If you can take out the trash, you can use a diaper service. They're very
similar — except instead of a stinky trash can, we leave behind clean
diapers.
On your pickup day, you leave your dirty diapers in a bag outside your door.
You'll mark on a tag how many clean diapers you have left. We'll pick them
up and leave you a bag of fresh diapers — you don't even have to be
home.
You do not rinse or soak your diapers. Just put them in the bag! Once your
baby has solid poops, flip them into the toilet and throw the diaper into
the pail. (You're supposed to do this with disposables to
help keep untreated waste out of the landfill, but no one really ever does
that.) We also offer flushable diaper liners to make this
easy task even easier.
We also offer a part cloth/part disposable package if your daycare
is resistant to cloth diapers or you are planning to travel. We carry Tushies
brand disposables, which don't contain the super absorbent chemical gel (click
here to see why that's good), aren't bleached, and use a cotton mix
containing wood pulp from sustainable, renewable, family-owned forests.
Getting started
Give us a call or e-mail and we'll set you up
with the right size and number of diapers, a diaper pail liner (a waterproof bag
that zips closed) and Snappis (instead of pins).
If you call before your baby's birth, we will arrange our first
delivery several weeks before the baby is due (and we will include four
loaner newborn covers with your service). When your baby is born,
just give us a call to start regular service.
At our first delivery, we will demonstrate how to
use the diapers, Snappis and covers and answer any questions you may
have. We also provide you with the tags you will use to mark
how many clean diapers you have left.
(Clean diapers should only be turned in after you have spoken to us about a
size change or a number drop.)
To start service, we ask for first and last four weeks' fees as a deposit. You
will always only pay for service you use — anything else will be
refunded. Then we will bill you every four weeks for the following four weeks.
Each week, you put out all of your dirty diapers in the diaper pail liner we provide,
mark on the tag the number of clean diapers you have remaining and we'll make sure you
have a full amount.
Washing process
We use a washing formula developed by the National
Association of Diaper Services.
Basically, your diapers are washed using multiple changes of very hot water.
We add an alkali to help the detergent work better, a minimum amount of bleach,
several rinses and then we balance the ph level, leaving no residue behind.
Because
we wash many more diapers than you would at home, we are able to use less water
and detergent per diaper while getting them exceptionally clean. We are in
the process of becoming accredited by the National Association of Diaper Services,
which requires a diaper be sent to a lab each month to be tested for bacteria,
absorbency and ph level.
Odds and Ends
Vacation
If you go on vacation, just give us a call at least a week before you go.
Then we can arrange to pick up dirty
diapers and leave you either extra diapers (if you want to cloth diaper
while on vacation) or provide you with Tushies disposables.
What not to do
Please do not wash your diapers at home. Diapers often become stained
that way.
Also, please avoid Regular or Original Formula Desitin diaper
cream because the high levels of cod liver oil will stain the diapers. Any other
formula of Desitin or other diaper cream is fine.
Don't let your day care tell you it is illegal or against health regulations
to use cloth diapers at day care. It's not. We've checked. The
Ohio Job & Family Services which pointed us to the
Ohio Administrative Code 5101:2-12-15.2
Diapering and toilet training for licensed child care centers
(see point 7). Depending on the type of facility and who is doing the laundering,
a day care can hold soiled cloth diapers for
one,
five
or seven consecutive days.
The Kentucky Division
of regulated Child Care states that "An adequate quantity of freshly
laundered or disposable diapers and clean clothing
shall be available" at each facility. The law allows for cloth diapers to be used at
day care facilities in both Ohio and Kentucky.
It is not the state (or commonwealth) but, instead, individual care companies that decide
to not allow cloth diapering - or even disposable diapering - at its facilities.
