Using cloth at family day care

Experienced cloth nappy mum Renee recounts her experience using cloth nappies at a family day care centre. 

I started using cloth nappies with child #3, my daughter who is now 16 years old. I started with cloth around 4 months of age after she started getting chemical burns from disposables.

We used terry flats and plastic pants. 

When #3 was about 8 months old I started her in childcare. As cloth nappies were not the done thing, most centres I contacted were basically against it, telling me they were happy for her to arrive in cloth, but they would use disposables throughout the day. 

Obviously, I couldn’t work with that, due to her reactions. I finally found a small family-run centre who were happily amazed that I used cloth. Their response was “oh my goodness! You use cloth? That’s amazing! It’s been many years since I’ve used them, but I’m sure if you help us, we will have no trouble at all”! 

My daughter went there for almost 4 years. She was the only cloth nappy child for the entire time she was there.

There were some less-than-desirable fits, but with plastic pants, it wasn’t much of an issue. This was also before Clean Cloth Nappies, so nappies were soaked in a closed bucket all day. 🤢 

Fast forward to 2016 and I was pregnant with baby #4. I knew I was using cloth nappies, this time I opted for modern cloth nappies (MCN). They were more mainstream by then. 

When it came time for daycare, we looked into family day care. We were so lucky in finding our star educator in the first one we looked at. 

She was totally on board with using cloth, albeit apprehensive. I showed her how to put them on, and she was happy to put dirty nappies in a wet bag. She did ask why not soak like what used to be done, so I explained about how Napisan has changed, and about the PUL covers, and the two-step wash process. She was amazed at the changes, and how much easier MCN can be. She was also happy to use our cloth wipes. I sent them pre-wet in a small container. I did this, as she discovered that often she didn’t realise bub had pooped as they don’t smell like disposables, and it was much easier for her to deal with the surprise poops if wipes were already wet.

I sent all the nappies assembled, with wet bags for dirty nappies. 

The educator loved all the different prints and colours of the covers. So much so, in warmer times, she was happy to let Miss have just a nappy on around her home.

Miss was also the only child in cloth for most of her time there.

Come child #5, and she went to the same family day care (Miss #4 had finished care by then). Our educator remembered how to use them, recognising all the same prints and even noticing a couple of new covers. 

There was another child in cloth there, on different days. Our educator actually asked me how I wash them, as “your nappies are always so clean and fresh. I’ve seen some that aren’t so pristine.”

I suggested she recommend Clean Cloth Nappies to the family (in a way she knew they would be receptive to, rather than taking it as criticism). The family were happy she mentioned it to her and ended up with clean, fresh nappies after Clean Cloth Nappies’ advice on sanitising and improving their wash routine.