wanting to CD but conflicted with possible daycare

carcrashheart

we haven't committed to cd'ing (yet), but i really would like to. we haven't committed with me going back to work and putting LO in daycare. obviously, we really need to bite the bullet, collect all of our info and make a decision fairly soon. we live in a pretty rural area, so daycare options are pretty slim and from what i'm told in-home daycare options are extremely difficult to find, which means we will most likely have to use a daycare center. from what i understand, centers are typically unable to cd because of health regulations-is this true across the board? DH provided me with the costs for some local daycares (apparently he had a coworker looking and she handed off the info to him), so i haven't made any calls to speak with them myself (which i know i need to do).

i guess where i'm going with this is: are all of you either SAHM's or using family/in-home daycare for your LO? do i really have to choose between cd'ing or daycare for our LO? i suppose i could cd PT, but financially would that really make much sense?

i suspect we will lean towards having me go back to work after the new year, since daycare costs aren't going to completely outweigh my income. i'd like to be able to do daycare & cd, but i guess i'm trying to figure out if that is really even possible.

ericaandzac

Where are you located? We live in MD and have a public daycare that acecpts cloth diapers. A lot of daycares just cite health regulations as an excuse to not have to use them, or they don't know anything about cloth so they just say no.

This post is helpful in deciding how to talk to the different centers about using cloth: https://www.realdiaperassociation.org/daycare/index.php 

 I went to 10 different centers before finding one that would agree. Some places will use them if you have a doctor's note, which shouldn't be hard to get. My advice would be to go to the centers in person, and bring a diaper or two with you along with the print outs from the RDA site. They are much more likely to consider them that way!

My husband and I both work full time, and I'm gone from the house the longest during the day (about 13 hours) with my commute and everything. I wash every other day just to avoid super stinkies and mildew, but I have enough diapers to not actually have to wash for 4 days (which I never do). It can be done! I fold/stuff while watching tv after putting the little one in bed when I get around to it. Most of the time they sit in a basket, and I take what I need from there as I need them.

Let me know if you have any questions! I'd be glad to help. Even if you cloth diaper part time, you are going to save money! You may just have to throw a towel or two in with your wash to make up for not having too many diapers in the machine so they get nice and clean.

LemonsQueeze82

I will be going back to work at 8 weeks.  I was pleasantly surprised when I talked to potential daycares in my area (Indiana).  All of my top choices have no problem with them, and most of them already have at least a few kiddos in CDs.  Maybe start looking into your options before you stress!  And bring a AIO or pocket on a visit- should make it easier to "convert" anyone with doubts!

sosoph

We've been in two centers that cd. For me, cd wasn't a dealbreaker in itself, but it was a benchmark of how willing they were to accommodate parent requests, so I didn't want to consider anyplace that flat-out said no.

HALFM00N

We CDed part time starting at 15 mos when she went to daycare, every place, in home, center, hybrid, whatever flat out said NO. Shortly after that, they started potty training her there so she uses the potty at school, and disposable training underwear. I love not having to worry about diapers at home, maybe I am weird but it's much more convenient than me purchasing diapers. Sidenote: I'd get registered with the daycare asap bc many of them have waiting lists!

Oh and both DH and I work! It's not a big deal.

nicole0719

When I went to visit daycares I brought a BG4.0 pocket in aplix with me to show them before I even asked. I pulled it out of my purse and said "these are the diapers we use, they work just like disposables, will you use cloth if I send them, provide a bag for dirty diapers and take them home every day?"  This covered a lot of the issues that dcp potentially see. My dcp has a policy about cloth and needing a dr note and having to have them commercially washed (i.e. prefolds and a service) but I only found that out after reading their welcome booklet - I actually think that noone there even knew their policy as they had never had a kid in cloth.

I work FT, DH works FT and most of the DCPs we saw were willing to consider it without a question.

honkytonk_kid

sosoph:

We've been in two centers that cd. For me, cd wasn't a dealbreaker in itself, but it was a benchmark of how willing they were to accommodate parent requests, so I didn't want to consider anyplace that flat-out said no.

This is exactly what I was going to say. The centers that flat-out said no tended to be, IMO, those that gave off a more overbearing vibe and were likely to have other irritating policies on issues that should be a parent's decision.

Most of the places we toured said yes, especially after showing them a couple CDs.

loyaboya

nicole0719:

When I went to visit daycares I brought a BG4.0 pocket in aplix with me to show them before I even asked. I pulled it out of my purse and said "these are the diapers we use, they work just like disposables, will you use cloth if I send them, provide a bag for dirty diapers and take them home every day?" 

This is a really good way to approach it. I handled our situation much more awkwardly but in the end our DCP also agreed to use cloth.  Their biggest concern was that I provide a wetbag   But every place I asked eventually said they would work with us.  So it's definitely not a dealbreaker!

StefandTodd

The DC we picked for our son (when I was 16 weeks pregnant) said no to CDing.  The Director said it had to do with licensing.  But they were by FAR the best option for DC in our area, so I bought my CD's planning to just convince them later (by proving it wasn't a law/license thing (I knew better based on other centers in our area), showing them the diapers, etc).  When I did my intake paperwork, there was actually an option on there to circle cloth if you wanted to CD.  So even the Director of our center didn't realize that they DO accept CD's...they just hadn't ever been asked about CDing a baby there before.  They've been great with them.  For me, personally, it was worth it to D on the weekends and in the evenings even if DC said no, and I knew that there was a high liklihood I could show them just how easy it was and they wouldn't have a problem.

Our DC center is a very large, national "chain" of centers..I think it's silly to assume a center won't CD simply b/c it's a center.

GL!

abbyful

I checked out 4 different daycare centers (2 La Petite, 1 Kindercare, 1 locally owned).

Kindercare was the only one that said "no" to cloth diapers (which was fine because we really didn't like the center we visited anyway) the rest were all on-board with cloth diapering.

When we went to visit the daycares, I had a BumGenius cloth diaper in my purse to show them in case they asked questions about it.

They daycare we are going to use (a La Petite center) was actually really excited about it; the daycare director took the diaper around and showed it to all the instructors saying "wow, this is really cool! can you believe how cute this diaper is?!"

Froggy76

I'm in PA and looked at at least 10 daycare centers.  Not one said no to cloth diapers.  The least accomodating was one center that would require a doctor's note.  Kindercare said they would take them, but they required the diapers be one piece and required a rubbermaid bin with a lid to store them.  All of the other centers were totally open and didn't even need to see what kind we were planning to use.

talitha712

DD is in a center and they use our pocket diapers with no problem.  I looked up the state licensing guidelines before I talked with them about it and instead of asking if they were willing to use cloth I said something like, "We are planning to use cloth diapers.  I know the state licensing guidelines say they are allowed and just need to be in a sealed plastic container and the dirty ones need to go home each night.  What do we need to do to make cloth diapering work for you all?". That way they couldn't use the excuse that they couldn't or weren't allowed.  They just put a trash can in the bathroom where they change diapers and I put a clean pail liner in it each morning.  I bring a large wetbag of clean diapers each morning.  They just toss her diapers in the pail (poopy ones get put in a plastic bag first) and I take it all home each evening.  It has been no big deal for them, and we are the first family to use cloth there.  

Fwiw they were even willing to use cloth when they thought I meant PFs and covers and they were pleasantly surprised when I showed up with my BG 4.0s to show them.  We do also only send aplix to daycare so that it's more like the disposable diapers they are used to.

SaraTF

DS goes to a daycare at a local community center and they are fine with CDing. Some of the younger assistants think I'm crazy (they thought I was hand washing every night), but they'll do whatever we want. All of the places I checked out were fine with CDing actually, I thought it would be more of a fight.

FWIW, I would CD at home even if I couldn't at daycare.  

carcrashheart

sorry for disappearing, but thanks so much for the responses! i'm back to being excited instead of discouraged!

like i said, i haven't made calls to the centers myself and i wanted to hang back on doing so until i had a better idea of how cd'ing could be incorporated (but yes, there are waiting lists so we know we really need to jump on this and make decisions sooner than later). i was just going by what i had heard, which obviously i shouldn't, especially when it's coming from people that are using the centers but not cd'ing (or have any idea what cd'ing is really about).

can anyone give me some insight/help on how to look up state licensing so i know exactly what i'm dealing with? we're in WV. it's pretty rural and there aren't many day care centers around (3 that take infants that i've found so far). i get the feeling that it's an area that has a majority of SAHM's and many of those that are working are doing shift work, so day care isn't in high demand.

sadly, i'm not well versed AT ALL on cd'ing, nor do i have a stash started at all. we had planned on taking an intro class at a cd store while visiting parents in pittsburgh (where we're from). i suppose i need to be a bit more prepared before touring centers.

talitha712

https://www.wvdhhr.org/bcf/ece/earlycare/documents/2009ChildCareCenterRegulationWeb.pdf

Here's the link for WV daycare regulations.  Diapering stuff is in Appendix D.  It looks as though CDing is allowed, diapers just need to be put in a sealed container/plastic bag.  Bonus for you, daycares in WV are required to dump poop in the toilet before putting the CDs in a sealed bag   If I were you I might go ahead and get a BG or FB or some other sort of easy pocket so you can go ahead and talk with daycare centers now.  Our daycare prefers velcro over snaps, so we just bought enough velcro to get us through at daycare and then we use snaps at home.  Good luck!

carcrashheart

you're the best, thank you so much!

last night DH was all "does it really matter if we cd or not?!" i shot him a glare, told him that yes, IT DOES matter, and that was that. i explained that i simply don't want this decision to be made for us, but rather on our own.

i need to get working on this, so this is a great place to start. thanks again!