Cheese & Quackers: Cloth Diapering at Cheese & Quackers

WHAT? A child care program that, not only allows cloth diapers but, actively encourages it? Yup, that's us! This is part one of a three part series about cloth diapering at Cheese & Quackers. We're going to talk about the how, our diapering routine & set up and then, we'll discuss the why. Logically, I know that writing about why first might make more sense but, inquiring minds want to know HOW in the heck do we make cloth diapering work with so many kiddos & families so, that's where we'll begin!

What do I have to do?

First of all, if you cloth diaper at home, great! If not, no worries! If they find a program that accepts cloth diapering, families that cloth diaper at home tend to have to bring bags of clean diapers and cart home a wet, stinky bag of diapers every day. That's gross, smelly, not very hygienic & extremely inconvenient! For families that use disposables, they're usually still tasked with keeping their child's diapers & wipes stocked and, when you're trying to get out the door on time Monday morning, it's pretty hard to remember to grab a pack of dipes & wipes when you were informed you were out on Friday. It's really not convenient or cost effective for either family, is it? Cheese & Quackers has always provided diapers & wipes as part of our program and we haven't changed since switching to cloth.

If you cloth diaper at home, we ask that you drop off one clean diaper and a small wet bag every day. That's just so your diapers don't get absorbed into our stash! With your child's first change of the day, we'll diaper them out of our stash of bumGenius 4.0 diapers, placing your one (as opposed to 5-8) soiled diaper in your wet bag for you to take home at pick up. An hour before pick up, we'll do a final diaper change and use your clean diaper from home.

If you use disposables at home, it's even easier! Your child will come to Cheese & Quackers diapered in a 'sposie. At their first change of the day, we'll diaper them from our stash of cloth diapers and then, an hour before pick up, we'll do our final diaper change right into a disposable. No muss, no fuss, no schlepping dipes & wipes back and forth!

What do you use?

bumGenius 4.0 diapers

Diapers -

We diaper with bumGenius 4.0 diapers. They are very much like disposables, one size fits all & we've never had a blow out or leaks! We make sure to line each diaper with a flushable liner to make it easier to clean solid waste.

Warm, lovely smelling homemade wipe solution

Wipes -

For wiping, we use baby washcloths moistened with a mixture of warm water, a little bit of Dr. Bronner's baby soap & a few drops of lavender essential oil. We mix it up every morning & keep it in a pump-style beverage dispenser at the diaper changing table. One of the best things about using cloth wipes, a normal 5 or 6 wipe diaper (if you were using disposables) is usually still just a one wipe job!

We actually do cook with it too!

Diaper Cream -

For normal, every change protection, we use organic coconut oil. Coconut oil is amazing stuff! It’s anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-fungal & antiviral, according to this article. We keep small jars of coconut oil all over the place! In the bathrooms, diaper bags, first-aid basket, you don't have to look far to find a little jar of the stuff! For the odd rashy bum, we switch to Weleda Diaper Care. It has calendula oil in it, which is wonderfully healing for raw, broken skin.

How do you clean & sanitize the diapers & wipes?

Our sanitizing routine is pretty simple actually! We have a diaper can with a very large waterproof wet bag right next to the changing table. All wet diapers, wipes & liners get dropped in there immediately after changing. For diapers with solid waste, we flush the solids, rinse with a diaper sprayer & then spray the diaper with Bac-Out, a live enzyme producing culture spray that attacks pet, food and beverage stains, organic waste, and odors until they are gone, digesting them back to nature, safely and naturally. Bac-Out is safe to use around children and pets, even birds. After spraying, it goes right into the diaper pail too.

We wash every Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday so we have plenty of diapers every day. We do a 3-cycle wash every time, a rinse & spin, followed by a heavy, sanitizing wash with biodegradable soap and some more Bac-Out and then, we do another heavy, sanitizing wash with no soap at all to make sure that there aren't residual chemicals or bacteria. We usually air dry the diapers & soakers. The kiddos love helping us stuff, fold & put away the diapers!

That's our general how we diaper at Cheese & Quackers! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below!

If you end up purchasing the items on Amazon through the links in the this post, Cheese & Quackers earns a small percentage of the purchase price. We use those funds to purchase supplies & materials for the program.