Working moms?

Life is Exciting · July 2013

I've been lurking here for a while, trying to get all the basics figured out, so I figured I'd finally introduce myself. I'm 27 weeks along with my first baby, a little boy who we are naming Parker. A friend turned me on to cloth diapering and I'm really excited about it. I'm even thinking of trying cloth wipes for when we're at home.

My husband is very supportive, but has hesitations about making it work when both of us go back to work full time. I'll be on mat leave for three months, then unfortunately have to go back.

We're looking for a daycare that is CD friendly, but DH has concerns about the amount of laundry.

How many of you are working moms doing CD'ing? Any tips for us?

Thanks in advance!

DaisyJanie · July 2013

Yep, I've worked since LO was 9 weeks old, and we've CD'd since he was 1 day old - so over 2 years now. We used a mix of things at the beginning - prefolds, fitteds, and pockets. But once he got big enough to wear one-size, we've used only pockets, mostly BG 4.0s. His daycare is very CD-friendly, but they do require either pockets or All-In-Ones. We send about 6 diapers per day, he uses about 4 of them. They put them in a wet bag and send it home in his bag. In the infant room, they just put the poopy diapers in the bag and we had to dump when we got home (after he started solids). Now that he's in the bigger room, they change diapers in the bathroom so they dump the poop for us, which has been very nice.

We do diaper laundry 3 days a week. It's very easy laundry, doesn't take very long at all to sort it, unlike the clothing which seems to take forever on the weekends.

DiannaVB · July 2013

Working full-time and cloth diapering is no big deal. It's one load of laundry every other day. I take my pail liner with diapers to the washer, dump it in, then start the load. I return 30 minutes later to add detergent and start the wash cycle. Once they are clean it takes me about 5 minutes to hang the diapers, wet bags, inserts, and pail liner on my drying rack.

Definitely do the cloth wipes. You can just toss them in with your diapers and not have to deal with a separate trash can of poopy disposable wipes.

For daycare we send a zippered wet bag. When we get home I empty it and deal with the poopy diaper if there is one.

KTdidit · July 2013

CD laundry won't be any more than it currently is.LO will still use generally the same amount of diapers in a day (I say generally becasue the daycare I send DS to changes them every 2 hours regardless of it they need it or not, so you might go through a couple more a day than you do currently). When DS was in still in diapers I sent about 6-8 along with a wetbag every day. Then just bring the wetbag home and rinse them all out. You'll still do laundry every couple days. Although you will need to make sure you have enough daycare-size wetbags. I had 4 to be safe.

sarenu1 · July 2013

I've been using cloth since 2 months. And plan to start from birth with this one. I'll have two in cloth for awhile, and I'm no concerned.

I'd recommend finding a daycare first. Then just trial and error. Each daycare is going to be a little different.

I have found sticking with one brand of diaper is easier for them. It's less confusing as to what setting they should use for snaps.

Also, if they haven't used them before, do a diaper change to show them how.

You can also go up to 3 days with your wash. I have a larger stash so that I can wash every 3 days. With the addition of this one, I'll wash every day, but I'll probably wait for two loads to fold and stuff.

FreshBakedBrownies · July 2013

Cloth diapering/daycare/working is no big deal! Definitely check with your daycare about any specific requirements. Mine requires each diaper to be separately bagged (which they would provide if I wanted plastic disposable bags sent home). I got a set of small Bummis wet bags to send along. I also use cloth wipes and California Baby Diaper Area Wash spray at daycare. The wipes get tossed in the wet bags and it all goes in the wash when we get home. I have a set of aplix Rumparooz for daycare which are very easy for them. I prefer prefolds and covers at home. But I am SO happy with cloth diapering.

cmgedney · July 2013

I go back to work on Monday, so I don't have actual experience but I can tell you this as when I was looking at day care centers in the area many were not CD friendly unlike where I was working before I moved. I will tell you this that you can google your states licensing requirements regarding CDing and I found a site that lists all the states info and I don't believe there are any states that do not allow it. My state requires a doctor note, but before I became educated about it when I asked I was told it was against licensing, so many places are not educated about it. If you have one that you really like and seems to not want to budge I would suggest showing them what it's all about and like another poster said, when the baby starts solids, just have them put the poopy diaper in the pail and you dump when you get home.

As for the laundry aspect, I wash every three days and just stuff while watching TV. I'm actually thinking of changing over to grovia hybrids which will be even easier to deal with.

ObLaDi · July 2013

I work FT, wash every other night, and stuff on the night I'm not washing. It's NBD at all!

dizzycooks · July 2013

We CD and we both work. I wash EOD and we send 7 diapers a day and they use 4. Our daycare is required to put every diaper in it's own plastic bag and then in a trash bag so every day I get home and I have 4 little plastic bags to undo and a trash bag that I take home. I do find that for some reason DD leaks more at daycare which I find very annoying because it's hard to problem solve when we don't have those problems home.

miss.brittany · July 2013

My DH and I both work full time. My stash is mainly made up of BG freetimes. They are so easy to use, super absorbent, and quick to dry. I also have a few bumkins and RARs. But they both are pockets that need to be stuffed. Which takes more time than the BGs. I wash every other day. I'm in charge of washing and DH is in charge of hanging them to dry. It's really not as big of a deal as I imagined. I mean one load of laundry every other day is not that difficult. I personally have a stash that is big enough that if for some reason I can't wash on laundry day, I still have enough diapers and can wash the next day. I probably have 36 instead of the recommended 24. But that's also because they're addictive! Haha. But if you can afford to have enough just in case you can't wash, it might save you some stress. I recommend 2 wet bags for your diaper bag and 2 pail liners or hanging wet bags. That way you have one clean when the other is washing and don't have to stress about them drying.

If you want to cloth, I think it's completely manageable!

haileyq · July 2013

We both work and it is NBD. As PPs state, it's just one load every other day. Stuffing can be a little tedious, but I have a heavy wetter so a bunch of AIOs just wouldn't work for us. And by tedious, I mean it takes no more than 10 minutes

Mandmeesh · July 2013

I love diaper laundry. Seriously. I've gotten the pocket-stuffing routine down so it only takes about fifteen minutes to get them stuffed and ready. That's nbd. My H is home with baby during the day, but I always get the cd's washed and rinsed before leaving for work...it's just easier for me to do it

littleredfish · July 2013

DH and I both work full time and found a daycare that would CD. You find your own routine that works. I don't leave the house until 10 so I wash and dry/hang the diapers before I go, and DH stuffs them while watching TV when he gets home.

I spray diapers from her daycare wetbag when I get home, and unstuff them to put in the wetbag in her room then restock her diaper bag for the next day. I've never once thought of it as hard, it's just part of the routine now.

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