Cloth Diapers and Daycare- It is Easy!
Cloth Diapers and Daycare- It is Easy!
If your child will be going to daycare and you want to use
cloth, there are a few things you should know.
First off, there is no law in the state of California saying that cloth
diapers can’t be used at daycare.
Actually, the section below specifically mentions cloth diapers as a
type of diaper used (as well as elimination communication, or not wearing
diapers!):
This is taken from the Childcare Licensing Requirements from
the state of California:
101428
INFANT CARE PERSONAL SERVICES 101428
(a) There shall be
a written toilet-training plan for infants being toilet trained.
(1) The infant's
authorized representative and the director or the assistant director shall
develop the
plan.
(2) The plan shall
include the following:
(A) Methods of
toilet training;
(B) Introduction
and use of appropriate training equipment; and
(C) Introduction
and use of appropriate clothing.
(3) Infants who are being toilet trained shall not be
required to wear diapers unless specifically
indicated in the plan.
(4) The center shall follow the plan in toilet training the
infant.
(5) Center staff
shall have ready access to the toilet-training plan for infants in their care.
(b) The infant
shall be kept clean and dry at all times.
(1) The infant care
center shall ensure that the infant has sufficient changes of clothing and
diapers
so that his/her
clothing and diapers can be clean and dry at all times.
(2) Each infant's
clothing and diapers shall be changed as often as necessary to ensure that the
infant
is clean and dry at
all times.
(c) Soiled or wet clothing or cloth diapers provided by
the infant's authorized representative shall be placed in an airtight container
and returned to the authorized representative at the end of each day.
(1) The airtight container shall prevent the escape of
fluids and odors and be portable enough to give
to the authorized representative.
(d) When changing
an infant's diapers, the following shall apply:
(1) Each infant
shall be diapered on a changing table.
(A) No infant shall
be left unattended while on a changing table.
CALIFORNIA-DSS-MANUAL-CCL
MANUAL LETTER NO. CCL-98-11 Effective 11/1/98
Page 168
CHILD CARE CENTER
Regulations GENERAL LICENSING REQUIREMENTS 101428
101428
INFANT CARE PERSONAL SERVICES (Continued) 101428
(2) Infants may be
diapered on a changing pad placed on the floor that meets the requirements of
Section 101439(h).
(3) Soiled disposable diapers shall either be disposed of
as recommended on the packaging or placed
in an airtight container for daily disposal outside of
the center.
(A) Containers
shall be sanitized daily.
(4) Soiled cloth diapers shall be placed in an airtight
container.
(5) Diapers provided by the center, when soiled, shall be
rinsed, washed and sanitized on a daily
basis. If a diaper service is utilized, the diapers shall
be placed in the diaper service company
container, as instructed,
for pickup by the diaper service.
There you have it! As
long as you have a wet bag that’s airtight (one with a zipper) you will be
within your rights. Now, not all
daycares might be jumping for joy at the thought of having to change cloth
diapers because they may not know much about it and think it’s a lot of
work. This is where YOU can educate them
and alleviate their fears.
First off, when looking for a daycare, I would recommend finding
one you like and then asking them if they do cloth. If they say “yes”, then great! You are good to go. More likely they might say something like “I
never have, but would be open to finding out what it entails” or “no, I’m
sorry.” Let’s take it one at a time.
If you call a daycare you like to find out about cloth and are
told that they never have had a child with cloth, but might be willing, you are
in a great position because you can show them how easy it is. The goal here is to make it as easy as
possible for the daycare owner/workers so that they do not resent using cloth. I would recommend using all in ones for daycare
such as Cottonbabies Freetimes, Blueberry Simplex, or Tots Bots Easy Fits. These are all really easy diapers for a
person to put on- the easiest will be the Velcro/aplix ones since these are
most like a disposable diaper and what the people are used to, but snaps are ok too if you show
them how it works and they are able to
get the right fit. With a one-size
diaper you will want to make sure that you’ve presnapped the diaper to the
right fit setting so that they aren’t trying to figure out which size will fit
your child.
You can also use pockets, which are just as easy, but will need
to prestuff the diapers so that the daycare isn’t having to deal with
that. Another option might be to use a
hybrid diaper like Grovia or Softbums, where the person has the shells and
would just have to snap/unsnap pods, but it’s one more small step for them to
have to do so you might not want to jump into these until they are used to
cloth. Lastly, you could use prefolds/covers, but this is more advanced and not
as self-explanatory, so I wouldn’t recommend this route unless it’s a family
member watching or if the daycare is really open to using cloth and willing to
figure these out.
If you have a toddler, you can use cloth trainers. Depending on how far your little one is in the potty training process, you might want to start off with Flip trainers, and then progress to the Blueberry trainers, which are closer to underwear.
If you really want to send your child somewhere and the daycare
owner tells you that they do not do cloth, I would ask them why they don’t. If
it’s a private daycare, they can choose not to and that’s within their right
(if they are so close minded with this, then you might not want to send your
child there anyway!) Their reason might
be that it’s unsanitary or that they don’t have time for that (trying to think
of reasons they might say but it’s difficult!)
In this case you want to educate the person about how easy cloth can be.
First, I would ask if you can meet and show them the cloth diapers
you want to use. They might have the
impression that by cloth you mean prefolds and pins, and maybe they haven’t
seen any cloth diapers recently and don’t realize how much the industry has
advanced. All it might take is them
seeing a diaper and this could change their mind. Another worry might be that they don’t want
to deal with poop and that things will stink.
If they are really against dumping poop in the toilet, you can opt to
just have them take the entire diaper and put it in a wet bag. When you get home you can dump the stool- the
negative to this is that your diapers will be more likely to stain, but you can
sun your diapers or use a stain stick to clean, or do a quick rinse. There will be no reason, if you tell them
they can just take the diaper off and stick it in the bag, for them to have
more work or deal with stink since your wet bag will be stinkproof (the Planetwise or Thirsties ones are excellent at keeping smells/liquids IN the bag).
So what do you need if you plan on using cloth diapers at
daycare?
First, figure out how many diapers your little one goes through
each day. For newborns/infants it is
probably around 10-12 and as they get older, might be more like 5-8. I recommend bringing enough diapers to
daycare for at least 2 days, but if budget is an issue, you could bring diapers
each morning (just make sure you don’t forget!)
Once you have a number in mind, let’s say 16 diapers, you will need to
provide the diapers. Velcro will be your
best bet for daycare diapers. Then each
day when you go home, you can just take your wet bag of diapers.
You’ll want a good way to transport the diapers to daycare. A tote bag/diaper bag will work fine for
this.
Next, make sure you have a wet bag large enough to hold all the
day’s diapers. Again, depending on how
many diapers your little one goes through and how long your baby is at daycare,
you’d want a bag ranging from a small one (for 1-2 diapers), to a large
one. Make sure it has a zipper. A drawstring one might be acceptable for the
facility, but for it to truly be leak/smell-proof, it should be able to close
all the way. I recommend buying at least
2-3 wet bags so that you can use a new one each day and was every 2 days.
Lastly, you will want to provide the daycare with a cloth
diaper-safe cream. There are many that
work great including CJ’s Butter, Motherlove, Delish, Lusa, Grovia, etc. If you want to make things really easy and
mess-free, I’d recommend a stick version of the cream so that they can just
glide the cream on as needed.
*If you want to add liners, that’s another option. Grovia, Eco Sprout, and Bummis all make
disposable liners (Rumparooz has washable ones) that are flushable that you
could use to help with poop messes. You
just cut off a piece and lay it in the diaper.
Once it’s soiled, you take it off and dump the entire mess. This will keep your diapers cleaner with less
staining.
Cloth diapering at daycare IS a possibility and is easy. Once the daycare providers see this, they
will be more open to using cloth!
