One of my biggest fears when we started using cloth diapers was finding a day care center that wouldn’t fight us over using cloth diapers. It was such a big fear of mine that I kept my daughter in private in-home care until she was 2 years old. When she turned 2 we made the switch to a traditional day care/learning center. You can read my full story about how I approached them to use cloth in my cloth diaper archives.
Here are some tips that I suggest if you are planning on using cloth diapers at day care. Most importantly remember to stay positive and don’t make a big deal about them.
- Remember how your spouse and family felt when you told them you were going to use cloth? The day care may react the same way…
- Show them the diapers and show them how similar they are to using disposables.
- Explain to them that they are better for your babies sensitive skin (and the environment and your wallet…but you don’t have to tell them all that).
- Explain that you will provide a wet bag (show them a bag) to store the dirties. They don’t have to do anything but put the diapers into the bag and give them back to you. No swishing, no rinsing, nothing. After all…you’ll want to do that yourself anyways so that no one messes up your pretty little stash!
- If they do hesitate at all about using cloth diapers explain that you would be happy if they would try cloth on a trial basis.
- Provide the director and teachers with a mini lesson in how you do things so they aren’t intimidated.
Need more advice? The Real Diaper Association has some great tips and resources that you can use when approaching your center.
RDA Cloth Diapers & Day Care Tip Sheet
RDA and RDIA Cloth Diaper Friendly Day Care Directory
Looking for cloth diapering resources and tips? Visit my cloth diapering archives, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and on Pinterest.
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I would also add that you need to remember how long it took you to figure out the cloth diapers and how best to use them. Our son’s daycare uses our cloth diapers. It took them a while to get used to them, particularly because the only other infant using cloth diapers use AIO and we use pockets. It took a bit for the teachers to realize they were different. Do remember to cut them a bit of slack. We had about 6 weeks of mishaps and confusion but now that he’s been there for about 3 months, they have it down. Every once is a while they forget to switch out the inserts or put in a new one without removing the old one. It’s all good because in my mind they were and are willing to try it and were willing to keep with it until they got it right. None of the other daycare centers we looked into were even willing to try. Basically, if they are willing to work with you remember, they are going to make mistakes and you need to be willing to work with them :).
I have a few funny stories to share in tomorrows post about asking Day Care Centers if they would use cloth diapers…. great post!
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