Editor’s Note: So much has happened this month. I started work, my baby nephew was born, my own baby turned one, and we decided to start the process of buying our first home. Needless to say, my blog has taken a bit of a back seat. I hope to find more time soon, but at the moment, I need to get a few things in order and I need to figure out a new schedule that allows for some writing time. For now, I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. Christopher blogs over at Modern Man of the Cloth. (Check out that awesome header made by yours truly!) He is a husband, a Dad, and a pastor. He is also an avid cloth-diaper parent. Not only has he used cloth diapers on all three of his kids, he has also spent time helping out in an at-home daycare that his wife Meghan ran. I really wanted to post about how to continue cloth diapering even when your child is in daycare. With his experience, Christopher is the perfect person to write this while I am off calling contractors and signing home offers and sending my own kids to daycare.
“I think we should try cloth diapers.”
I was not prepared for this suggestion. We had only been married for one month and we were already expecting our first child. I knew almost nothing about babies or parenting and until that moment I didn’t even know they still made cloth diapers.
“I think we should try cloth diapers.”
Once I gathered myself up I cautiously voiced my main concern, “I don’t think that is a great idea, I don’t want to poke our baby with a safety pin”. Thankfully Meghan didn’t laugh at me for saying that. We talked it over and after looking at price comparisons and environmental comparisons I found myself saying;
“I think we should try cloth diapers.”
Three children later and I am still a diehard cloth diaper fan. We had weighed the options carefully and cloth diapering was the clear winner for our household. But there was one thing that we hadn’t considered when we first made our decision; How would future daycare providers react?
My wife and I have been on both sides of this issue. For one year Meghan ran an at home daycare before deciding to accept a position outside of the home. Here are some of the lessons that we have learned and benefits we didn’t expect;
Cloth Diaper Daycare Lessons Learned
Communication is Key – Cloth diapers tend not to have the same ‘tells’ that indicate a change is needed. They tend not to smell, they don’t get all droopy, they don’t change colour, etc. So talk to your daycare provider about the changing schedule you have developed. Everyone we talked to was happy to accommodate.
Send More Diapers Than You Think You Need – This should be a given, but it often isn’t. When we ran a daycare I hated having a child sitting in their last diaper knowing that Mom and Dad are not coming for another hour or more. I knew they had just been changed and in all likelihood wouldn’t need to be changed again, but what were we supposed to do if they did poop again? When we became daycare users I always sent 2-3 more diapers than I ever thought were needed.
Send your easiest to use cloth diapers – We are not very brand loyal when it comes to our diaper collection. Some of them have snaps, some have velcro, some are all-in-ones, some use inserts, some require a lot of folding, some require diaper covers, some are fitted, and some are one-size. I could go on but you get the idea. The more time you spend around cloth diapers the less overwhelming all of the differences appear. We chose to go easy on our daycare providers normally sending fitted all-in-ones. If we sent something different we always made sure the diapers were fully assembled and ready to use. (Editor’s Note: Hipkiddo Cloth Diapers are a great option to send to your daycare provider. Just stuff the diapers with the liners before packing them and give your daycare provider a quick tutorial of which snaps fit baby best!)
What Do We Do With The Poop? – All three daycares asked us, “what do we do with the poop?” For us the answer was always the same: “We flush it down the toilet , but you don’t have to worry about it. Just fold up the diaper the way you normally would with a disposable and place it in the reusable bag provided. When we get home will will rinse them.” This was simply a personal preference. We recognized that we chose to take on the extra work of cloth diapers for a variety of reasons. We didn’t want to pass that work along to someone else.
Benefits We Didn’t Expect
I Know How Often You Changed My Child – We have used three different daycare providers. The last two were both very good. Our first experience however was less than stellar. We felt that Ariella, who was six months old at the time, was getting ignored at daycare. One day our concerns were confirmed. At pickup time only one of the cloth diapers we sent came home dirty, and they were changing that diaper when we walked in. Because we use cloth diapers we discovered they neglected to change Ariella all day.
No One Else Used Our Diapers – For whatever reason, the last few weeks that Ariella was in daycare before Meghan went on maternity leave, our daycare provider kept ‘forgetting’ to bring the cloth diapers upstairs to the changing room. Ariella used by my estimate 25 (disposable) diapers belonging to someone else. Had I discovered that I bought a package of diapers to use on someone else’s kid I would have been pretty annoyed.
In the end while we certainly have had the odd issue because we chose to use cloth diapers by in large I am very happy that my wife once said,
“I think we should try cloth diapers”.
Since then I have been known to say to others,
“You should think about trying cloth diapers”.
Editor’s small print: I use Hipkiddo cloth diapers on Gavin. They’re an awesome cloth diaper choice if you’re looking for green, affordable diaper options. Be sure to Like Hipkiddo on Facebook and follow on Twitter to hear about chances to save and win. Hipkiddo provided cloth diapers for the purposes of this blog series. Christopher wrote this post out of the goodness of his own heart.
Continue Reading the Cloth Diaper Series
Stripping Cloth Diapers
Poop Happens
Fluff in Numbers
I love a Dad’s perspective on cloth diapering!
Alison recently posted..Introvert
Thanks for saying so Alison, I have really come to love using cloth diapers. In the end I think we have only bought 4 packages of disposables and each time I was glad to be done with the,
Christopher D Drew recently posted..Good News Sackville- Soothe Your Sole
Oh my gosh…I can’t believe they didn’t change your baby all day. YIKES. This is great information for somebody wanting (or currently already) to cloth diaper but thinking it’s not possible at day care.
Greta recently posted..Great Expectations: Julia’s Math
We were so mad about it. The worst part of it was they filled in the sheet as if they did change her so I think if we hadn’t caught them they would have stuffed a bunch of diapers into our wet bag and hoped we didn’t notice.
Christopher D Drew recently posted..Good News Sackville- Soothe Your Sole
Nice job on that header Laura!As a previous user of cloth diapers with my son I loved them. I never had to experience a day care situation since he stayed with family when I was at work.
These are some great tips and education on on cloths diapers!
Alma recently posted..Instant Summer
Laura did do an amazing job on the header. I feel very fortunate that she took the time to help me with my setup. Thank you for the kind words about the post.
Christopher D Drew recently posted..Good News Sackville- Soothe Your Sole
My mom wanted me to try cloth diapers, but the only association I had with them was when she used them on my baby brother. I had no idea they had come so far until my kids were already out of diapers. Now that I know how cool they are I would have definitely considered them.
Jennifer recently posted..James’ Skylanders Birthday Party
I know diapers have come a very, very long way. Even in the last four years since we started I am blown away with how many more brands, and styles there are. Not to mention how much they have dropped in price. Had we had children much sooner I am not sure we would have gotten into them either.
Christopher D Drew recently posted..Good News Sackville- Soothe Your Sole
We use cloth as well, although our kids aren’t in daycare so we don’t have that to sort out. But it’s generally pretty easy and I love that you found daycares that will go along with it!
Robin | Farewell, Stranger recently posted..Baby Food and Funny Faces
Cloth diapers seem like they are getting a lot more common now. I suspect daycares just have to adjust to them, they are a fact of life, so to speak.
Christopher D Drew recently posted..Good News Sackville- Soothe Your Sole
I love the bio on your blog Christopher! :-) (And great header, Laura!)
I wish I had gotten into cloth diapers right from the first (we’re done now after three). There are so many areas where I didn’t go natural-environmental just from pure overwhelm. But I think if I had read this first, I would have.
Lady Jennie recently posted..Life in the Trenches – Chapter 17
Thank you I had fun writing the Bio, and Laura did a wonderful job on the header.
I know when we were expecting our first I was on ‘overwhelm mood’ for most of the pregnancy, and the better part of year one. I am grateful for the things that I think we did right, and hopeful that the things we did wrong will not cost too much to correct with therapy.
Christopher D Drew recently posted..Good News Sackville- Soothe Your Sole
I was worried the daycare we found wouldn’t do the cloth diapers for me, but they’ve been really great. The only issue I’ve had is they don’t always put in the flushable liners so I end up scraping poo off at the end of the day. But that’s not the end of the world. It’s just a matter of explaining how they work. If you don’t have to deal with poo disposal or laundry, it’s no different than changing a disposable for the staff anyway.
It is true if you don’t worry about cleaning the diapers or poo disposal there is virtually no difference for the daycare provider.
I used to scrape the poo off, which was just no fun. But then we bought a spray attachment that goes on the toilet. It is a lot like the sprayer on your kitchen sink. It is a great diaper accessory and really helps with cleanup.
Christopher D Drew recently posted..Good News Sackville- Soothe Your Sole
I love the part about poking the baby with a safety pin – so cute!
Up until Meghan started to show me cloth diapers online my entire knowledge base was derived from watching Bugs Bunny cartoons. You know the one with the drunk stork delivering the wrong babies in cloth diapers with giant safety pins.
…….I do recognised that said cartoon may not have been a great source to base my information on
Christopher D Drew recently posted..Good News Sackville- Soothe Your Sole
Great post. My son is going to daycare for the first time on Tuesday (eek!) and he’ll be going in cloth. I’m lucky that my daycare provider is open to cloth, but I’m worried about keeping up with the laundry once I’m back at work!
Could you give me a tip on the # of diapers you used to send? I was thinking of sending 6, expecting he’ll probably use 4. Do you think that sounds reasonable?
Thanks!
Janice recently posted..A Birthday Picnic, Part 1. The Photos!
Wow, I don’t know if I could handle how angry I would be if I got there and only one diaper was used! I never thought about it but its definitely a huge benefit to using cloth if your child goes to daycare or a sitter.
Jeska recently posted..10 Christmas Gifts You’ve Secretly Bought For Yourself