Childcare and real nappies
As I'm most often asked about how to persuade nurseries to accept babies in terry nappies, this article is mostly written with nurseries in mind. However, the ideas here will apply equally well to all kinds of childcare situations, and do please note the final paragraph about child minders!!
The first thing is to talk to the child carer. It may well be that they've
done this several times, and can sort out the practicalities with you very
easily - in which case there should be no difficulties! It sounds like a
dream, but it has been known to happen :) Some nurseries even have a policy of using reusable nappies on babies in their care, whatever nappy is used at home!
If they haven't done it before and are reluctant to try it, don't necessarily
give up: I know it's hard but it is your right to send your child to nursery or a minder in
terries if you want to, and under equal opps regulations, I understand that
they have to accept him/her (though I do understand that you might not want
to get that confrontational with them!).
I should think that, as usual, the situation will actually be somewhere
between those two extremes. If you talk to your prospective carers reasonably, and discover
what (if any) objections they might have, you should be able to work out
compromises with them. Here are some suggestions and things I can
think of that may come up:
Nurseries will have to pay to have their disposables collected and taken
away, so you can point out that using cloth would reduce their costs, even
if only a little :)
If you send the baby to nursery/childminder with the day's nappies already 'made up' - laid
out in the wrap and ready to put on, this might be easier for inexperienced
carers to handle. (this may mean you need more wraps than usual)
Use paper liners, so they can dispose of your children's poo in the same
way as disposable-nappied children's poo (however that might be!) - or, of
course, flush it!
If possible, use nappies which behave as much like disposables as
possible - velcro fastenings etc - this will be easier for
inexperienced/rushed carers to cope with. For a full range of shaped, easy to use washable nappies, visit our sister website, Plush Pants Cloth Nappies.
Point out that, once the poo is got rid of, the nappy can be stored in a
plastic bag and it is effectively no different than storing trousers which
have been accidentally weed on by a potty-training child.
If all else fails, and the carer insists on using disposables on your child when (s)he is in their care, insist that (s)he should be wearing a terry nappy when you drop him/her off, and a clean terry nappy when you pick up again at the end of the day. Perhaps, once the carers realise how easy this is to accommodate, they'll relent on using terries during the rest of the day!
Incidentally, if you're worried about how your childminder might react to terry nappies, please don't. Many of them use or will have used washable nappies on their babies, and are quite happy to accomodate parents wishes. Do ask the question when you're making initial contact - even if the particular minder you're talking to can't accommodate your terry nappies, she's almost bound to know of one or two who could.
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