Using MCN's at childcare Vs Using Disposables - I need your opinion

Hi Everyone

I'm a family day carer and have a few questions for both users of disposables and cloth nappies.

I'm thinking of supplying mcn's to use within my service, and have a few questions

I go on another forum specifically for day care and this has come up on it.

During last year I had 8-9 kids in disposables each week sometimes up to 4 a day. You can just imagine what my garbage looked like. As well as this I guess it's also an environmental issue, how many years does it take a disposable to break down? Over the last twelve years I have had three or four families use cloth (flats)- which the parent supplied - that's out of over 100 families. I have no hesitation using them, both my children wore flats (although I used disposable of a night time as they slept through and for me they worked better)

1. Would you feel this is ok (me supplying rather than the parent)
2. Would you be comfortable in your child wearing a nappy that had been worn by another child (of course, it would be washed between times)
3. Would it be washed hygenically enough for you - using the normal mcn method of washing


can you list anything else you can think of that I may have not thought about. Give me some pros and cons for this, so that I can make a decision as to which way to go.

I at the moment, supply bibs and linen for each child. I'm also considering changing from using disposable wipes for hands and faces (and perhaps bottoms) to cloth ones. How would you feel with your carer using this?

Another option is to return to asking the parents to take home their dirty napies which I have done in the past, but this only solves part of the problem.

I would ask they supply a home time nappy so that my "stash" didn't go missing.



I am not "putting down" anyone who uses disposables - it comes down to using the nappy that works best for you. I personally used both cloth and disposable.

I have also put this in the nappy discussion thread as well

Thanks for your opinions

I think it's a really good option. These would be my tips:
* Make sure parents have access to a LOT of info on MCNs and how good they are for bottoms. My SIL shies right away from them because she is underinformed, and thinks they cause nappy rash.
* Give them an escape hatch like a trial period or something, so that they can opt out if they want to. Explain why you are doing it (use bin space limitations, it's a great point)
* Have one colour for your cloth wipes and another for your face washers, a LDC where I worked did this and it worked really well; no parents ever had an issue with it.
* Have MCNs available for sale - maybe you can convert some folk and expand the cloth empire!!

Good luck!

Hi, I once worked within a childcare centre that was re-evalating their nappy policy.

We used to provide the cloth nappies that were used at the centre through a professional company. Parents were required to bring their own plastics and change their bub into a centre nappy on arrival, and also provide a home nappy or two for the end of the day.

Parents that chose to have their child in disposable nappies were fine to do so, but as a nappy service was provided, used nappies were sent home with the parent each day.

The centre had looked into scrapping the nappy service, but the idea of having ALL the children's used nappies stored within the bathroom area posed to be a stinky idea, as well as a health hazard. As an alternative, management looked into providing a nappy disposal service, but this proved to be more costly than providing the cloth nappies.

Food for thought.

At least they won't be sitting around for a week like mine at home were, you will have enough to put through each night :)
I think its a great idea, I would be really impressed if you were looking after my daughter, but then I used cloth.
My only concern would be hygeine, but if you explained to me that you used hot water or some type of in wash napisan thingy, I would be happy.
And I would definately support face washers as well. Didn't kids used to bring their own washer to kindy?
Yay you! xx