Cloth Nappies Go to Daycare

Many thanks to our guest blogger, Jacquie Shanks, for her words of wisdom about cloth nappies at daycare. Jacquie is a mother of 4, owner of  NZ Baby Supplies. This article was written in 2012.

I didn’t always use cloth nappies, not that I didn’t want to, just that we hadn’t found ones that worked well for us… My daughter was 18 months and I was pregnant with our second child when we discovered Pop-in nappies and it was then that we made the switch to cloth nappies full time. We had made what I felt was a substantial investment and also, we had 18 months worth of disposable nappies sitting somewhere in a landfill that I didn’t want to contribute to any further!

My daughter was attending childcare a couple of days a week and we were lucky that they were happy to use the cloth nappies that I provided for her. Even better was that our fees reduced by $1 a day as we no longer had to pay the charge for the disposable nappies to be disposed of! Our girl was the only child there using cloth nappies.

Fast-forward two years and my second child is now attending childcare too, although he is at a different one to where his older sister attended. I was quite surprised that at his childcare more than half of the children are cloth bottomed babies! As someone who also sells cloth nappies that made me feel quite proud that things have come a long way in the small space of just 2 years!

SO, HOW CAN YOU MAKE CLOTH NAPPIES EASY FOR YOUR CHILD’S CARER?

1. NAPPIES

Provide enough nappies. A couple more than you think your child would need is a good idea.

2. WET BAG

Send along a wet bag for storing the used nappies in. Having two of these is good so you still have one to use while the other is in the wash.

3. LINERS

Put a biodegradable liner inside each nappy that you send. Even if your child’s carer doesn’t discard it but leaves it in the nappy, at least you won’t have day old poop to scrape off the nappy as you can just pull out the liner!

4. EXPLAIN

Show your child’s carer the nappy system and how it’s used. It may seem obvious to you since you use them every day but for someone who hasn’t seen them before, well, let’s just say anything is possible! Put on backwards is one that I’ve seen which was rather funny!

5. MAKE IT EASY

One thing I have noticed is that nappies with Velcro closures seem to be the easiest for carers. The times that I’ve sent my son with a nappy with snap closures, I’ve picked him up with a funny wonky nappy on!

Does your daycare centre support cloth use? What tips can you share?