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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Blankets After Naptime
Britt507 10:44 AM 03-08-2017
I know there is another thread about storing blankets but I work at a daycare center in Iowa that is DHS licensed and we got told about two months ago that we couldn't keep our kids' blankets on the cots because it contaminates the one on top of it. So we were told to find another way to store them, so we've been using giant Ziploc bags to store them in but as you can imagine, that takes a LOT of time to get the blankets folded and stored away.

Is there any other suggestions on where to put these blankets? Our lockers & cubbies are not in the classroom because there is no room.
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AmyKidsCo 10:46 AM 03-08-2017
Does the storage need to be airtight? I know of providers who use pillowcases.

Seriously - contaminate the cot above? Because the children sleep on the bottoms of the cots? And we know they never touch each other while playing...

PS- Were you shown where the licensing rules say that the blankets need to be stored separately?
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Ariana 10:50 AM 03-08-2017
Are these blankets carrying hazardous waste? so many rules!

When I worked in a centre we stored the cots upright next to each other and folded the blanket over the top of each individual cot. Would that work?
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Gemma 10:59 AM 03-08-2017
Each child here, has his/her own personal blanket stored in their cubby. blankets are washed every Friday
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Britt507 11:04 AM 03-08-2017
We had a lady from DHS come and she told us that they were not allowed to stay on the cots because of contamination to the bottom of the cot that was stacked on top of it.

And we don't have enough room to store the cots so that they're standing up. We are based in a school and we don't have a storage space outside of our room for them.

I was just curious to see if there was any other solution. Because as you can imagine, folding 10+ blankets and putting them in a ziploc baggy takes a LOT of time and for 3, 4, and 5 year olds that's too long to wait. I was thinking about drawstring cinch bags that could be hung up in their locker/cubby but I don't know about that because we're supposed to limit the amount of time the kids spend in the hallway.
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racemom 11:08 AM 03-08-2017
Can you eliminate blankets all together? That's what our center did when we switched from cots to nap mats. I was worried not having them might affect their sleep, but it has not mad at difference.
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Britt507 11:12 AM 03-08-2017
We cannot eliminate blankets because it is cold in the room where we nap. And we don't have room temperature control because we are in a school.

If we tell them to turn it up, they roast us out.
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Cat Herder 11:13 AM 03-08-2017
https://www.amazon.com/Whitmor-Cloth...ortable+closet

Portable closet $20.00.

Hanging boot bags $7.00 ea. (garment or draw string bags would work as well)

https://www.amazon.com/Boot-Bag-Stor...s=boot+storage
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Britt507 11:25 AM 03-08-2017
We were looking into drawstring bags but can't seem to find affordable ones that come in multicolors.
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Ariana 11:35 AM 03-08-2017
Originally Posted by Britt507:
We had a lady from DHS come and she told us that they were not allowed to stay on the cots because of contamination to the bottom of the cot that was stacked on top of it.

And we don't have enough room to store the cots so that they're standing up. We are based in a school and we don't have a storage space outside of our room for them.
.
I am confused. Where are the cots now? You said they are stacked on top of eachother so why can you not just stack them side by side so they are standing upright? To me it takes ip a similar amount of space.

Another idea would be to have each child put their own blanket in their own ziploc after nap time. This eliminates one person doing it all. Place the ziploc with the blanket on each childs cot, they remove the blanket, place ziploc under their cot and then put the blanket back in at wakeup time.
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Cat Herder 11:40 AM 03-08-2017
Originally Posted by Britt507:
We were looking into drawstring bags but can't seem to find affordable ones that come in multicolors.
Oriental trading company. Hands down.

http://www.orientaltrading.com/party...wstring%20bags
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Britt507 11:47 AM 03-08-2017
Originally Posted by Ariana:
I am confused. Where are the cots now? You said they are stacked on top of eachother so why can you not just stack them side by side so they are standing upright? To me it takes ip a similar amount of space.

Another idea would be to have each child put their own blanket in their own ziploc after nap time. This eliminates one person doing it all. Place the ziploc with the blanket on each childs cot, they remove the blanket, place ziploc under their cot and then put the blanket back in at wakeup time.
They are in a corner behind the door stacked on top of one another. There is too many of them 20+ to be stacked up and down.

DHS says the kids are not to handle the ziploc bags.
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Meeko 12:04 PM 03-08-2017
Crazy, isn't it?!! These kids cough all over each other all day. They are head to head while playing with blocks etc. Eating dirt and dust while playing outside...

But heaven forbid their blankets touch!!!!!

We have the same rules here. I keep their blankets in their cubbies. What makes me smile and get irritated at the same time is that even though they say the blankets must not touch....they don't say that I have to take each blanket, one by one, from the playroom to the front where they are put in cubbies. I grab them all in a pile and take the whole dang pile with me in one trip.

OH NO!!!! Blankets touching!!!!!!!
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Ariana 01:55 PM 03-08-2017
Originally Posted by Britt507:
They are in a corner behind the door stacked on top of one another. There is too many of them 20+ to be stacked up and down.

DHS says the kids are not to handle the ziploc bags.
WTF?! oh man that is just too much to deal with. So they can handle their own blankets but not the bags they go in? Makes perfect sense. Not! I give up!
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Josiegirl 03:46 PM 03-08-2017
Do the cots have sheets on them, and do they need to be stripped and washed every day? If not, aren't the sheets possibly contaminating the other cots too???
These are all over the top rules they expect us to adhere to.
I use the big bags too but I don't bother folding the blankets. I just stuff them in. And have a coat rack up high enough on the wall so the kids cannot reach them.
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Blackcat31 06:29 AM 03-09-2017
These are kind of cool!

You can get plastic "sleeves" for sanitary storage too!

If the program can't afford them, maybe consider adding a supply fee and passing it onto the parents. Then when each child ages out, they can take their blanket with them.

http://rolleepollee.com/category/school-pricing/






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hwichlaz 07:39 AM 03-09-2017
The kids fold up their own blanket and place it, along with their travel sized pillow, in their cubby after they've gone potty. BUT each child has two cubbies of the same color. The one on top is for a change of cloths and stuff that needs to go home, the one on bottom for bedding.

I have these...
https://www.amazon.com/RiverRidge-Ki...torage+cubbies
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Britt507 07:49 AM 03-09-2017
These are all great ideas!

I just know that DHS is strict and if this is one thing that we can control, it'd be another thing to check off my list to not stress or worry about!

And yes, the cots do have sheets on them but they're not thick enough to touch the cot above or below them. I know it's a crazy rule that the blankets can't be touching the cot.

And we wash them once a week because we do not have a washing machine and dryer in our room. We only do it weekly to eliminate the possibility of one person being left alone with 15 kids for more than fifteen minutes. And my co-worker likes to leave the room a lot.

Also, our cubbies are not big enough for everything to fit in them. This is also a problem lately. BUT summer/spring is coming and there will be more room! Yipee!

I was just hoping there was an easy solution! I like thoses rollee pollee things but they're not very cost efficient and I do not see the school approving those to be bought since we'd need at least twenty of them, if not more to be safe.
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Blackcat31 07:54 AM 03-09-2017
Originally Posted by Britt507:
These are all great ideas!

I just know that DHS is strict and if this is one thing that we can control, it'd be another thing to check off my list to not stress or worry about!

And yes, the cots do have sheets on them but they're not thick enough to touch the cot above or below them. I know it's a crazy rule that the blankets can't be touching the cot.

And we wash them once a week because we do not have a washing machine and dryer in our room. We only do it weekly to eliminate the possibility of one person being left alone with 15 kids for more than fifteen minutes. And my co-worker likes to leave the room a lot.

Also, our cubbies are not big enough for everything to fit in them. This is also a problem lately. BUT summer/spring is coming and there will be more room! Yipee!

I was just hoping there was an easy solution! I like thoses rollee pollee things but they're not very cost efficient and I do not see the school approving those to be bought since we'd need at least twenty of them, if not more to be safe.
You know how in the Dr's office they have those big sheets of paper they put on the exam tables? Then they rip it off and pull out a new section for the next patient....

MAybe you could put large sheets of paper inbetween each cot so that only the paper is separating each cot/blanket/sheet and not touching?

I dunno...just thinking out loud because some of the regulations I've seen about this type of stuff is laughable...their sheets can't touch ....these kids play together and touch a whole lot more of each other's "ick" than we can imagine so the sanitary regs are often laughable....
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Britt507 08:00 AM 03-09-2017
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
You know how in the Dr's office they have those big sheets of paper they put on the exam tables? Then they rip it off and pull out a new section for the next patient....

MAybe you could put large sheets of paper inbetween each cot so that only the paper is separating each cot/blanket/sheet and not touching?

I dunno...just thinking out loud because some of the regulations I've seen about this type of stuff is laughable...their sheets can't touch ....these kids play together and touch a whole lot more of each other's "ick" than we can imagine so the sanitary regs are often laughable....
Those are my thoughts exactly. When the DHS lady told us that the blankets couldn't stay on the cots, I gave her a look as if she was crazy! Apparently, she doesn't know kids very well!!!!!

I'm still looking into alternative ideas for blanket storage!
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hwichlaz 08:03 AM 03-09-2017
You could get the plastic sleeves from the rolleepollee site. Those would fit any nap blanket and travel pillow in them. Then put some hooks on the wall for them.
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Britt507 08:17 AM 03-09-2017
http://www.orientaltrading.com/perso...e=shoppingcart

I found these on oriental trading. I don't want these to be taken home so I thought that I would put the daycare's name in the first line and Do Not Take Home! on the second line. But would that be appropriate?
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hwichlaz 08:42 AM 03-09-2017
Originally Posted by Britt507:
http://www.orientaltrading.com/perso...e=shoppingcart

I found these on oriental trading. I don't want these to be taken home so I thought that I would put the daycare's name in the first line and Do Not Take Home! on the second line. But would that be appropriate?

That or "Property of Daycare Name, Do Not Remove"
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Britt507 10:11 AM 03-09-2017
I like that but however all of it doesn't fit.

Property of __________ should work, right?
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Second Home 02:39 PM 03-09-2017
I use closet hanging organizer things . Each child has a place for blanket , pillow( folded in half) and security item if needed . Since they are cloth cubes one child's items never touch another child's items.

Something like this-
http://www.target.com/p/6-shelf-hang...d/-/A-15022270
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EntropyControlSpecialist 05:29 PM 03-09-2017
This may be too simplistic but here is what I do...

I have mostly 2 day kids. So, there is cot sharing. Each child has a large plastic bag (Old Navy has good sized ones) with their name on it. Their blanket, sheet, and lovey go inside that bag and it then rests on their cot. I am teaching them to get them inside the bags but sometimes they need help. It looks bulky but it gets greatly squished once another cot is on top of it. Once I have their blankets inside the bag I then spray the bleach spray on the cot, smack the two plastic bags at the FOOT of the cot, and move onto the next cot. I have 11 cots I have out each day. This doesn't take but 10 or so minutes to do all 11.

If they're extremely worried about contamination could you just spray bleach spray on the backside and frontside of each cot before naptime (if you have an assistant then one of you do it while the other helps with potty breaks and book reading OR you could do it while they're eating lunch)...let them dry for 10 minutes...and then put on blankets? That seems like such a hassle but just thinking out loud.
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MrsSteinel'sHouse 09:59 AM 03-13-2017
I don't fold and put in the Ziploc bags.. I just shove them in
I am thinking after this thread though that I might just have them put them in a dollar tree bin and place them on the shelf- again I wouldn't fold them just have the kids put them in. My shelf is high on the wall so they wouldn't be accessible by the kids because if they can get to blankets they do and we wouldn't want them contaminated with their sleeping blankets only our play ones.
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Cat Herder 10:25 AM 03-13-2017
Originally Posted by Britt507:
http://www.orientaltrading.com/perso...e=shoppingcart

I found these on oriental trading. I don't want these to be taken home so I thought that I would put the daycare's name in the first line and Do Not Take Home! on the second line. But would that be appropriate?
You can simply zip tie the bags to the hanging rod, circle hooks or metal shelving frame. Accessible, but not removable until you want to remove them with shears. Zip ties are cheap, so replacing as needed is economical.
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Silly Songs 11:42 AM 03-13-2017
In one of the centers I used to work we put the blankets under the sheet on the cot.That way blankets didn't get mixed up and with the wrong cots.
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SunflowerMama 11:02 AM 03-14-2017
We have blankets and small travel pillows from Ikea and have a hanging shoe organizer in the closet with the cots and each child's blanket and pillow fit perfectly in the organizer.

<img src="https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/4f8816b0-8471-4bf5-8d8e-2fe116e117e4_1.cc7d8dc8f353d64bc78229e1e4b05350.jpeg?odnHeight=450&amp;odnWidth=450&amp;odnBg=FFFFFF" alt="Image result for hanging shoe organizer"/>
Attached: 4f8816b0-8471-4bf5-8d8e-2fe116e117e4_1.cc7d8dc8f353d64bc78229e1e4b05350.jpeg (11.2 KB) 
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Lovatic24 10:39 PM 03-18-2017
This could hold 10 blankets. Inexpensive and keeps them searate. https://www.amazon.com/Richards-Home...urse+organizer
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