Using cloth diapers at daycare

At some point, your child may go into daycare when you return to work. You may be wondering what happens at that point with respect to cloth diapers -- I'm happy to report that most of our customers don't have an issue with finding care providers who will use cloth diapers. Any care provider you hire should be willing to work together with you in terms of looking after your child the way you want them to, and let's face it, dealing with a child who wears cloth diapers is really no different than dealing with a child who wears disposable diapers -- a poopy diaper is a poopy diaper! If your caregiver is apprehensive about using cloth diapers, there are things you can do to lessen her anxiety:

- show her your diapers. Most people still associate flats, pins, and rubber pants with cloth diapers. Show your your Fuzzibunz or bumGenius 3.0 diapers, and you will convert her, I promise! If you pre-stuff them, they are just as easy to put on and take off as a disposable diaper. Are you using prefolds? If that makes her nervous, it may be worth your while to invest in a few 'easy' diapers for her sake -- GroBaby one-size AI2 diapers would serve this purpose well, 5 shells & 5 soaker sets would be enough for 15 diaper changes, giving you 3 days between laundry. Yes, it's an investment, but so are those disposable diapers she may ask you to send instead.

- send paper liners to daycare. They will help make dealing with poopy diapers easier (the poopy paper liners can be flushed). If she wants nothing to do with poopy diapers, ask her to send the poopy diapers home at the end of the day.

- send a good wetbag to daycare. If she's worried about the space used up by a diaper pail, show your caregiver your portable laundry bag (she can hang it in the closet with junior's coat). Planetwise Inc. offers a fabulous hanging wet/dry laundry bag with two zippered compartments - one for clean diapers, and one for soiled diapers. The waterproof lining flips out of the bag, so you can wipe it down at the end of the day, using more than once between washes. We expect to have these bags instock early next week.

I have rarely heard of caregivers flat-out refusing cloth diapers, if you can get her to at least give it a shot, she will more than likely stick with it. We have even had a couple of caregivers come into the store to get set up with cloth diapers after using cloth diapers with clients' children. After seeing how easy it was to use cloth diapers, they made the switch for themselves!

If you live in Ottawa or Kitchener-Waterloo, and you have any cloth diaper-friendly daycare suggestions (daycare facilities only, please don't publish private caregivers details here!), please share.