Try Cloth Diapers Risk Free

Sunday, August 8, 2010

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Ready for Anything!

Oh a recent fifteen day trip, I packed every kind of diaper we had – cloth, hybrids, disposables, and swim. And I used each and every kind! Our trip included 18 hours of driving, five days at the in-laws, twelve hours of driving, two days at friends, seven hours of driving, five days in a hotel for a mission trip, and finally about a two and a half hour drive home.

Disposables:
My daughter is a heavy wetter. Since we were traveling on roads with few good places to stop, I had to have something that would last 4-5 hours (since of course both kids would have just fallen asleep when we reached a good place to stop 2-3 hours in). I did try hybrids the first, day, but they leaked on her. I also ended up using disposables on my son at night the last few days. He was waking every 2 hours or so at night to nurse due to teething, and again a hybrid diaper was leaking before morning.
Hybrids:
These were my go-to diaper. The last five days we were very busy and staying in a hotel. So, doing diaper laundry just wasn’t an option. I found both kids could go almost four hours in a hybrid diaper, assuming my daughter wasn’t chugging her drinks of course.

We also used hybrids at our friends. Although I could wash, there just wasn’t a good place to store the dirty diapers. But using hybrids gave them a glimpse of cloth diapering, allowing me to talk them more about it (hopefully I convinced them to switch!).
Cloth:
I used these at the in-laws. I had very easy access to laundry and room to dry my covers (and pre-folds), so it was a no-brainer. I also used a cloth diaper as an extra soaker layer under my daughter in the car to prevent a wet car seat when she decided to chug her drinks in the car.

Overall, it worked great! I used just over 50 GroBaby bio-soakers and less than 20 disposables the whole trip. The bio-soakers are a lot smaller than a traditional disposable, and since I can use them for both kids, it makes packing a lot easier. Next time we travel, my daughter might be potty trained. If so, I might be brave enough to only pack a few bio-soakers and do almost all cloth since we don’t have plans for an extended hotel stay until next summer!

12 comments:

JustCorey said...

Just last night i was trying to figure out how you (well, me) would use cloth diapers while travelling. My son is only four months old and i haven't started CDing yet (my husband isn't completely convinced) but i want to take a trip in a couple months and didn't want to give him another excuse not to invest in CDs.

Thanks for posting

Kara - Wife, Momma, Doula said...

Thank you for posting this and showing that sometimes a disposable diaper is needed. I try to only use them when I NEED to but it's nice to know they are there.

Peggy said...

I just did a very similar trip with my 2 under 2. Tennesse-florida-louisiana-texas-arkansas-Tennessee My couldnt get hybrid liners before the trip so we opted for disposables. I will never do that again! Both my kids got a rash, had blow outs, and the smell gave me headaches. Next trip i'll find a laundry mat.

Tammy said...

So after being in the car for a couple of hours, do you think a pocket diaper or AIO would have worked just as good as a disposable? I think we may be driving here in a few months and I really don't want to buy any disposies. And with the biosoakers, did you have a mess problem on the cover when they were wet?

L said...

thanks for posting! we go on a lot of short trips and since we just started cd'ing a month ago, I've been wondering how to make traveling and cloth go well together.
By the way, I'm jealous of your stash of biosoakers! :)

Karrianne said...

I just did my first trip with all cloth! It was just a 4 day visit to my mom's... so not a huge risk... but I was a little nervous since she was a little skeptical about cloth when I mentioned it. But once I showed them to her she LOVED them and thought they were SO cute and SUCH a great idea. I didn't bring any disposables. I had access to laundry so I decided to risk it and I was glad I did, I survived! :)

I think traveling with cloth is a great way to spread the word. My cousin got me on board using cloth when she brought hers to a family reunion.

At this trip I also saw a few old friends who heard I was using cloth and asked some questions.

Melody J said...

Great info to know about the hybrids. They're a newer option that I haven't explored yet.

Stephanie U said...

Tammy - Hi from the post author!
My daughter is a VERY heavy wetter. She can soak through a good prefold in an hour sometimes. Even the best overnight diapers some times only last 2-3 hours on her because she can hold it and then floods. So, I don't know if an AIO or pocket would have been better than a disposable or not. My son on the other hand would have been fine in clth the whole trip if I could have done more laundry. As for the soakers, they only get the cover wet if they were totally soaked - and normally then it was about to leak. They have a plasticy back on them so they don't just soak right to the cover. I did hand wash them every few days in the sink just to get the lingering urine smell out, but it was never too strong.

Peggy G said...

Thanks for posting. As a new cloth diaper mom, it's great to read the lessons learned by those more experienced. We are planning a trip to Georgia at the beginning of the new year (over 1000 mile drive for us), and I was wondering if I could make CDing work during our travels. I'm excited to give it a try. Now, I have an excuse to buy some more prefolds and hemp inserts :o)

Alycia said...

Out of all the disposable inserts I prefer the GroVia BioSoakers. The gussetts do a great job at containing the messiest of diapers and they're pretty absorbant for their size.

I have noticed that I usually have to use 2 sposie soakers to last overnights.

Tammy said...

Thanks Stephanie! My daughter is two and half and she is potty training, but also will hold it until the flood breaks the dam, lol. I had read some reviews about the biosoakers not working very well, so I am glad to hear that they aren't that bad. Thanks again for this post!

abinormal said...

We've only taken two overnight trips since my baby was born. We did a weekend out of state when she was almost eight weeks, and for that I used disposables. We had two blowouts.

Then I decided I'd do our cloth for a weekend up north about a month ago when she was five months. It worked out great. I ended up bringing way too much, but better too much than not enough!

I much prefer the cloth, but I'm still open to disposables for trips where I wouldn't have access to laundry facilities, not a lot of room in the car, or on a plane where we have to pay for baggage.