Our next two trips we drove and used ‘sposies in the car but mostly cloth once we were at my parent’s house. The nice thing about staying with family is the availability of a washing machine. My mom used cloth on me so she didn’t have any hesitations about me washing our cloth in her machine. Our next trip we used cloth in the car but there were times when other people changed him and used disposable wipes and diapers. I don’t know if it was a combination of climate change and the disposables, but the end of this trip and a few days after being home and solely using cloth diapers and wipes, my poor son had “baboon butt”…aka bad diaper rash. It didn’t seem to bother him much, but it was a sad sight.
I am proud to say that our last trip “home” over Mother’s Day weekend we did not use a single disposable diaper or wipe on my son’s bum! My husband and I did most of the changing and when someone else would change him I would just set out a pre-stuffed pocket diaper (generally FuzziBunz Perfect Size as I find that those are the easiest to snap) and tell them what settings to snap it on.
My biggest fear, in the beginning, about traveling with cloth was how to pack it all. The system that has worked incredibly well for us is rolling all of our pre-stuffed pocket diapers into a tote bag plus some flats (for extra night time stuffing), doublers, a small container of laundry soap, come cloth wipes, a spray bottle, biodegradable liners, coconut oil (for his eczema and as a barrier at night) , and a large wet bag. I made a “changing station” by hanging the wet bag on the closet door and kept a spray bottle of water and cloth wipes close by. While out and about I just carry a small wet bag filled with 2 pre-stuffed pocket diapers, 4-5 cloth wipes, a small spray bottle filled with water, and a couple of plastic grocery bags for the dirties. I was able to wash the diapers every other day just as I do at home. For traveling home, I just left the dirties in the large wet bag and stuffed them in the trunk with the rest of the luggage. I did make sure to do a wash the night before heading home so that I didn’t have many dirties.
So don’t worry if you relapse to ‘sposies here and there, we sure did. I am so happy that we are now comfortable traveling with cloth and our confidence in doing so got stronger with each trip.
Happy Cloth Diapering!
By Michelle P.
9 comments:
Even when I resort to disposables for traveling, I would put a diaper cover over top just to be safe in case of a poop explosion!
I can relate!
we've done a lot of traveling with our little one in Cloth diapers. Our little guy is now 15 months and been in cloth almost only since his umbelical cord fell off. (10 days or so) The only time we used disposables was when we traveled to mexico. I didn't know if we would have access to washers and didn't want to travel with a bag of white powder (our prefered soap) traveling through coustoms. I strongly suspected that may warent some unwanted attention.
We've washed diapers in 5 different family members washers (all very different personailities and opinions on cloth all involved several hours of flights) and everyone we've asked to use their washer has been completely fine with it. Even family members I thought would be really reistant to the cloth.
We use bum genius woth velcro tabs and it's so easy everyone likes them and we have actually convinced several family members to switch to cloth.
Packing is more challenging. But as I recently reflected: my carry on used to be full of different books I may get the urge to read, my ipod, snacks I may want, journals to write my thoughts in, toiletries and extra clothes should my checked luggage not make it. These days it's full of: at least 10 daipers, and cloth wipes, extra wet bags, childrens books, bags of megablocks, childrens toys, and tons of baby clothes should our luggage not make it. I try to sneak in at least 1 book for mama.
traveleing with a wee-one is never easy. It becomes more challenging if you do anything outside of the "mainstream" aka cloth diapers, strict food choices, etc.
but it can be done, and while you're doing it you'll feel like a superstar, and then you'll think it's so easy you'll feel silly that you were ever so proud!
Great post! I notice when I have to go back and forth between cloth and disposables, my daughter also gets a red bottom. My family is fascinated by her diapers, and it's fun showing people that cloth is really easy!
I think it's great that your able to travel with cloth when you're going to a location that already has a washer and you're on familiar turf. But what about no washer? Or staying in a hotel in an unfamiliar town? We're going to be going on vacation soon and I'm toying with what to do. I'm leaning towards using disposables. It'll be for a few days, it's not the end of the world & it's not much of a "vacation" if I'm sitting at a laundromat every other day waiting for my diapers to wash.
thanks for this.. makes me feel confident that we can travel with cloth as well! great job!
Good timing on the post -- we just got back from our second trip with the baby in cloth and although I was nervous about it, it works if you arm yourself with the right stuff. In fact, after our first trip I wrote a post about everything I needed to get by. It's here: http://crazyrosie.blogspot.com/2011/05/traveling-with-cloth-diapers.html
Traveling with cloth! I haven't gotten to the wipes part for traveling yet but diapers, yes. One thing I could relate to...is the use of washing machine when traveling to parents'! We have coin laundry so using the washing machine at my parents' house is bliss!
I'm so glad i found your site. i just started cd my son who will be 6mon old on june 10. We are going to make a 15hr trip to visit Mom and i was afraid we weren't going to be able to use our fluff but now i know it can be done
Thanks
Michelle
I definitely find the idea of traveling with cloth a bit intimidating! Its just figuring out all those little logistics I guess, and it sounds like it just takes practice as well. We've only traveled once since starting cloth, and were about 50/50 cloth and sposies. Not bad for the first try though!
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