Real Diaper Week.
Real Simple. Real Diapers.
When you are sold on the benefits of cloth diapers, you want your baby to use them full time. One common point of resistance is daycare. Many daycare providers happily accept cloth diapers. Others will accept cloth diapers with some guidance on how to use cloth diapers in a daycare setting. The problem comes when your potential daycare provider says either “We don’t accept cloth diapers” or “Cloth diapers are against regulations.”
Create Familiarity with Cloth Diapers
If the daycare center doesn’t accept or just resists cloth diapers, you might still be able to help them become familiar enough with your baby’s diapers that they change their minds and welcome cloth diapers. Real Diaper Association recommends that open a dialogue. Remember, you are setting the tone for your child’s time in the daycare. It helps to be positive and cooperative.
Be positive
Be patient
Be flexible
Be open to a test
Be supportiveSee full recommendations: “Tips for Using Cloth Diapers in Daycare: Opening a Dialogue”
Often, the daycare providers aren’t familiar with cloth diapers and only assume that they will be difficult to work with or take extra time. By showing them in a friendly way that you baby’s cloth diapers are easy to use, you might be able to overcome resistance.
Examine Policy
If the resistance is based either on an explicit policy or perception that all regulations prohibit cloth diapers, you might be able to shift their perceptions and help them develop a new policy. Know provincial or state regulations before you start the conversation, and understand that few providers have specific policies about diapers.
If they are worried about sanitation, make sure you understand the information distributed by Real Diaper Association showing “there is no significant difference in the amount of fecal contamination in daycare centers which use cloth diapers verses those which use disposable diapers.”
If, after working with the daycare provider, they still decide not to accept your baby’s diapers, you might want to consider other options. If you can show that cloth diapers are clean and easy, but they don’t want to be flexible to meet your needs, it is possible that they will take a similar approach when you or your child have other needs to be met. Check the list of daycare providers that accept cloth diapers, and be sure to submit a listing if you find more.
Best of luck working with your daycare provider to keep your baby in cloth diapers. Your positive example can be a model for the teachers and for the other parents. Those positive models spread.
Real Diaper Association is a nonprofit charity that trains grassroots cloth diaper educators. They are the organizers of Real Diaper Week and of the Great Cloth Diaper Change this Saturday. To celebrate Real Diaper Week, we are posting about cloth diapers all week. Parents at 262 Great Cloth Diaper Change events around the world will change their babies’ cloth diapers on Saturday at the same time in order to break the world record for the most simultaneous diaper changes. bynature.ca and NaturalNutrition.ca will be co-hosting a fun cloth diaper event in Orillia for up 50 babies and their parents.
Image © Sebastian Czapnik | Dreamstime.com
