"D" Puts the Care in Day-care Provider

We walked through the door and were greeted by a smiling, beaming women who instantly grabbed our little boy out of our arms and began talking and playing with him. As a first time mother, I wasn’t sure what we should expect out of a daycare provider, but I was surprisingly comfortable with the way D handled our little boy. Braylon instantly responded to her and was so calm and relaxed; I knew we had found our daycare provider! We left with the understanding that she would contact us the next day to let us know if she would be willing to take another baby. We got in the car and shut the doors and my husband looked at me and said “Did you notice that her house is a little messy?” Nope I hadn’t noticed that, she does daycare for 10 children and is single, I would expect her house to be a little unorganized, it wasn’t dirty was it? My husband then said “Did you notice that her sink was full of dishes?” Nope, I didn’t notice that either, we went to her home at 5:30pm; she made the comment that her last child left about 5 minutes before we arrived. Again she has 10 children she watches daily, when do you expect her to do dishes during the day? My husband opened his mouth and all I heard was “Did you…”, I rudely (yes I will admit it) interrupted him and said “I did notice the way that she handled Braylon, the way that he responded to her, I noticed that her walls were covered in artwork from all of her day care kids, I noticed that she talks about doing daycare as though it is the one thing in life she can’t live without, that it is a real passion for her! If I was hiring her to clean my house, based on what you said, I would probably not hire her, but based on what she showed us and what she told us I am thoroughly convinced that I don’t want anyone else watching our child but her!” My husband grabbed my hand and smiled!

That was the start of a very beautiful relationship with D and our family! She called us back only an hour after we left her home and said that she would be THRILLED to have Braylon be the newest member of her daycare family. When she called she told us that she would provide the formula and food for Braylon, we just needed to let her know what formula he was on… She was a little surprised to learn that Braylon was an exclusively breastfed baby, her first in almost 15 years. She has since become a big advocate of breastfeeding and makes sure to give new parents that come to interview her, a packet of information that includes a few sheets on the benefits of breastfeeding!

When Braylon was 5 months old we discovered that we were expecting Baby #2! D was thrilled and made sure to “save” a spot for the baby when he arrived! Porter our second child was born with a few medical conditions, nothing long term, but one of those included having an Ostomy bag for the first 5 months of his life. D reassured us that she would have NO problem taking Porter with an Ostomy bag and even had me show her how to change it, just in case it leaked while he was there. Luckily D never had to change a leaky Ostomy bag! It was after Porter’s surgery and we got the all clear to start feeding him baby food, that I had decided that I was going to make our baby food instead of wasting money on store bought baby food that had who knows what in it. I had mentioned it to D, letting her know that the plan would be for us to bring a weeks’ worth of baby food every Monday and that she could just put the containers in the same bag that the breast-milk containers were going in. It was then and there that she asked for the website that I was getting my information for homemade baby food, I graciously gave it to her and the next morning, while we were dropping the boys off, she announced that after her late night research, that she too would be making homemade baby food, for all of her kids, so we wouldn’t need to bring any from home! She continues to thank me for turning her onto that, wondering why it had never occurred to her to do it before.

It was when Porter was 15 months old that I asked D how she felt about cloth diapers. Not knowing much about them she said that she would be open to the idea as long as I had a system down and showed her how to use them. It wasn’t until we found out that we were expecting baby #3 that we decided to switch Porter out of disposables and into cloth diapers, at the age of 23 months. D has been using our cloth diapers for over a month now and she loves it just as much as I do. She told me yesterday that she is trying to figure out how she can afford to buy cloth diapers so that she could be an exclusively cloth diapering daycare, cloth diapering the none potty trained kids during the day. How amazing is that… How amazing is she…

But for now, until that ball gets rolling, we pack our cloth diapers and send them to D’s for the day. Our system is simple at home and simple at daycare, that is the way that cloth diapering is suppose to be, right?

Our Daycare Cloth Diapering System:
We have our Medium size Planet Wise wet/dry bag that we send 4 cloth diapers (we use one size cloth diapers) in each day. D has a roll of disposable liners that she puts in twice a day; she knows what time of the days that Porter usually does his number 2’s and only includes one in the diaper at those times (after breakfast and before nap). She also has a jar of Coconut oil in-case he has a rash or redness starting. She changes him and puts the dirty diapers in the “wet” part of the bag and leaves his clean diapers in the “dry” part of the bag. When I pick the boys up from her house, I grab the bag and that night our day’s worth of diapers and the wet/dry bag go in the washing machine and finally hung to dry overnight, ready to be packed the next morning.

D is a blessing in our lives, I often think of what it could be like if our children went to another day care provider’s house. She has been willing to embrace every new “crazy” thing I throw her way and has actually jumped on my band wagon and has been my number one advocate throughout it all!

Our experience with day cares and cloth diapering has been GREAT! I strongly urge you to go find yourself a D, she is worth the search :)

Bio: My name is Amanda and I am a mother to two amazing little boys and am expecting a little girl in December! I love photography, running, yoga, cooking, traveling, my family, but most importantly watching our children discover the world around them! I aspire to be a stay at home mom one day, hopefully soon. I am newly addicted to cloth diapering and loving every minute of it.