Any working moms who cloth diaper?

[anamika]

Hi,
I hardly ever read this forum but I've been thinking about cloth diapering for some time. I work full time, my DD goes to daycare. But I was wondering if any working moms have managed to successfully cloth diaper their child - even only at night or weekends? I'm thinking of doing this weekends and wanted to get an idea of what supplies I need and how many more loads of laundry this involves. Do you think it is worth it?
I know absolutely nothing about this so please feel free to tell me even the most basic stuff. Also expansions for abbreviations used would help :)
Also does cloth diapering prevent diaper rashes? DD gets them sometimes and I was wondering if cloth diapered babies had fewer outbreaks?
TIA,

[JLiebCamm]

Hi my new friend! I'm just bumping this up so Nita sees it. She just offered to help me with this very situation so she would be a good resource for you.

[steph2003]

Hi there
I'm not working outside the home now but I was & I still CDing at night & weekends. I say even a little bit of cloth is better than not at all :) My daycare provider (a center) would not use cloth but I do know some providers are willing to use cloth. I think there are a handful of mamas here that use cloth at daycare/babysitters.

So I say - sure it is possible. The way I look at it you can CD as little or as much as you want. At first I thought it was an all or nothing scenario & for some it is & that is great - but for us even w/me at home I don't use cloth full time (like for instance my gym childwatch center won't use cloth & either will my church nursery)

[stillplayswithbarbies]

We cloth diaper nights and weekends. :) Logan is in disposables at the babysitter during the day. The most important thing is that you might need a separate wardrobe since cloth is bulkier and pants might not fit. But I want playclothes for daycare anyway, so that works out to have certain clothes that only fit with disposables.

Doing CDs part time just means that you don't have to do laundry as often. Everything else remains the same. Logan gets changed when she gets home, and then is usually good until she goes into her night-time diaper (Fuzzibunz). We wash once a week. Usually we put the diapers in to soak at night, and then in the morning turn it to wash out the soak water and start a hot wash. Come home from work and run it through the extra rinses and put it in the dryer. It's usually not dry before bed, so we know when we are down to one Fuzzibunz it is washday.

By the way, doing it part time makes it harder to break even on the money, since you still have to buy disposables.

As for the diaper rash . . . it depends. Some kids are rashier in cloth and some are rashier in disposables. Maybe it is what they get used to. Logan gets a rash in disposables if we travel and use them all day. But she never got a rash the first 6 months before we started cloth.

...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
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[starfish03]

Hi!

I am a working cloth diapering mom. My DS goes to our corporate daycare and they do cloth! So we are full time cloth. (I'm actually generating a lot of interest in CDing too!)

I would think you would be fine to CD on nights and weekends. I think it's better for the babies, so any amount that you can do would be good.

I don't like to let dipes sit too long w/out laundering, so I'd probably run a load every 3rd day regardless of how much I had accumulated. Maybe some others have a different opinion regarding laundering? I find CD laundry to be really easy though.

For daycare diapering (just in case you are interested) I send pre-stuffed pocket diapers. I have a couple of different styles, but they are all easy for non-CDers to use. I also send a wetbag. Every afternoon, I pick up the wetbag and dump it in my larger pail at home. Then I do CD laundry about every 2-3 nights.

As far as rash - we've never had one. Our daycare teacher commented that Sam seems drier than the babies in disposables. That really surprised me!

[kijip]

I work full-time, right now more than full-time. Toby is in cloth or regular (cloth) training pants full-time. I have found that it does not affect rashes but I have a pretty non-rashy babe.

We even found a top notch pt pre-school for next year that takes cloth dipes that are washed at home (they will just send them home in your wet bag!).

I have found that washing them is a pretty simple task and does not add much to our household chores at all. As a note, while I do MOST of the diaper laundry I am somewhat advantaged in that my husband does all the rest of the laundry and reliably deals with a huge amount of housework- cooks breakfast, packs lunch, cleans kitchen, helps at least 50% (often 90%) with everything else. I think it would be harder to handle the extra laundry if I had a hands off or super busy at work husband.

[nitaghei]

Hi!

I WOH full time, and DS is in a daycare center, and we CD full time. In fact, we've been using CDs at daycare for over a year now. The director wasn't too happy when I first raised the topic - but she went along when I showed her what I used - a far cry from the flatfolds, pins and plastic pants she was visualizing. :)

The best daycare dipes are aplix pocket dipes. They look and function like disposables, so are the easiest and the more foolproof option. Recently I've actually been leaving my wool (ouch) and we've been having some issues. But that's because there is a clueless temp in there currently. Anyway, I digress.

The bulk of my daycare stash is Babyblankets. www.thebabyblanket.com. And some assorted fleece aplix pockets. I mostly stuff with trifolded microfiber towels (available at Target, Walmart and Costco). I have a Sterilite can that I leave at daycare, and wetbags (cheap camping bags from Target. I'm told Walmart has better ones, but these work fine). I leave fresh dipes every day, and pick up the used ones in the evening, and bring them home to unstuff and sort. Most of the time I'm lazy and just leave them in the downstairs bathroom until wash day, and dealing with the grossness of unstuffing in one go. I have enough dipes that I do wash twice a week - Wednesday night and Sunday afternoon. I start the soak cycle when I get home (6.15 pm) and they are usually done by the time I sit down to catch my breath (9.30pm). I then stuff them while I'm watching TV (about 20-30 minutes) and I'm set for the rest of the week. Sunday I do laundry when DS is napping.

Oh, I used these dipes because I was trying to save $$$. :) The Babyblankets were about $10 each when I bought them - and I've been using them for over a year. Definitely cheaper than disposables. Aplix AIOs, like Angelwraps, would also be a super easy, fool proof daycare dipe. Just more $$. IME, side-snapping dipes are the ones that the caregivers have the most problems with.

One of the things I LOVE about CD'g is that I can do wash when DS is sleeping, and I don't have to waste valuable weekend time standing in line at Target to buy dipes. Honestly, ever since we started CD'g I rarely go into Target more than once every 6 weeks - and that's usually to pick up prescriptions.

Of course, it's fun just to do weekends, too. That's how I got started. With prefolds, Proraps and Fuzzibunz. Now I'm scanning diaperpin for cute wool.

Just be warned!! :) If you want to stay away from hyena-dom and within some kind of budget - stay away from Jen, Pam, Trish, and Helene, our newest hyena. :) I've actually been pretty good. Even after my recent wool buying spree, I'm probably ahead of where I would have been with disposables. CDs are sooooooo fun. And I've not found it any more work. In fact, I think CDs are a lot more convenient that disposables. But then I HATE going into Target or any mall on the weekend.

BTW - I spent the last two hours doing "work" work at home - which is why I'm online so late.

Nita (wool is my crack)
mom to Neel, January 2003
dog mom to a PWD and a cocker (at the Rainbow Bridge)

[tbriese]

hello! i work full time and CD full time (mostly - i don't do nighttime dipes). i am lucky that my sitter will do cloth but i do agree that aplix (generic term for velcro) is easiest (i started with fuzibunz but am switching to aplix brands now that we are sizing up). i don't think the laundry is much more work. it doesn't take much time to cart the dipes downstairs or fold them.

regarding diaper rashes...my DD isn't too prone to rashes unless i use too much detergent :-) good thing to know, though is go easy on the detergent! other than that, i don't know if she'd have any more in sposies b/c we've never used them that long.

as far as supplies...for weekends only, you'd probably only need ~18 diapers. what other supplies you need would depend on what system you want to use. prefolds? pockets diapers, all in ones?

[tarahsolazy]

Another nice daycare dipe would be Very Baby All in Ones, or Bum-Ware all in ones. www.verybaby.com www.bum-ware.com They are just like a disposable, in that they are one piece, have a waterproof outer, and absorbant inner, and close with velcro. I think if I sent Fory to daycare, I'd either use pockets like Nita does, or get some VBs and BumWares. I'm a working mom, but my DH is a SAHD, so that doesn't really count. I do try to do all the dipe laundry, since I am suspicous that DH uses too much detergent, and he NEVER runs an extra cycle.

[nitaghei]

Just wanted to say how nice it was to meet you and Fory. And also - Fory has the most gorgeous eyes!! He is even cuter in person.

Nita (wool is my crack)
mom to Neel, January 2003
dog mom to a PWD and a cocker (at the Rainbow Bridge)

[anamika]

Jessica, thanks for bumping it up :)
Wow, thanks so much for all the detailed replies. I didn't get any replies the first day so I just figured there must not be any moms who work and CD (aha, I 'm already picking up the lingo).
It's great to know there are so many daycares who will do cloth. I think I'll start with cloth at home and then move upto full time.
So I'm off to research this and I'll be back with all my questions soon,
Thanks again,

[caheinz]

Just adding to the "yep"s...

We're part-time now, but were full-time CDing for the first 4+ months. (We moved, and the previoud center would use cloth.) I should do like Nita did and push harder for CDs in our current one (they claimed the "state law" thing here, too, and, um, nope, no such law...), but I haven't yet. But, I really don't like disposables, can't stand the smell of 'em.

But, he gets back into cloth as soon as we get home!

I don't think we're doing too bad cost-wise. We do a lot of prefolds, and Alex has been in the same size long enough to make it worthwhile. And, I don't have any hyena-dipes!