We committed early on to using cloth diapers with our daughter Z, who just turned five this week. But when we got ready to put her in daycare at the age of three months, we realized that the efficiencies of a daycare operation and cloth diapering don't always go hand in hand. Rather than simply giving up on cloth diapering in order to fit in with their existing approach, we did some strategizing and were able to negotiate with a daycare to support and participate in our cloth diapering. If you'd like to do the same, follow these steps to work with your current daycare or, if you're shopping for one, as one of your criteria for identifying a suitable daycare for your child.

1. Do your regulatory homework. Look up your state's daycare regulations for diapering, and print them out. Your daycare manager may be only vaguely familiar with these regulations, and having them on hand can be key to working out the details of an unusual arrangement. If you can show them that it's not specifically banned in your state for a daycare to use cloth diapers, you have a better case for working out a compromise. In Texas, state regulations only require that diapers be placed in "cover(ed) containers used for soiled diapers or [kept] in a sanitary manner, such as placing soiled diapers in individual sealed bags." We brought the appropriate section of the regulations as well as a sample of our all-in-one cloth diapers to the primary daycare when we were interviewing and asked if we could work something out that would enable us to have Z in cloth diapers. In the end, they agreed that if we provided them with a plastic garbage bag and a diaper pail with a cover (similar to the one they used to throw away the disposable diapers but smaller) they would use the cloth diapers for her. We bought them a diaper pail to keep at the daycare and a box of plastic liners for the pail. They'd toss the diapers in our special pail for us when they changed her and at the end of each day, they'd tie the liner shut and stick the bag in Z's cubby for us to take home. We'd take them home, wash them, and bring the diapers back in her diaper bag the next day.


2. Bring a sample diaper with you. Personnel may have misconceptions about cloth diapers, either because they have never used cloth diapers or because they have never used modern cloth diapers. The employees at our daycare had never used cloth diapers before. They were impressed with our all-in-one diaper and handling it, with us showing how simple it was to use, helped them understand that changing a cloth diaper would be just as quick and easy as changing a disposable diaper. (Time is important when you're changing the diapers of ten infants every hour or two.) They might not have been as willing if they'd thought that they'd have to fold and pin diapers.


3. Be flexible. We didn't use liners in our pails at home and we didn't love the idea of using them at daycare, but otherwise they wanted us to bring ziplock bags and have each diaper individually sealed after use. The expense of the pail and the liners and the environmental impact of using one pail liner each day was much less than using a plastic bag for each diaper. Had I known about wet bags (like the Wet! Happens bags) I might have suggested using several of those in place of the ziplocks, but the point is, the solution you achieve may not be your 100% green diapering dream, but still better than the alternative.


4. Be patient. You may have to check out a few daycare centers to find one that is willing to work with you, or the daycare may agree to work with you but then diaper incorrectly the first few times they use them. At Z's daycare they'd often forget to give us our diapers (and we'd forget to check for them) so we'd have stinky day-old diapers to wash the next day. Remember that they are new to this and are doing it for you, not because they have a strong preference of cloth over disposable.


5. Thank them. It is critical for those who will follow you that your daycare provider have a positive experience using your environmentally-friendly diapering option. This means you need to acknowledge the effort they have taken to work with you on the issue. Send a card, bring cookies, or do some other nice thing every once in a while to remind them that you appreciate what they have done.

As with many things in parenting, a little research and a little strategy, delivered with kindness and flexibility, can go a long way.

If you've had success using cloth diapers at your child's daycare, tell us how it came about. Do you have any added tips or tricks for making this a success?

This post is for the Green Moms Carnival on Green Schools hosted by OrganicMania on August 10th.