Cloth Mummy @ Child Care

My Journey with cloth has been 17 months long, it’s had its ups and downs but then I found a system that worked for me and my son and from that moment we didn’t look back. I LOVE cloth for 3 main reasons, it’s kinder to the skin, the environment and saves me a lot of money in the long run. At home we have our set up, our system, and making this work for a childcare setting was a new challenge. Being a stay-at-home mum who enrolled back into education actually studying in the field of childcare, was really something I’m passionate about seeing it implemented into childcare centres.

PREPARE & EXPLAIN

Have all your nappies whichever system you use prestuffed/clipped and with a reusable liner on top, literally ready to put on. From what I saw in my experiences most children are still using disposables and staff are used to this way more, however I had very positive open-minded talks and demonstrated how they worked and how to get a good fit etc. So far, we’ve had no leaks at all at Childcare.  The biodegradable liners are very useful for childcares as if the child poops, they can flush it and put the rest of the dirty nappy stored in a wetbag.

LARGE WETBAG

Child changing facilities aren’t super spacious and they won’t be storing your dirties in a nappy container with presoak etc. so provide a large wet bag, mine has 2 sections to separate the fresh nappies from the dirty ones. Also remember child centres have many children so they do not have the time to stay taking off poo, rinsing out the insert etc. This is a task you will have to do once the bag is returned to you. Disposable Liners would be a great idea if you don’t want messy nappies to contend with later on.  If the child poops, they can just remove/flush the liner and put your dirty nappy in the wet bag.

WIPES

At home we use cotton cloths with warm water, centres changing facilities are not always located near running water, I saw some that were and some that weren’t. I did pack wet wipes just in case...as much as I detest them; However one centre told me they like to use cotton wool and warm water so I was happy to provide them with this. Another option which one can go for is to prepare some ready soaked cloth wipes in a small wetbag and attach it to your large wet bag.  Once the cloth wipe is used, they can put it together with the dirty nappies. 

STORAGE

Children will have their own storage section for their changing needs, these are not very spacious generally. As we know cloth are much bulkier than disposables. I highly recommend a nappy bag. Mine has a hook as well so it can be hung up if it’s easier for staff. My bag fits in it 3/4 ready to go cloth nappies the wet bag, wet wipes, a small tub of cream (just in case) and a whole change of clothes. Technically it could take 6 nappies if you were leaving the other items out. The great thing with this bag is everything is together easy to grab and identify and then the whole bag can be returned to you to repack when needed.

TO CONCLUDE...

It’s all going well, what seemed like a daunting challenge was not that difficult at all. So I would like to encourage all Cloth Mummies.  From what I am experiencing,  Cloth is completely do able away from home.  Hopefully by time it will be much more common at Childcare centres and this has to start from us.  I was adamant that my son stays in cloth, and so disposables were not an option, period. 

It starts from us…BE the change you want to see.

From 

Charlotte Batten