How We Cloth Diaper at Daycare

So y'all probably know by now that we have decided to cloth diaper about 80% of the time. Primarily this is when we are at home/daycare and we use disposables at night and when we are out and about for a long period of time. 

One of our top criteria when deciding on a daycare provider for Kingston was if they were open to trying cloth for us. Thankfully, we only came across one lady and one center that didn't want to do it and everyone else was super receptive to it. 

I have tried my hardest to make everything as simple as possible for daycare because Kingston is their first in cloth and I didn't want to scare them away from it. His head teacher is actually pregnant right now so fingers crossed that she's considering it now that she see's how little extra work it actually is! 

Our set up:

Each day I send CT to daycare with a Kanga Care wet bag filled with pre-stuffed pocket diapers (alva/jc trade pocket diapers stuffed with 2 inserts: top insert - charcoal bamboo and bottom insert - hemp). Kingston is at daycare from about 730-300 each day and goes through about 4 diapers. I sent 8 diapers in the beginning but after seeing how many he actually goes through, now I try and keep a total of 6 diapers at daycare each day. So if he comes home with 3 soiled diapers I send 3 to daycare the next day. Every other Friday I have CT double check how many he has in his drawer just in case we get off track somewhere. 

I love these wet bags because they can hold up to 12 stuffed diapers. So I send CT with this bag filled with the clean diapers for the day, the small cooler filled with 3 bottles, sometimes a few bibs and a change of clothes if it's needed. They literally hold so much! 

When CT drops him off - he hands over the bag, they put the clean diapers in his drawer and hang the wet bag by the changing table. 

(Note: There have been a few days that I've sent Kingston in disposables because he has a few pairs of pants that won't fit if he's in cloth. My daycare is so good about just going with it.) 

Also attached to the wet bag is diaper 'instructions'. I hired someone to create these because I'm totally TypeA and I wanted to make things easy for anyone changing him.  Since many people aren't familiar with cloth and Kingston's daycare has high school students that work in there at different hours during the day - I figured instructions would be helpful. I know if I was new to cloth diapers I would want all the help I could get.

On these instructions cards you can find how to get the proper fit, what tips and trick help in doing so, the proper snaps they should be on, how to dispose of the diapers and what diaper creams are acceptable for cloth. 

 

I love that these are laminated so I can mark all over them with permanent marker and then easily remove the markings with an alcohol pad. 

As Kingston starts eating more solids and his poo's start to change - I will add liners to his diapers so those can be thrown away or flushed. At that time, I will update the soiled section of these cards to incorporate that extra step. 

Right now when he gets changed, the wet diapers go in the bag as is and I have them snap closed the poo diapers. This just helps me know which ones to be more careful with when I go to remove the inserts from them and put them in our bigger wet bag at home.

 

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My biggest fear when choosing to cloth diaper at daycare was them not getting the proper fit and then get discouraged because of him leaking. I've got to tell you, his head teacher is awesome at putting them on. There was a week in the beginning when Kingston came home in a different outfit than what he started the day in. We figured out this was because the students who help change him weren't familiar with them and they were having leaking issues. Now a few weeks in, everyone is catching on and there hasn't seemed to be problems.

All in all, cloth diapers have worked out extremely well for us. I'm glad that I had extra time at home before he went to daycare to find the proper fit and what inserts worked well. It really is a learning curve in the beginning but once you get it figured out - it is SO worth it. 

I've probably spent about $400 total on cloth diapers: diapers, inserts, wet bags, wipes and creams and I've only bought 1 thing of disposable diapers for nights and daycare backup. (Thankfully I was gifted a few diaper cakes, the hospital diapers, and 2 boxes of diapers to get us through those first few months before I got confident enough to try cloth. When number 2 comes along - we will start right away after the meconium and umbilical cord fall off.)

What's nice is that these cloth diapers should last him all the way through potty training and possibly onto the next kid if the elastic are still good in them. Think of all that money I have saved and will continue to save! Doing an extra 2 loads of laundry a week is nothing compared to all the extra dollars staying in my bank account. Like I've said before, diaper laundry is my favorite kind of laundry. 

Stay tuned  . . . I plan on writing more about our wash routine, which types of diapers we use and where I purchase them from!