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Thursday, June 23, 2011

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Have Diaper Will Travel

The challenge: Drive to Kansas City, MO for little sister's graduation, then to Dallas, TX to stay with grandparents, return to Denver safe and happy with daughters 1 & 5 years old, parenting & driving solo.
Total traveling time 14 days. Total driving time ~ 26 hours.

If I had the funds I might call myself addicted to cloth, it is rather difficult stifling the urge to max the credit card with random fluff every time some new print or interesting style arrives on the diaper market. I have tried just about everything currently offered out there. I settled in for the second round with Baby E outfitted with prefolds and wraps. My experience thus far has proven that for ease of use, versatility, and cost effectiveness, prefolds win every time.

My main concern traveling with the diapers had little to do with how and when I would wash them. I was mostly concerned with mildew and other nefarious diaper destroyers. It never even crossed my mind to purchase disposables for the trip. Where we go, the diapers go. Besides, my number one reason for using cloth is that I do not ever have to purchase diapers again, unless I want to---that is freedom.

Anyway, loading up the car, I packed my diapers in a basket, plopped them on top of the rest of our baggage along with my Planet-wise wet bag for ease of access and off we went in the wild blue yonder. I found it's easiest to use the diaper bag staples first and foremost, then replenish dipes and empty lil' wet bag as needed at the rear "baggage compartment." Upon arrival in Texas, the baby had a terrible diaper rash. She screamed so hard at one point on our final stint to the grandparents' house I had to pull over and console her a bit. A swab of cream with a liner and she was good as new less than a day later. On our return trip I made sure to use some of our poly-fleece wipes as little stay-dry liners, and rescued her from an entirely different type of "road rash". My parents live practically on a farm, there are bugs and more bugs. The humidity is so very high as compared to Denver, I mostly worried I would open my wet bag to find a nasty mess of mildew funk. The only other issue was my mother complaining that I was doing too much laundry and her concern that the septic tank couldn't handle the extra activity. Funny thing, as well, I'm almost certain that my mom thought that the poop went into the wash with the diapers. I'm not entirely sure she believed me when I explained that the poo goes in the toilet, the diaper goes in the wash. Ah, the old days of diapering ignorance, I do not miss them. One or two of my wraps accidentally were machine dried during buckets of rain, but mostly I enjoyed the use of a clothesline while we were there.

We, and the diapers, made it safe and sound back home (and we travel old school---no electronic gizmos!) While I am not positive, I think the recent yeast issue is somehow connected with that trip. It is finally dissipating with use of some new Blueberry and Rocky Mountain pockets, and of course momgenuity around diaperless baby air-drying between frequent changes.
Happy Diapering!

Ada is momma to two girls, 1 & 5 years old, enjoying life just west of Denver, CO. Mommy-blogger, triathlete, sew cool, Ashtangi, reader, writer, casual crafty, baby-wearin', cloth-diaperin', homeschoolin' joyful wife and mother.

4 comments:

Upstatemamma said...

We cloth diaper when we are away from home often. However, I do admit that when we went to Disney World last summer we bought disposables. And we plan to do it again this summer.

*reyanna* said...

Love hearing these! We haven't started CDing yet, as our little one will be here in about five weeks. But I'm SO excited to get started! And I'm totally going to use cloth diapers for traveling too! No disposables for us! :-D

ann.e said...

I read once to boil the diapers to get rid of all lingering bacteria. I do it once in a while -like every few months- and it also gets rid of smelly buildup. You might try that to make sure the diaper rash doesn't come back?

Laura B-L said...

I really enjoyed this post. What is the name of Ada's blog?