Cloth diapers in daycare
Yay! Your daycare is on board with cloth diapering. Now you want to find out how to make it as successful as possible.
Diapers that go on just like a disposable diaper are probably the most simple for caregivers inexperienced with cloth diapers, or caregivers changing multiple babies in a short time.
Pocket diapers seem to be the most popular option for daycare, according to our readers. They go on baby just like a disposable diaper. You just need to stuff them and get them ready, so the daycare personnel don’t need to assemble anything before use.
Other options that seem to be popular as well are Ai2 and AiO diapers, with the Ai2’s assembled one cover per absorbency, as most daycares don’t want to fiddle with reusing covers.
Each day take in a pod with clean diapers for the day, a wet bag, wipes and a cloth safe diaper cream.
How many diapers would you need for daycare?
How many diapers would you use at home during this period? Take that number and add 2 more, to have a buffer if your child needs an extra change for some reason.
Cloth diapers should be checked or changed every two hours just like disposable diapers, unless baby wets or soiles before that timeline. Just like disposable diapers.
With that in mind, the general guideline would be 1 diaper for every two hours away, plus 2 for a buffer, if they need more changes than normal.
4 hour day at daycare
4 diapers each morning, 2 diapers + 2 extra
6 hour day at daycare
5 diapers each morning, 3 diapers + 2 extra
8 hour day at the daycare
6 diapers each morning, 4 diapers + 2 extra
The daycare might have different guidelines, for how many diapers or what else they need you to bring in each day. It is also good to take into account how long it has been since the baby got a new diaper at home, before being brought to daycare.
Maybe you could offer to teach them how to fit them on your child, if they don’t have many children in their care using cloth diapers, they might be insecure about the diapers being too tight or too loose.
You can print out this guideline and mark on it how to snap the diapers on your child, you can keep it with your child’s diapers in daycare.
If the daycare has other cloth diapered kids in their care, they might want you to label each diaper so the diapers won’t go home to the wrong home at the end of the day.
