What are your instructions when someone new takes care of your baby? What’s your standard speech about the dos and don’ts of diapering?
Lately, it seems like several new people have been taking care of my kids – maybe because it’s summer and all of the college girls in my town are home looking for babysitting jobs, making the physical act of finding a babysitter much easier. Or maybe it’s because we’ve had a lot of weddings and other big events to attend.
In any case, I feel like I have been teaching a lot of new people about my daughter’s cloth diapers. As I’m showing them around, we come to her room and my speech usually starts with “Okay, so we use cloth diapers.” I pause to see the reaction (either “cool!” or “mmm-kay”), then forge ahead with specific instructions.
Here’s what I often hear coming out of my mouth:
1. “It’s very simple. They are just like disposables, here’s how you snap them…”
2. “Just make it fit her comfortably, not too tight.”
3. “The dirty ones go in that bag hanging from the doorknob. If they are poopy, just put them on the counter in the bathroom and I will deal with them later.”
4. “We also use cloth wipes. They are in this container. The disposable wipes are in here if you want to use them, but please don’t put them in the hanging bag.”
5. “Please do not use diaper cream. Ever. If you see diaper rash of any kind, just spray this stuff (California Baby Non-Burning and Calming Diaper Area Wash) on the area and put on a fresh diaper.”
6. “Please only use diapers from these baskets (my basket of extra inserts, replacement elastic, pre-folds and other diapering gear is not close but visible from the changing table and I once had a babysitter find a size Medium in that basket and put it on my 11-pounder. It hadn’t been prepped yet and was waaaaay too big, so it leaked everywhere! I still wonder what she was thinking).”
7. “If you can’t figure it out or prefer them, I keep the disposables right here, just in case…”
Why do I put that last one in there every single time? I ask myself the same question. Maybe so they feel less daunted about cloth diapers. Maybe so they will want to succeed with cloth. Maybe because that’s what I always told myself at the beginning: “If this doesn’t work, just go back to disposables.” But you know what? Not once have I come home to a baby in a disposable. So my instructions must be working.
Or maybe, it’s just not that difficult to put fluffy cloth on a baby’s bottom.
What are your instructions for babysitters/in-laws/daycare providers? What do you always find yourself saying?
Sarah is a mom of two and blogs about her adventures in motherhood, cloth diapering and everything in between. Catch her “Cloth Diapering Unwrapped” series on the FuzziBunz blog every Tuesday.
