How We Cloth Diaper at Day Care

Cloth Diapering at Day Care

Our Day Care is awesome. I’m kind of obsessed with how much I love our Day Care, but that’s for another post. One of the reasons I love our Day Care is that our provider didn’t bat an eye when I told her I’d be sending cloth diapers.

We were chatting the other day about my blog, and how she wished I would write more posts in French so she could read them. I told her I have been blogging in French, but that unless she wants to read about cloth diapers… well, she’s out of luck! (Of course, I will translate this one so she knows I’m bragging about her.)

Cub attends a home-based Day Care with up to six other children (if the whole gang is there), ranging in age from just over a year to almost four years old. He is the only one in cloth at the moment, but the second child our provider has ever cared for to wear cloth.

I recently mentioned to Nathalie that it was quite common for Day Cares to refuse cloth diapers. She told me she couldn’t really understand why. From her perspective, Cub’s cloth diapers are no more work than the disposables she uses on the other children.

2We primarily send BumGenius 4.0s in velcro, stuffed with the newborn microfibre BumGenius insert and an ร–ko Creations 2-ply hemp trifold. When Cub’s with me, I just use a trifold, but I’ve found adding a booster to each diaper means no matter which one she grabs, it’ll be absorbent enough for a long outing or a nap.

3Nathalie’s diaper-changing routine with Cub is no different than the one she follows with her other children. He arrives between 8-9 AM, and she changes him roughly three times by the time I pick him up between 4-5 PM. Once in the morning, once before nap time (1 pm) and once after nap (3 pm). She simply puts all the dirty diapers in our wet bag, and I bring them home at the end of the day.

What about poop? Well, one of the reasons she loves Cub (besides his charm and all the words he uses in English) is that he likes to poop in the comfort of his own home. The odd time he does do a number two, she just puts it in the wet bag and I deal with it at home. I send two wet bags in Cub’s back pack, so that if he does do a stinker, she can always leave that one out on the deck if it’s too odoriferous. Assuming your child doesn’t show the same type of restraint, you can line all your diapers either with a fleece liner or with a disposable liner, and it’ll be up to your Day Care provider if they feel like flushing for you or just sending the whole kit and ka-poo-dle home with you. Like me, she doesn’t wipe Cub at every change, assuming it’s just pee (with stay dry diapers, I don’t find it necessary), but she has a pack of Naty disposable wipes if needed. When I first change his diaper after Day Care, I give him a good wipe down.

If you want your provider to use cloth wipes, I recommend sending a bunch of pre-moistened wipes each day, which is what Nathalie and I agreed upon until we realized he was saving all his poop just for me (yay?!). I packed them in a resuable wipes container meant for disposable wipes.

My favourite wet bag to send to Day Care is our Funky Fluff dual-pocket wet bag, simply for the sheer volume of diapers it can hold. Some children have longer days at Day Care, and younger children probably have more dirty diapers per day, so I recommend it to everyone for Day Care! He has a change of clothes that she keeps for him in case of an accident, and the odd time he’s had a nap time leak (a handful of times in the past 6 months, and almost never once I started adding the booster), she can tuck those clothes in the front pocket. In this picture, I think I shoved 10 diapers and inserts into the bag:

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Cub arrives at Day Care in the morning with his Skip Hop Owl backpack equipped with four diapers and two wet bags. If he’s showing any redness, I’ll send his tube of Live Clean and put fleece liners in the diapers, but this is very infrequent. With four diapers from a maximum of 8 AM to 5 PM, she’s never run out, but I also work from home and live 5 minutes away. If this wasn’t the case, I think I’d just give her one of my least beloved diapers to keep in Cub’s cubby for emergencies.

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Since he’s the only one in cloth, there’s no risk of the wrong diapers coming home with him. However, it has happened to my friends! I labelled some of his diapers with our Lovable Labels to test how durable they were (answer: super durable), and I would recommend doing so if your child attends a Day Care with other fluffy-butt buddies.

If you have a full stash of snap-closure diapers and you’re concerned about Day Care putting them on properly, you can use Snap Blockers to make them pretty much foolproof. Some parents like to buy a set of “Day Care Diapers.” I would recommend some gently-used BumGenius 4.0s in velcro, or else some budget-friendly Kawaii pockets.

Some related links:

Does your Day Care accept cloth diapers? What’s your routine?

School of Cloth 2015





10 responses to “How We Cloth Diaper at Day Care”

  1. thanks for mentioning us Maman! We continue to hear great things about people using snap blockers at daycare as well as with grandparents. We have recently started migrating to our own online store and our snap blockers are sold there now. People can buy them at http://www.earthtribebaby.com or ask us or the fans questions at our Facebook page. Be blessed!

  2. Cassandra Rae

    My care provider is actually a friend that I met in kindergarden! She’s a sweet heart. She has a little girl born just 2 weeks after Hannah and they play great together ๐Ÿ™‚ I was so happy when she agreed to try cloth. The first few times I use AMP AIOs with hook and loop. But they are not absorbent enough for my little girl who soaks through in 1 to 2 hours. So I have been sending AMP OS duos with applecheeks 3ply bamboo and a booster, or some sort of combination of amp hemp or bamboo with fst or what ever. I also add in fleece liners (I don’t like disposable liners (too bunchy and doesnt catch the poo anyway). And guess what? She flushes the poo! Amazing, i know right? haha I told her that isnt necessary but she said… and I quote, “Its so easy!” haha I havent been able to convert her to cloth yet since 1) her husband and his family buy all the disposable diapers for her and 2) I’m not much of a pusher, I should really try harder to be a pusher haha ๐Ÿ™‚

  3. Hillary

    I love this read, makes me want to make sure I’ll be prepared when I send my little one to day care in cloth. Very informative in what to use ๐Ÿ™‚ thank you

  4. val1616

    Do you think those labels can be removed if I sell them or use them for another child ?

    1. Lindsay Gallimore

      Yes, they do peel off quite nicely actually!

  5. Michelle Mong

    As a cloth mamma and a day care teacher I paved the way for our center to use cloth, I think most centers say no to cloth because they’ve either had a bad experience or no experience with cloth. My primary recommendation from the provider side of using cloth in daycare is just to make sure that everything that is sent in is in working order (I’m really glad you mentioned adding a booster too!); I’ve been sent diapers with velcro that should have been replaced, broken snaps and wet bags with zippers that do not work properly which makes it hard for me to successfully diaper a child for the day.

  6. April

    Hi! I just started using cloth on my 4 month old this weekend! Right now he is only in cloth at night and on weekends because I am trying to figure this out before I do daycare too. I was given hand-me-down BumGenius pocket diapers (yay!), some with snaps and others with velcro. I was thinking of buying some AIO’s to take to daycare so it’s easier but after reading this I am not sure that’s strictly necessary. What’s your take on AIO’s? My daycare will reluctantly willing to try this so I want it to be as easy as possible! Thank you!

    1. Lindsay

      Hey April! There’s basically no difference, in my opinion, between sending pre-stuffed pockets to Day Care or All-in-One diapers. Either way, unless Day Care decides to randomly unstuff the pocket, they can’t really go wrong! But here are my AIO reviews: https://mamanloupsden.com/tag/all-in-one-diapers/

  7. […] BumGenius 4.0 is one of my favourite pocket diapers. It was all we sent with Cub to day care, and is a great option on Little Miss Cub since she hit about 10-12 lbs. I was definitely surprised […]

  8. A fine quality blog! I like the way blogger presented information regarding the whole post. Thanks for posting such a nice blog. Great job!

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Welcome to my Wolf Pack!

My name is Lindsay and I am a 40-year-old mama of four trying to live an eco-friendly, budget-friendly life! I am a substitute teacher and Child Passenger Safety technician in Calgary, Alberta. Join me on my adventures!

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