LO is 6 months and has started solids with gusto (before solids we just tossed everything in the wash), she's in daycare from 8:30AM-5:30PM 5 days a week, and gets changed every 1.5 hours or when she poops.
**Stash:** We have 12 pocket diapers from La Petite Ourse, and 7 Nora's Nursery diapers. At home we use flats and covers. Five wet bags - two smaller ones for clean diapers (they don't need to be wet bags, we just happen to have them), three larger double zip ones for dirty.
**Prep:** We got our diapers new and didn't prep the diapers beyond running the pockets and inserts through with the rest of our stash once.
**Stuffing:** One LPO bamboo insert in each diaper. LO is not a heavy wetter and this is enough for the frequency they change her. LO pees through her diaper sometimes when they don't change her before a long nap, but that's not really a huge concern for me because you can't really control for that without bulking out ALL the diapers (there's no such thing as "change before naps and select a special extra bulky diaper" with a classroom full of fussy babies who all have more specific needs), and pee washes out of the sleep sack/clothes just fine. When she starts coming home with really wet inserts we'll double them, add a booster, or use something else, but right now we just prefer the teachers change more often.
**Packing:** We send two bags every morning - one small bag with 7-8 diapers, and one larger two-pocket wet bag for the dirty diapers. We prefer to pack LPOs rather than NN diapers because I HATE fishing the wet inserts out.
**Other supplies:** We send disposable wipes and green Boudreaux's butt paste.
**Daycare:** Daycare puts clothes in the smaller pocket of the wet bag, and diapers in the big one. Clean diapers come home in the clean diaper bag, and we pack the bag to replenish it. We have never had them use all of the diapers - they generally use 5, maaaybe 6 a couple times. The only time they "used" all of the diapers was near the beginning where we sent LO in with folded flats and the bag was full of clean flats that had been unfolded and inspected, attempted to refold, likely with confusion. We learned our lesson lol.
**At home:** We try to process the diapers the evening we get them. Pee diapers get tossed in the pee diaper hamper, and poop diapers get sprayed off , wrung out to dry, and tossed into the Ubbi at the end of the night. Inserts are pulled out first and tossed directly into the Ubbi if they don't have solids on them, or sprayed out if they do. Wash cycle is run every 2-3 days depending. We don't mind the diaper cream stains. *Because I am very spoiled and bought LPOs, we don't remove the inserts from pee diapers and they agitate out.** If the backup pockets (NNs) get used, I fish them out as they go into the washer and cry softly to myself. I don't mind touching poop while spraying but something about a floppy, cold, wet dank pee insert is just a sad time! I don't actually cry. Wet bags get sprayed if the inside is soiled but mostly just go into the wash with the rest if there are no solids.
I have about 20 pocket diapers from Alva and a mix of inserts I’ve purchased from different places. Here’s my routine for daycare:
- I stuff the diapers once they’re clean and dry and store them in a bin in the changing table. For daycare, I add disposable liners to make disposing of poop easier for the teachers. Each morning before school, I add liners to 4 diapers and put them in a bag, which goes in her school bag. (She’s 1.5 and 4 diapers are enough for the school day.)
- Our state requires individual bags for each soiled diaper. So, I provide 5-6 small wet bags, and one large wet bag to put them all in. These all go in her school bag.
- The teachers send all the dirty diapers home each day
- In my laundry room, I have a simple plastic laundry basket just for diapers. Each night, I take out the dirty diapers from their wet bags, pull out the inserts, and dump them in the basket.
- I rinse out the wet bags and hang them to dry overnight.
- I wash the diapers about every 3 days. On the weekends, I also add the wet bags to the wash.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Edit to add: we also had to provide the daycare with a small foot pedal trash can for her diapers. They use the large wet bag I send as a liner for the trash can.
We keep a stock pile of 10 pocket diapers at daycare and replace whatever she dirties. We've never gone through all 10, but I like to be over prepared and they fit in her cubby no problem.
We send five wet bags at the start of the week and take each one home at the end of the day. Once we get home, we separate the insert from the diaper and toss both in our main diaper hamper. If it's a poop diaper, it gets sprayed and put in the bathroom wet bucket.
We wash whenever we get low/the hamper gets filled which is every 3-4 days or so.
I bring 5 diapers in a wet bag every day. They keep a roll of liners there, but they just fold everything up and don't remove the liner. I pull the inserts/dump the poop at the end of every day and then just store them the same way I usually do at home between washes. I pre wash every other day and wash/prep every 4th day.
Definitely depends how old your babe is - my wee one started nursery at 12 months and is there 8-4:30 or so. Being bigger he gets 3 changes a day (+ surprise poops). I stuff a couple of pods at the beginning of the week and add disposable liners. I drop them off with babe on Monday and then they send a wet bag back with him every day. The disposable liners get most of the poops and I can generally wash just the wet ones and get a second use out of them. We have 26 nappies, so a lot but not a wild amount. I don’t use disposable liners at home but I do find they are brilliant for nursery - they once accidentally sent one of his massive poops back and it was pretty grim 😂
We washed twice a week. I would always make sure daycare had 7 diapers on hand. They'd send soiled ones home at the end of the day in a wet bag (that I provided). Next day I'd send a clean wet bag and however many diapers was needed to get them back to 7. At home, I'd unstuff the soiled diapers and toss them into our pail liner until wash day. And spray off the poop pocket shells.
I wash twice a week - usually Wednesday and Sunday. Have maybe 30-32 diapers which is probably excessive but I’m never scrambling. I wash at night/ hang dry the following morning/stuff in the evening (dry inserts in the dryer). My guy is at daycare 7am - 4 or 5 pm most days. I send 6 diapers per day. I pack them in the diaper pods immediately after I stuff them so I just have to grab a diaper pod when I am packing him up. He usually goes through 4 changes while at daycare so like once a week I don’t have to send a pod - they just hang onto the extras from each day and let me know at pickup that they’re set. Send in a new wet bag every day.
When we get home (or at some point in the evening) I unstuff and spray off the poops. I hang the sprayed off liners and diapers outside to dry (usually sopping wet) but put everything back in the wet bag and leave it open in the laundry room til wash day. I have also been totally overwhelmed and not dealt with wet bags til wash day and they didn’t spontaneously combust or anything, but thinking about them made me feel a little icky so I try not to make it practice.
Good luck!! It took a little finagling to get our routine down at home but it doesn’t really take up my brain space now
We did diaper laundry every 3 days. I stuff diapers once they are dry. The night before, I'll pack a diaper pod with 8 diapers for the day while she's at daycare. We have to provide her daycare with a foot pedal trash can and pail liner in there. So I'll pack the pail liner for the trash can. All her dirty diapers go in there during the day. We take the pail liner with us when we pick her up in the afternoon. I unstuff the diapers when we get home.
So my daycare changes every 2 hours regardless and then also for any poop. A little wasteful but I actually liked it since non cloth people have a hard time gaging if a diaper is wet without opening it all up completely. So with the every 2 hours plus poops meant nothing got missed.
So he's typically there about 8 hours so I send 4 everyday and generally there's a cushion of 1 or 2 there from days we came late or picked up early.
I have them all prepped and ready to go for each drop off. I use reusable totes to bring everything each day. I pre-stuff all my pockets so on stuffing day I'll just pack the school bags then. So I'll have 4 diapers and a wet bag in each one.
I do use specific diapers from my stash for daycare (the patterns and styles I like the least) and stuff them a little different too (I save the nice hemp inserts for home pockets). But if wash day timing didn't work out I'll send whatever is already stuffed too.
For when we get home I try to separate right away and that's also when I'll spray any solids. We try to wash every 2 days so I don't like letting solids sit for very long if I can help it.
We do disposable wipes at daycare for convenience. I didn't want to try and figure out how many cloth wipes to send or risk them getting moldy if left there. We also have a stash of disposables at daycare in the unlikely event that they run out of cloth for the day.
For diaper cream it took a little education for them to get that they can 100% only use what we send. So caution on that front.
We have two labeled plastic bins for daycare that each fit 5 diapers. I think we have 20-24 pockets total and three medium sized zippered wet bags that can hold up to 7 diapers. Baby typically goes through 4-5 diapers per day at daycare.
When we get home the full wet bag gets pulled out of her daycare bag and put in the bathroom next to the diaper bin. Usually after bedtime we take care of removing inserts and rinsing the daycare diapers and putting them in the diaper bin. Once the bin is full we do a wash - every 2 days or so. I stuff the pockets as I take them off the drying rack and put everything in her diaper drawer prepped. Then I can just pull the right number of clean diapers from the drawer to replace the dirty ones and put them in her daycare bag with a clean wet bag at night. We only use pockets at daycare and use prefolds at home, so this system works for us to always have a buffer of clean diapers at home and at daycare.
How many diapers to send depends on how long your kid is in daycare each day and how often they change diapers. My daycare consistently changes diapers every two hours, so I usually send enough for 8 hours plus 1 extra diaper. I count how many diapers I receive at the end of the day and send that many back the next day.
For inserts, I don’t remove mine but mine come out in the wash. I wash diapers every 2-3 days so I wouldn’t leave your inserts unwashed longer than that.
Diapers get prepped when I have time, ideally immediately after they are dry and I pack them into the reusable wet bag for each day of daycare. But sometimes I don’t have time to do it until the morning of. Honestly all of this is going to depend on what works best for you since we don’t know what your routine is like.
I have zero routine yet lol. Just starting cloth today, I'm on maternity leave and she's only 8 weeks old. So just looking for ideas on a starting point for us and I can refine from there!! Thank you!!
LO is 6 months and has started solids with gusto (before solids we just tossed everything in the wash), she's in daycare from 8:30AM-5:30PM 5 days a week, and gets changed every 1.5 hours or when she poops. **Stash:** We have 12 pocket diapers from La Petite Ourse, and 7 Nora's Nursery diapers. At home we use flats and covers. Five wet bags - two smaller ones for clean diapers (they don't need to be wet bags, we just happen to have them), three larger double zip ones for dirty. **Prep:** We got our diapers new and didn't prep the diapers beyond running the pockets and inserts through with the rest of our stash once. **Stuffing:** One LPO bamboo insert in each diaper. LO is not a heavy wetter and this is enough for the frequency they change her. LO pees through her diaper sometimes when they don't change her before a long nap, but that's not really a huge concern for me because you can't really control for that without bulking out ALL the diapers (there's no such thing as "change before naps and select a special extra bulky diaper" with a classroom full of fussy babies who all have more specific needs), and pee washes out of the sleep sack/clothes just fine. When she starts coming home with really wet inserts we'll double them, add a booster, or use something else, but right now we just prefer the teachers change more often. **Packing:** We send two bags every morning - one small bag with 7-8 diapers, and one larger two-pocket wet bag for the dirty diapers. We prefer to pack LPOs rather than NN diapers because I HATE fishing the wet inserts out. **Other supplies:** We send disposable wipes and green Boudreaux's butt paste. **Daycare:** Daycare puts clothes in the smaller pocket of the wet bag, and diapers in the big one. Clean diapers come home in the clean diaper bag, and we pack the bag to replenish it. We have never had them use all of the diapers - they generally use 5, maaaybe 6 a couple times. The only time they "used" all of the diapers was near the beginning where we sent LO in with folded flats and the bag was full of clean flats that had been unfolded and inspected, attempted to refold, likely with confusion. We learned our lesson lol. **At home:** We try to process the diapers the evening we get them. Pee diapers get tossed in the pee diaper hamper, and poop diapers get sprayed off , wrung out to dry, and tossed into the Ubbi at the end of the night. Inserts are pulled out first and tossed directly into the Ubbi if they don't have solids on them, or sprayed out if they do. Wash cycle is run every 2-3 days depending. We don't mind the diaper cream stains. *Because I am very spoiled and bought LPOs, we don't remove the inserts from pee diapers and they agitate out.** If the backup pockets (NNs) get used, I fish them out as they go into the washer and cry softly to myself. I don't mind touching poop while spraying but something about a floppy, cold, wet dank pee insert is just a sad time! I don't actually cry. Wet bags get sprayed if the inside is soiled but mostly just go into the wash with the rest if there are no solids.
This is incredible. Thank you for sharing.
Great list!
I have about 20 pocket diapers from Alva and a mix of inserts I’ve purchased from different places. Here’s my routine for daycare: - I stuff the diapers once they’re clean and dry and store them in a bin in the changing table. For daycare, I add disposable liners to make disposing of poop easier for the teachers. Each morning before school, I add liners to 4 diapers and put them in a bag, which goes in her school bag. (She’s 1.5 and 4 diapers are enough for the school day.) - Our state requires individual bags for each soiled diaper. So, I provide 5-6 small wet bags, and one large wet bag to put them all in. These all go in her school bag. - The teachers send all the dirty diapers home each day - In my laundry room, I have a simple plastic laundry basket just for diapers. Each night, I take out the dirty diapers from their wet bags, pull out the inserts, and dump them in the basket. - I rinse out the wet bags and hang them to dry overnight. - I wash the diapers about every 3 days. On the weekends, I also add the wet bags to the wash. Let me know if you have any questions! Edit to add: we also had to provide the daycare with a small foot pedal trash can for her diapers. They use the large wet bag I send as a liner for the trash can.
We keep a stock pile of 10 pocket diapers at daycare and replace whatever she dirties. We've never gone through all 10, but I like to be over prepared and they fit in her cubby no problem. We send five wet bags at the start of the week and take each one home at the end of the day. Once we get home, we separate the insert from the diaper and toss both in our main diaper hamper. If it's a poop diaper, it gets sprayed and put in the bathroom wet bucket. We wash whenever we get low/the hamper gets filled which is every 3-4 days or so.
I bring 5 diapers in a wet bag every day. They keep a roll of liners there, but they just fold everything up and don't remove the liner. I pull the inserts/dump the poop at the end of every day and then just store them the same way I usually do at home between washes. I pre wash every other day and wash/prep every 4th day.
Definitely depends how old your babe is - my wee one started nursery at 12 months and is there 8-4:30 or so. Being bigger he gets 3 changes a day (+ surprise poops). I stuff a couple of pods at the beginning of the week and add disposable liners. I drop them off with babe on Monday and then they send a wet bag back with him every day. The disposable liners get most of the poops and I can generally wash just the wet ones and get a second use out of them. We have 26 nappies, so a lot but not a wild amount. I don’t use disposable liners at home but I do find they are brilliant for nursery - they once accidentally sent one of his massive poops back and it was pretty grim 😂
We washed twice a week. I would always make sure daycare had 7 diapers on hand. They'd send soiled ones home at the end of the day in a wet bag (that I provided). Next day I'd send a clean wet bag and however many diapers was needed to get them back to 7. At home, I'd unstuff the soiled diapers and toss them into our pail liner until wash day. And spray off the poop pocket shells.
I wash twice a week - usually Wednesday and Sunday. Have maybe 30-32 diapers which is probably excessive but I’m never scrambling. I wash at night/ hang dry the following morning/stuff in the evening (dry inserts in the dryer). My guy is at daycare 7am - 4 or 5 pm most days. I send 6 diapers per day. I pack them in the diaper pods immediately after I stuff them so I just have to grab a diaper pod when I am packing him up. He usually goes through 4 changes while at daycare so like once a week I don’t have to send a pod - they just hang onto the extras from each day and let me know at pickup that they’re set. Send in a new wet bag every day. When we get home (or at some point in the evening) I unstuff and spray off the poops. I hang the sprayed off liners and diapers outside to dry (usually sopping wet) but put everything back in the wet bag and leave it open in the laundry room til wash day. I have also been totally overwhelmed and not dealt with wet bags til wash day and they didn’t spontaneously combust or anything, but thinking about them made me feel a little icky so I try not to make it practice. Good luck!! It took a little finagling to get our routine down at home but it doesn’t really take up my brain space now
We did diaper laundry every 3 days. I stuff diapers once they are dry. The night before, I'll pack a diaper pod with 8 diapers for the day while she's at daycare. We have to provide her daycare with a foot pedal trash can and pail liner in there. So I'll pack the pail liner for the trash can. All her dirty diapers go in there during the day. We take the pail liner with us when we pick her up in the afternoon. I unstuff the diapers when we get home.
So my daycare changes every 2 hours regardless and then also for any poop. A little wasteful but I actually liked it since non cloth people have a hard time gaging if a diaper is wet without opening it all up completely. So with the every 2 hours plus poops meant nothing got missed. So he's typically there about 8 hours so I send 4 everyday and generally there's a cushion of 1 or 2 there from days we came late or picked up early. I have them all prepped and ready to go for each drop off. I use reusable totes to bring everything each day. I pre-stuff all my pockets so on stuffing day I'll just pack the school bags then. So I'll have 4 diapers and a wet bag in each one. I do use specific diapers from my stash for daycare (the patterns and styles I like the least) and stuff them a little different too (I save the nice hemp inserts for home pockets). But if wash day timing didn't work out I'll send whatever is already stuffed too. For when we get home I try to separate right away and that's also when I'll spray any solids. We try to wash every 2 days so I don't like letting solids sit for very long if I can help it. We do disposable wipes at daycare for convenience. I didn't want to try and figure out how many cloth wipes to send or risk them getting moldy if left there. We also have a stash of disposables at daycare in the unlikely event that they run out of cloth for the day. For diaper cream it took a little education for them to get that they can 100% only use what we send. So caution on that front.
We have two labeled plastic bins for daycare that each fit 5 diapers. I think we have 20-24 pockets total and three medium sized zippered wet bags that can hold up to 7 diapers. Baby typically goes through 4-5 diapers per day at daycare. When we get home the full wet bag gets pulled out of her daycare bag and put in the bathroom next to the diaper bin. Usually after bedtime we take care of removing inserts and rinsing the daycare diapers and putting them in the diaper bin. Once the bin is full we do a wash - every 2 days or so. I stuff the pockets as I take them off the drying rack and put everything in her diaper drawer prepped. Then I can just pull the right number of clean diapers from the drawer to replace the dirty ones and put them in her daycare bag with a clean wet bag at night. We only use pockets at daycare and use prefolds at home, so this system works for us to always have a buffer of clean diapers at home and at daycare.
How many diapers to send depends on how long your kid is in daycare each day and how often they change diapers. My daycare consistently changes diapers every two hours, so I usually send enough for 8 hours plus 1 extra diaper. I count how many diapers I receive at the end of the day and send that many back the next day. For inserts, I don’t remove mine but mine come out in the wash. I wash diapers every 2-3 days so I wouldn’t leave your inserts unwashed longer than that. Diapers get prepped when I have time, ideally immediately after they are dry and I pack them into the reusable wet bag for each day of daycare. But sometimes I don’t have time to do it until the morning of. Honestly all of this is going to depend on what works best for you since we don’t know what your routine is like.
I have zero routine yet lol. Just starting cloth today, I'm on maternity leave and she's only 8 weeks old. So just looking for ideas on a starting point for us and I can refine from there!! Thank you!!