Can daycare refuse cloth nappies?

[MantaRay]

I remember you saying that about nappies being thrown out Shannon. I started off being very careful about counting them, but now I can see that they are very diligent with the nappies and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't happen at our centre. It's too much to count them when I have to pick up two boys, the nappies and their backpacks.

[christy]

We use family day care & we send a wet bag with her. Our family day care lady actually said to me "oh I see you are using cloth, what would you like me to do with them?" So I started using them with her as well.

[Loula]

wow

working in long day care for over 10 years i am very surprised at the responces i have heard in this thread!!

where i work we 'allow' cloth nappies but will not rince them, although some staff do clean it out a bit for you, although i good idea that i have seen is a 'j' cloth that can be thrown away in the middle so they can put that with the disposiable.

We do suply all nappies at no extra cost so that is why most parents go for that but i have had several children over the years that will only have cloth!!and whats the big deal anyway, isnt the customer always right. gosh im still in shock in face i feel it is discrimination !!!

Gl with how you go

[Babyjoy]

Just wanted to add my experiences... my DD has been in child care for over a year (three days a week) and in cloth for most of that time. We use pockets (ready stuffed) and cloth wipes (chemical ones give her a rash). The staff know to put the poo in the toilet and roll up the nappy and wipes and put in the wet bag which they hang up out of reach of the children. No one has complained about it at all and I am not charged extra (a ridiculous idea if you ask me!). In fact, when I first discussed cloth with them they were incredibly encouraging! They are sick of seeing all the waste every day and when I showed them how easy they were to use they were all keen to try them out, and I've since sold a few small ones to a staff member who was pregnant.

Due to staff changes, or temporary staff coming in, we have "lost" two nappies - one purple Haute pocket and one Bumware (which was white so it may have looked similar to a disposable) - which I didn't notice until after wash day. But I figure with the money I've saved by not taking disposables into the centre, it's a small price to pay.

In regards to hygiene, I think that's a really poor excuse for a centre to say "no" to cloth. Disposing solid waste in a bin is worse than the above method with cloth - the waste goes in the toilet where it's supposed to go! Left in a bin, it is creating a nice little environment for bacteria and viruses. Changing nappies is the same - sometimes you get poo on your hands with sposies or cloth use, so you just have to wash your hands afterwards. Storing the dirty nappies is also easy and remember it's the parents who empty the wet bags or nappy buckets, not the staff.
If I came across a centre that said no to cloth, I'd be going somewhere else.

[paradise lost]

Malakili i think that when terry flats and other cloth nappies were more prevalent, in the 70's and early 80's, far less women went to work when bubs was still in nappies (the maternity leave and employment laws were different) and people generally used grandparents/relatives or small-scale childminders when they DID work, rather than larger daycare facilities. It's only in the last 5-10 years that it has become equally normal for women to return to work as to stay at home.

I have a friend who uses cloths at daycare, and she just asks them to roll the centre inserts and put them into a ziplock bag (which she provides) and either re-use the outer wrap or bag it up (if wet/dirty) with the inserts. All staff wear plastic gloves to change nappies anyway and none of them object in the least. She keeps a lock-top bucket in her carboot to put the ziplock bags in between the centre and home (so sh can stop off at the suprmarket without having to get back into a humming car!) and has no problems with it. Some staff rinse off poo, some don't. She doesn't mind either way - she re-rinses and nappysans them all before she puts them in the machine anyway.

Bx

[prama]

I went to the Day Care Orientation last night (boy, can they get over the top) and asked about cloth nappies. Initially, they said they couldn't due to hygiene issues. I could tell that they wanted my business so very careful when they said it. I then told them, that I don't expect them to clean the nappy but just put in a wetbag just like you would put it in a bin. They then seemed to agree to it.

I think a lot of centres just need to be educated a bit more about cloth nappies and how to handle them. Like Babyjoy said, they don't even have worry about emptying the bin.

[Bathsheba]

Good work Prama! I agree, a little education and open-mindedness goes a long way. You'd think in these days of environmental education in the classroom (and even in the littlies rooms) that they could really use this as a wonderful teaching opportunity! How much fun would the little toddlers have putting MCNs on their life-like dolls! Where i worked we sometimes gave newborn sized 'sposies for the 2/3 yo's to put on the dolls. They LOVED it! They could be teaching the next generation. Also I think if centres gave some thought to how their bathrooms/changerooms are set up then clothies could be more easily dealt with. Where i worked there was a large sink right beside the change table but the toilets were across the room. If a toilet with a spray hose attachment could be placed in a more convenient place right beside the change table then life would be much easier with clothies.

ETA: I'm thinking how it would work at change time with clothies as opposed to sposies. Where i worked we did a big nappy change session just before lunch time. Of course if a child's nappy wasn't needing a change we didn't do them but most did. So we had about 8 or so nappies to in about half an hour before we had to do lunches. One staff member did this whilst the other helped the children wash their hands and heat the lunches and clear the tables for lunch. The staff member on nappy duty took each child, one at a time into the change room... quickly did the nappy and popped the spossie in the bin, re-dressed the child then returned the child into the room and when back and washed their hands before getting the next child (we didn't wear gloves because a new set of gloves would be needed per child). If rinsing out a pooey nappy had to be added to this it would take about 1/2 minutes extra per child (including rolling up and putting in a wet bag)... now I would do this because i believe in clothies but it would have an impact on the centre's routine. So change might come slowly but hopefully it will come.

[*charmalea*]

i take nixon to an abc daycare where they happily use mcn , or even terrys on him . .they even have a litttle squirt to use ...

he is the only child in the entire center with cloth ...
i just supply the nappies and wet bag ...

[Babyjoy]

My daughter is also the only one in cloth at her centre and a good friend of mine recently switched to cloth and her daughter is also the only one in cloth at her centre. I think if there was one bub in cloth at every day care centre in Australia... change may start to happen faster because people would notice and staff would have a better understanding of MCN.

[MantaRay]

Someone posted in another thread that they had read on an MCN site that someone had researched this and found that the centre is obliged to use whatever nappies you choose to provide. So there you go, maybe we were all wrong on this!!

[Babyjoy]

Someone posted in another thread that they had read on an MCN site that someone had researched this and found that the centre is obliged to use whatever nappies you choose to provide. So there you go, maybe we were all wrong on this!!

Well that makes sense to me... if your child has bad skin reactions to sposies then the centre would have to accommodate cloth or you would be looking elsewhere for child care.
I think I must be one of the lucky ones to have staff so open-minded and positive about cloth nappies!

[Bathsheba]

Interesting Manta! I agree, centres should use whatever people choose to supply and they should structure facilities and staffing around it if it's a problem. I think this is the beginning of change, each generation is more environmentally aware. I've certainly told my DD that clothies are the way to go. The argument that they waste water doesn't wash with me at all... sposies use MORE water in their manufacture than it takes to clean each clothie. Making plastic and the other man made materials in sposies is highly water dependent but few studies mention this do they think we are stupid? Do they think that we believe sposies come from the supermarket like children think milk comes from the dairy cabinet?

[MantaRay]

Me too Babyjoy! They were enthusiastic when I first asked and even more so now they are using them!

[Bathsheba]

I just found this info that could be provided to any centre concerned about being "Green":

*It takes one full cup of crude oil to make the plastic for each “disposable” nappy.

*It takes 4.5 trees to make the pulp used in “disposable” nappies for one baby over 2 1/2 years (ie: 7 million trees a year are felled for UK babies, 1.3 million trees for NZ babies)

*”Disposable” nappies use 3.5 times more energy, 8 times more non-renewable raw materials, 90 times more renewable materials than washable nappies.

*It takes as much energy to produce one throwaway nappy as it does to wash a cloth nappy 200 times.

*”Disposables” produce 2.3 times more waste water (at the production stage) and 60 times more solid waste than washable nappies – one baby in disposables will produce 2 tonnes of solid waste! (my note: I think this include the packaging of disposables as well).

*In a household with one baby, “disposables” will make up 50% of total household waste. Just one single item, “disposables”, make up 6% of total waste in Wellington

(from zerowaste site).