I would never, ever recommend you just show up with cloth and expect them to be happy about it. That trivializes their concerns when it's just as easy to recognize and address those concerns in a manner that set you up for a positive parent/caregiver relationship.
 

This is not what I said.  I said "take them when you tour the center."  They will often say no on the phone b.c they are imagining flats and pins.  Taking them in person when you are touring several centers BEFORE your child is enrolled is very different.

[Mosaic]

Originally Posted by Galatea 

Originally Posted by Mosaic 

I found several centers who wouldn't due to "health care regulations", even when I showed them a printout of the regulations showing that they could. So yes, some don't want to deal with "the hassle", but I would never, ever recommend you just show up with cloth and expect them to be happy about it. That trivializes their concerns when it's just as easy to recognize and address those concerns in a manner that set you up for a positive parent/caregiver relationship.
 

This is not what I said.  I said "take them when you tour the center."  They will often say no on the phone b.c they are imagining flats and pins.  Taking them in person when you are touring several centers BEFORE your child is enrolled is very different.

My comment wasn't a slam against yours but rather because I've experienced the opposite problem! They say they have no problems with CDing on the phone, in the tour, and during the application process because they want to fill that slot. But then when a slot opens up, you put down the money and then visit once again before your first day, all of a sudden CDs are a no-go. That's why I make it a point to talk to the director, assistant director, teacher and assistant teacher to make sure everyone is on the same page long after the tour but before the first day.

[Agatha_Ann]

Health regs can be really tricky...I know in my state (I'm a liscensed provider) I am allowed to CD at my facility, but I will only do so if the parents take the diapers home each night. True, the state does not require that it be done that way, I could store them here, I could even launder them here. I personally do not have an area where I could legally store soiled diapers. I also do not have the time (and off the clock with my own utilities) to launder them.

My point is that facilities saying they cannot CD due to heath regulations may not just be "lazy or lying". The regulations are applied differently depending on your set-up. In my case, I do allow CD, but the state requires soiled dipes to go home in individual wet bags, diaper and wipes from that change together. Theoretically, I am allowed by the state to store soiled diapers here, but seeing as I don't have the means, I *would* be breaking health codes. I suppose you could say I am lazy that I don't want to wash more diapers than I already do.

[GISDiva]

Just wanted to chime in and say it definitely is possible.  The two centers we toured both said "sure", even though one of them had no clue what modern cloth diapers were like until we told them (I wish I had brought one along, I made sure my friend did when she was later in the same hunt!).  And the center we chose actually already had one boy before ours in cloth, so it wasn't even new territory for them.  They've been wonderful about them and continue to be so.

The center that's down the street however?  They have an actual policy in place already so if parents ask they can just point to their book and say "no".  A friend of mine wants to CD with her second and they flat out refused, no ifs, ands, or buts.  (Or butts.  Ha!)

So it's a total mixed bag in my area, which isn't really very crunchy at all.

[ldeliberato]

Virginia 884: Thank you so much for posting that info! I feel much more prepared as we begin searching out day care places!

GISdiva: I really appreciated you sharing your experience. Thankfully where we live is a bit of a crunchy area. I think we'll just have to look in the right areas and should be good to go. Well, at least that's what i'm assuming ;)