Just a question to those who are childminders or who use childminders- what are your experiences of using cloth nappies in a child minder setting?

If you are a CM who is a cloth nappy fan, do you use cloth on your mindees (with parent permission) and wash them yourself (if they are in disposables at home)?
How have your clients felt about it?
Has it just become a health & safety issue (hygiene, not being able to share nappies between children… or do you share them? etc).
It is time consuming (used cloth on my boys) and I doubt parents are willing to pay for the time it takes to wash/dry/sort out… or are they?

I am just starting the CM training and thinking about offering cloth in my setting for those parents who are happy with it, or those who use cloth already.

I am looking for other ideas for offering a more ‘green’ setting such as supporting BF mums by talking about expressed-BM use/storage in my literature, seasonal/nature lead activities, organic/local/fairtrade food, continuing baby wearing if relevant, plenty of outdoor play, natural material for playthings, home grown fruit/veg, involving children in the garden, support BLW. Any other ideas? Any one know of a child minder who offers similar, it would be interesting to read their literature to see how they put across their philosophies.

Thanks.

I think that this is an interesting question, not that I use a child minder but if I were to, I’d expect them to use whatever I used at home - for everything, food, nappies, drinks etc. I’d expect to have to provide these things, too. I would drop T off with her bag of gear - changes of clothes, nappies, food for the duration of the stay, EBM if necessary, her cup - that kind of thing. I’d expect to pay for whatever work was involved on top of the hourly rate, if washing was needed, if something had to be bought specially and for any trips or outings. Obviously I’d agree these things in advance but with some leeway for the CM to make necessary decisions along the way. I’d definitely feel infinitely more comfortable with a CM who appreciated and knew about AP and cloth nappying, baby wearing and supported breastfeeding - I would even be interested in a wet nursing child minder. The Steiner path we’re on isn’t to everyone’s taste, I know but a CM who understood it and was interested in nature walks and allotmenteering or similar would be a massive bonus! I’d expect that this kind of service would be more expensive than a standard child minding service but would be happier to leave Tansy there than a bog standard one. You might want to talk to Joxy too, she’s a newly qualified CM and has been doing it a few months now, she’ll probably have good advice to give by now!

Ive been a RCM for years and have always used whatever parents provide for me to use on their LO’s. I would be happy to do cloth (and have done) and just put the used ones in their day nappy bag for them to take home and launder.

I also know rcm’s who wont use cloth in their setting

fwiw, I dont offer to provide cloth in my setting as it would get complicated around what nappy they were sent home in and it also cost a fair bit to do washables imo - ie cost of the nappies themselves plus all the laundering. Whilst I have a nappy stash large enought to probably do an entire nursery lol, I still think it would add significantly to my cost (and work load) and Im not sure parents would be happy to pay for it,considering the local dynamics here around childcare costs.

I think if parents are that way inclined (ie green parents) then they are probaby already using cloth and will send their lo in cloth. Parents who arent into it, afaics probably wont want to pay the extra.

Nic x

If I were a CM I would *only* use cloth.

For a start, I wouldn’t want dozens of dirty nappies festering in *my* bin.

I would ask the parent to provide one nappy, and then from the first nappy change of the day in my care I would put them in my cloth nappies, use my cloth during the day, and change them into their own nappy around ‘home time’. Then stick the nappies in the washer. Or maybe do a nappy wash every other day if there was only one baby in nappies.

TBH, having worked in a nursery, I dont see how it would add to costs. For a start, nurseries often have to have a spare pack of nappies in case the child’s own supply runs out. As for parents paying for it, I think the saving (for the parent) not having to provide 6+ disposables per day would still be enough for them to pay a little extra for cloth nappying. And tbh, an extra pound or two per day ought to cover the extra laundry costs.

I could imagine it being expensive if you were having to build a cloth nappy stash from scratch (so maybe would have to look at cheaper pre-folds or 2nd hand sets), but if you already had a stash which was still in good condition, it can only make economical (and enviromental) sense to use them on your charges.

If I had anyone *very* opposed to using cloth on their child I would probably ‘compromise’ and buy packs of ‘eco’ sposies like Moltex or something; but would have to come to some arrangement with the parent as to whether they bought them or paid a little extra so I could buy them to use on their child.

Personally (and this is probably why I wouldn’t do well as a CM, lol), although the child is *their* child, there are certain ethics I would want to stick to, such as babywearing a child under 12/18 months, not relying on various ‘play equipment’s to keep the baby ‘occupied’ or in one spot, not spoon feeding jars of ‘mush’, prefering instead to practice BLW with fresh organic vegetables etc. I’d hope that in initial chats with prospective employers, we’d have enough in common and/or they’d accept my principles enough to be happy to leave their child in my care and be happy with ‘my way’ of looking after the child. IYGWIM.

I am considering offering cloth myself.  I have a green policy in which I make it clear I am more than happy, and experienced in the use of cloth nappies.  I don’t at present offer cloth - in part because I got rid of my stash in the most part, so I would need to get some more nappies in to do that… and my charge is very close to potty training age.  I am amazed at how much my rubbish has increased having just one charge.  I use to put out a black bin bag once a fortnight.. sometimes once a month.  Now I put out a black bag’s worth of rubbish nearly every week! 

MY biggest headache is trying to figure out how to claim for the expense of washing the nappies - maths is not my crowning glory.  And I am aware that childminding just one child is actually a lot of work, and I’m not sure I really want to increase that work load with nappies - especially if it meant that I would be taking away from the time Rye and I have togther.. and as I have my mindee 6 days a week (4 full days and 2 half days), Rye and me alone time is precious.  Then there’s the winter and trying to dry nappies - nappies that I wouldn’t be able to have drying in areas where my mindee is.. which, basically leaves me with having them in my room…. no thanks.

You do need to think of all the angles, and you need to be aware that if you’re using a washing machine under warranty - for instance, then your warranty is not valid because you’re using the machine for a business purpose.  You will need somewhere inaccessible to the children, to put the nappy bin, and you will need to write a policy for this.  If you were to use the dryer, you can only use it when your charges are unable to access the kitchen because it’s considered a burn hazard.  So either stairgates up, or waiting until they have left the setting for the day.  Mixing nappies for different children isn’t a problem because the nappies are (obviously), washed - tho probably a good idea to mention in your policy that you do not keep specific nappies for specific children - except when the nappies are provided by the parent - in which case those nappies would be given back to the parent for washing.

IN my case, this will probably be a service I will offer, when I move next year - at the moment the logistics make it too much of a headache.

I’m happy to email you my polices if you like.  I’ve just be ofsted inspected and she was very happy with my policies and was very pleased with my green policies and healthy eating policy in which I state that as a minimum ALL fruit and veg is fairtrade and/or organic.  These days just about everything is organic or fair trade.  I am very clear that in my setting the toys available are wooden / traditonal / natural and handmade. The exception to this may be outdoor toys, one of the ride on toys is plastic, plastic hoola hoop, plastic easel that sort of thing. 

I also re-wrote the discipline procedures, which the ones I saw, tended to go down the naughty step routine… and again she was perfectly happy with what I wrote (and I made a point of writing that such behaviours are often age appropriate, if unacceptable)
I have a babywearing policy and I do wear my charge. 
I also have within my policies that I am keen to support mothers who breastfeed, and that I am experienced in baby led weaning, and that it is my policy to offer children from the age of 6 months finger foods, as recommended by WHO.  If parents have gone the puree route, then I make it clear I will provide home made organic purees but I will not feed jars.
HTH

Joxy.

Thank you all for your interesting replies- there are some things there I hadn’t considered. I think offering to continue using cloth for cloth-using parents would be the best way to start off. I too have very very few cloth nappies left so the cost of re-stocking enough for 1 or 2 mindees would be too much to start with.
Of course, different cloth nappy brands suit different children in terms of shape and wetting differences, so it would be even more difficult having the right nappies ready at the right times as a CM can have 1, 2 or even 3 mindees in nappies on any one day and different mindees on different days of the week- that would take quite some logistics!
Joxy- I’ll PM you, thank you.

rather than you disposing of the sopsies your charges could be using, couldn’t you sent them home with the child like you would a cloth charge? This way you would not have a bin full of stinky nappies.

not a CM but know a few who are happy to use whichever nappies the parents provide

I know a ‘cloth only’ childminder. She will only accept children if the parents are willing for the child to be in cloth while she has them. If she provides the nappies, she makes a charge similar to what a disposable costs for each nappy used, to cover washing costs. If the parents uses disposables, they arrive in one, and go home in one, and she sends the used one home for the parent to dispose of, and washes the nappies she has used, herself.

I guess it depends what the demand for childminders is in your area. If you can fill your places with cloth wearing children, then great! If not, you may have to offer it as an option only.

My CM uses cloth for us;  Thom was her first cloth bum, and she has now got it written into her policy that she’s happy to use whatever parents provide.  She’s also got a positive bf policy - happy to use ebm and for mums to visit whenever they want to, to bf.  FWIW I really like her approach to the care of babies - they are taken along on the school run and along to toddler group with the older charges, and if she needs to she pops into the shops on the way back etc.  Her OH is now an rcm too, so they have a little tribe for school run sometimes.  I like that normal life just continues and Thom fits into it and has plenty of time to play and have cuddles too - basically very similar to his home life.  I suppose that this is what most cms doo, really - I just like that he gets to chill out and watch the world go by, joining in if he wants to, rather than have a succession of more structured activities. 

My childminder was only to happy to use our cloth napies (I wouldn’t have taken her on if she hadn’t) She hadn’t used them before but after I showed her the ins and outs she was fine. We gave her a waterproof bag to keep used ones in and a bottle of tea tree oil to drop in with them.
The only time she used disposables was when the kids had really horific nappy rash which did actually help.
love and light x

Joxy - 20 June 2010 09:30 PM

MY biggest headache is trying to figure out how to claim for the expense of washing the nappies - maths is not my crowning glory. 

My first post - blatantly concerning my business…    I’ve been lurking for a long time but really felt the need to register and respond to this one!

Have you thought about using a laundry service? For @£10 a week you could have the nappies delivered and washed. It’s the same as for nurseries or private individuals who use the service so I can’t see it being any different for a childminder.

Kat
x