Okay, here's a hypothetical for all the moms in the house: Let's say you drop your 2-year-old off at nursery school one morning, run to work, wake up your computer, and are just about to start sifting through the most important-looking emails when your phone rings -- it's the head teacher from your daughter's nursery school letting you know the kid needs to be picked up, ASAP. Oh no! A million different scenarios run through your head at once: Does she have a fever? Did she fall off the tire swing and get hurt? Is she having an allergic reaction to something you didn't even know she was allergic to? What could have happened? Oh, it's nothing to worry about, the teacher assures you -- just a dirty diaper. WHAT?!
It's been a long time since either one of my kids was in diapers (hooray for that!), but apparently there's a disturbing trend going on in toddler care these days: Nursery schools and daycare centers with strict no-diaper changing policies.
So parents are literally having to leave work or home or wherever else they might be to schlep all the way back to school, clean up their little ones, and then go back to work or home or wherever else they might need to be. Now that's what I call an efficient use of time ... NOT. What the hell is the point?! Well, it appears that the reasons for this weird rule vary from state to state -- some schools claim not to be "licensed" to change diapers (would that be a health code violation or a privacy violation?). Recently I heard about a mom who complained that her child's daycare center made no mention of their dirty diaper policy up front -- and when she asked them about it later, they "said that not only can they not change a 'poopie' diaper, but they also can’t clean up 'accidents' if the child is potty trained." Um, does that mean the staff and students just sit around and stare at puddles of piddle all day in wonder? That stinks (pun intended).
At least the way it was done when my kids were toddlers made sense: The nursery schools they attended only accepted students who were already potty-trained. So at least I knew what I was dealing with from Day One. And when accidents happened, as accidents do, the area was thoroughly disinfected in no time.
Could be I'm missing something, of course. Maybe somebody knows something I don't know about this trend?
Do you think nursery schools and daycare centers have a good reason for refusing to change dirty diapers?
Image via leberpieps/Flickr
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Comments 143
I have worked with licensed child care providers for over a decade and have never heard of such a policy, unless it was in a place like a gym childcare, in which case they are not licensed so they don't do diaper changes to avoid liability.
I'm shocked they have any business. What is the point of sending your child to a daycare facility if you are just going to be running back and forth at least once during the work day?
that's ridiculous! My daughter's preschool doesn't take kids in diapers...you can send them in pull-ups though because they don't have the facilities to change diapers. They were upfront about this and it's no big deal...but a daycare?!?
this is simple, just dont go to one of thoose daycares. i have never heard of such a policy and having a hard time believing it. I did work in a gyms daycare where we didnt change diapers but the most time the baby was in the center was 2 hours. We had the mom/dad paged if the baby needed a changing.
Really, how common can this be? It's a pretty integral part of the care process.