Traveling with Cloth Diapers - Mountain View,CA

Hi! I had 3 boys in 3.5 years and used cloth throughout. (They are now 13, 15 and 17.)

My advice would be first to see if there is a local service that can bring you cloth and take away the used for washing. I did this on a trip to Hawaii once. If not, you can bring your own cloth and wash there. I would rinse them out right away and put them in a closed container with water, vinegar and baking soda (bleach can irritate your baby's skin) while you gather enough to wash together.

When you're in a beautiful environment like Lake Tahoe (I just got back from there last night!) it's nice that you want to do the low-impact thing to help preserve that environment for your children. Good luck!

1 mom found this helpful

I cloth diapered both my kids all the time. I'm a big fuzzi bunz fan, but if you don't have those you can use the regular prefolds without any trouble. The ones I like best for backpacking or camping are the old birdseye cloths that look like gigantic dishtowels. Those can be handwashed easily and dry really quickly. Just remember not to dry the diapers with the covers and you'll do fine. Don't be intimidated -- it's just an extra load of laundry.

my friend uses GDiapers when traveling.

hi E.! I have a 26 month old who has been in cloth diapers since he was a few months old. I have traveled and used cloth, but only if I know I will have access to a washer/dryer or the trip is less than 5 days long. If you have access to laundry facilities (private or public) it's not such a big deal - just get a big waterproof bag like the ones used to line cloth diaper pails. If the trip is only up to 4-5 days, I fill up my wet diaper bag and launder when I get home. Otherwise, I use a more baby- and earth- friendly brand of disposables, like Seventh Generation or Tushies.
As for advice, baking soda will help lessen the smell from the diapers, if that bothers you. I also know some moms who use a pocket-style cloth diaper like Fuzzi Bunz, and hand wash the inserts/covers and let them hang dry. Apparently, they dry pretty quickly. I hope some of this helps!! Don't give up!!!

I did the cloth diapers as well when my son was young but I just couldn't do it when we traveled so I had to use plastic but like someone above said, I would try to use the organic etc. never use a generic one and just make sure you wipe good and use patroleum jelly and or baby powder to keep him soft etc. They also make a J & J diaper rash. Just check the plastic as much as you would cloth, people tend to leave the kids in them longer because they don't notice the wetness as quickly. Good luck and have a great trip!

My kids are older now, but they wore cloth diapers. Because of the logistics of diaper services where we were, I washed my own as well. If you can wash your own, it may not be so bad. It's a matter of quantity that you can travel with before you can wash. Keep in mind details like storing the dirty diapers, and if you use washclothes to clean those as well.

Washing diapers is pretty easy though. Presoak with 1 cup borax. Then wash regularly with hot water.

We quickly found that travel was the one time we went to disposables. I hated them. Change them often because of the gel that they use in them. They can hold a little one's pee all day, but that's not exactly what's a good plan.

I have never traveled using cloth diapers but my suggestion with the disposable ones are is your son might be allergic to that particular one that you bought. What you should do is if you have any friends that has children that are in the same size diapers as your son, ask them if you can have a diaper try the different brands (Pampers, Huggies, Luvs, etc) and find out if all or one of them is giving him the rash. I know with my daughter, the cheap diapers gave a rash so I had to stick with the most expensive kind.

Good luck.

Use Fuzzi Bunz, use a diaper liner like Imze Vmze to catch most of the poop (you can get those at Tiny Tots www.tinytots.com) and check out this website for interesting info on travelling with babies in general - http://www.theportablebaby.com/

My kids are big now -17 and 14 years old - but we used a diaper service, and took a lined diaper pail or just heavy plastic bag to carry home wet diapers when we traveled for a few days. No one has suggested this, but I did it all the time. We never used disposables...