Childdcare requiring plastic pants over cloth

[Snowy Love]

I send Mr I to childcare on Mondays with pocket nappies. The director asked to talk to me last week and went through the "Staying Healthy at Childcare" regulations with me. They're happy for me to send cloth, but per those regulations want me to send plastic pants to cover them. I'm sending a PUL cover today, but I'm a bit concerned his bot will overheat with an extra unnecessary layer of PUL. I'm going to show her the inside of the pocket when I drop him off today, that there is 'plastic' inside and see if she'll OK him just wearing the pockets. Does anyone have any tips for me?

[Beach Mama]

ClotH naPPieS
if a parent provdes cloth nappes for ther chld’s use, ensure the parent also provdes ‘plastc pants’ to help prevent faeces, and therefore germs, from leakng. Wearng clothng over plastc pants also reduces the number of germs from the bowel beng transferred to surfaces n the centre.
it s a good dea for the nappy and the plastc pants to be covered wth clothng at all tmes. Parents need to be aware that cloth nappes wth urne and/or faeces wll not be rnsed or washed at the centre. they are to be placed nto a plastc bag and laundered at home.

Dsposable nappes may reduce the rsk of nfectons as dsposable nappes do not ‘leak’as easly as cloth nappes and are able to be dsposed of mmedately.

Sorry about the weird font - that is from the guidelines you are talking about! I was curious as well as to what their reasoning was, and how uninformed to say cloth leak as more than disposables!!! That is just about the most ridiculous thing I have heard of. Anyway was just thinking that other than showing her the inside and saying they ARE plastic pants, it's just the plastic is on the inside that time will show that they don't leak. I can understand some concern that they need to be careful but they use gloves anyway and the nappies would go straight into a wet bag/other bag anyway.

Blabbling now - good luck hun.

[Epacris]

I haven’t read “Staying healthy at childcare” but I know Beema had a problem with this and her DD in cloth at CC and we all helped with a ripper letter she wrote to her DD’s CC about it. Hopefully she will pop in with some advice.

Essentially I think there is a definition problem between traditional old style square terry towelling nappies and plastic pilchards verses MCN. I’m pretty sure that “Staying healthy at childcare” (and most people in childcare and society generally) have completely missed that MCNs exist and are still stuck in the 1950’s WRT cloth nappies.

I think if you point out that MCN are VERY different to traditional cloth nappies you’ll be right. However, my FDC lady still insists on an extra PUL cover over the top of my DDs GK pockets and I am happy to oblige for the sake of peace. And, the GKs pockets have been going for over 3 years now (they are ex DS) and really the PUL in them gave it up a while ago, so using another PUL cover over the top of them has been a great way to extend their life. And the double layers of PUL has never caused my DD any bottom issues. HTH

[Arimeh]

We had exactly the same problem with DS's daycare. They said because they leaked all the time, we had to have a plastic cover over them.

We wrote them a letter to the director pointing out the problems with their care with the MCN's.

1) They didn't understand that PUL was the new type of plastic, taking over from the old plastic covers from the 80's. So, indeed we were complying with the regulations, they just didn't know it.

2) When they went to change his nappy, they felt the inside of the nappy (suedecloth), felt that it wasn't dry, put the nappy back on him. So of course it leaked - they didn't understand that the suedecloth wicks the moisture away to the insert, and therefore always thought he was dry until it exploded after 3 hours. And of course it was OUR fault because the nappies didn't work obviously.

After we told them these few things, they were totally fine with the pockets we were sending.

[luna moth]

Pointing out to them that MCNs are different to old style cloth probably won't help much. They need to cover their own backsides, and unfortunately the new rules in QLD that require any breaches in regs to be published have meant that Department representatives seem to be out there actively looking for people to slip up so they have something to publish.

It sucks, I know. I work[ed] in Qld childcare and I struggled against this. I will be threatening not to go back if I can't use my nappies. But it's definitely easier in some places than others.

Can you send fitteds and covers instead? That would cover them and you, and only involves one layer of PUL.

[*Beema*]

Hey SL

I had a big battle with my DD's daycare to keep using cloth as Epacris said

It really does come down to education, they really didn't understand how the new cloth nappies worked, and the guidelines are so old when it comes to cloth nappies as they haven't even realised that anything "new" has been developed are are still revolving around the traditional folded terry nappies!

I am happy to PM you a copy of the letter I wrote and feel free to use of it what you wish to help you in your cause.

And I did win DD is the only child in the centre who is allowed to use cloth nappies, which is great for me but dissappointing for others, and I am hoping that when No #2 comes along and is needed some care they may consider the use of them as well, but if not we will have to consider our options, and the cost of disposibles isn't worth it as I have already got a full stash of cloth!

Good Luck and hopefully with a bit of education - even printing out information from the website where your nappies are from, showing all the different layers may help
Take care xxoo

[Snowy Love]

When I went in today & showed them the inside of the pockets, they said as long as the outside doesn't get wet they're OK! They many change their minds later of course, but for the time being its OK.

Mel, they're changing him even when the nappies aren't wet so not having your problem. They think they're wet, mark in his book as such, but when I get home, the inserts are dry as. Haven't checked today's nappies yet, hopefully he drank more today, he actually drank the EBM I sent, first time in 4 weeks.

[luna moth]

When I went in today & showed them the inside of the pockets, they said as long as the outside doesn't get wet they're OK!

Woohoo! Win!