Traveling with Cloth Diapers

This document is to cover some basic pointers for traveling with cloth. The hope is to take some of the fear out of traveling and cloth diapering.

Traveling with babies and kids/ adults in diapers full time:
Another member wrote this great outline for how she travels with cloth. They cloth diaper full time and only travel with cloth.

This covers plane rides and staying in an apartment with laundry facilities.

I pack our regular diaper bag for the plane and in our checked bag I put enough diapers for 3 days.

I pack our door knob hanger wet bag and essential oils so I can keep our dirty diapers in our room.

On day three when we need diapers I first wash a load of our clothes with our laundry soap to "rinse the washer out". I then wash diapers in the second load; inserts, pockets, prefolds, covers, all washed on medium heat. Normally I wash prefolds and inserts separate on high heat but this is to save time and money. It will not harm inserts and prefolds to be washed on medium heat for a week.

(She does not say how she dries but I imagine you can use the dryer for prefolds and inserts and either air dry covers, or to save money dry them on hangers hung from the shower curtain rod in the bathroom at home.)

I repeat this process every three days till we return home.

On the plane I would suggest not using the bathroom for diaper changes if you can help it (this would go for a bus or train as well) I just used my husbands lap. The bathrooms are simply too small, but the bathroom is better than a stranger's lap if you are not traveling with family or friends.

Once home I stripped our diapers on the first wash day after our return, and did an extra wash with super hot water on our inserts and prefolds.

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Traveling with a toddler, ECers and kids in training:

I only use cloth when traveling. My daughter only uses diapers for bed time at home and uses trainers for when we are out of the house, running errands and such. I have found we use far more diapers and trainers when traveling due to the fact that there is less toilet access, we are on the go far more, and she ends up being in either a diaper or trainer all day and night most of the trip. The exception being if we are in the hotel room any length of time.

We have not traveled by plane, and this is based on car travel across state with relatively easy diaper bag access.

On a normal day of errands around town my daughter wears a trainer and I carry one spare with us along with a small wet bag and some wipes which are far more likely to be used for faces and hands than bottoms.

On a normal night my daughter uses one or two diapers through the night. She uses pockets and I stuff with either two or three inserts.

For traveling I pack enough diapers to accommodate 2 for bedtime, along with enough trainers or diapers to fit a ratio of 1 for every 2 hours she will likely be in diapers (just in case). I have found I really don;t have enough trainers to fit daytime needs traveling so diapers take up the slack. This is a 2 fold bonus. I can stuff more inserts into diapers allowing her to go longer if she has an accident than she could in a  trainer. This is great for when in a car or where it would otherwise be harder to meet her potty needs. The other great thing is I can snap pockets loose enough she can still pull them up and down like a trainer all on her own. So for us I need to pack on average 4-6 diapers/ trainers a day we will be gone. And I usually through in enough for an extra day or two just in case. This works great for short trips over the weekend or for periods that your diaper stash is large enough to accommodate. How do not stress if you either don;t want to travel with your entire stash or don;t have enough to accommodate your entire holiday period. I will get to that.

I take our large diaper bag, and stuff it full, this often holds all I need, but if not I will bring two bags of diapers. I bring 1-2 small wet bags for the car and my day bag. I bring our very large zippered wet bag for our hotel room. I stuff our pockets ahead so they are all ready to go. I bring a wet bag of wipes (disposable or cloth doesn't matter, which ever you use).

I keep diapers and supplies accessible either via the large bag or a day bag in the car for our traveling needs.

Once in our hotel room we make sure that our daughter knows where her potty is (usually in the bathroom area so she can easily reach it). I hang our large wet bag and empty any wet diapers into it from our small travel wet bag. (She doesn't poo in her pants so it is usually very easy to reuse the same wet bag for a while.) I also either move her stash into a drawer or keep the diaper bag easily accessible for diapering.

When we are in our room she goes undie free and has access to her potty. On the go I bring enough diapers or trainers for however long we will be away from our room, usually no more than 3-4 hours at a time, so really its only a  couple pairs.

Most hotels have laundry facilities, but as I am chemically sensitive it is safer for me to do laundry in our room by hand. I make sure to pack enough supplies just in case I need to treat a poo diaper (she may use the potty but upset bellies happen) or in case of extended stays and thus need for clean laundry. Also this is great for dirty sock issues as one can never ever pack enough socks for a toddler, or any other emergencies. Plus for an extended stay even urine can get smelly so after a couple days it doesn't hurt to wash.

All I really need to hand wash is dish soap. A small bottle goes a long way as it only take a tiny squirt. This goes for grow un undies, grown up and kids socks and anything else that may need washed in an emergency. For me it is usually spot treating my jeans on the fly. I can never pack enough jeans for a trip, I have been peed on, and had more food spilled on me than I could name off. A little water and a squirt of soap the problem spot is gone and pants can dry in the bathroom. Follow hand washing as laid out in our hand washing article in our washing series, then after wringing out as much water as possible from absorbent materials hang things in the bathroom to dry. Most hotels also have a nifty heat lamp and fan option. This helps. Some even have expandable clothes lines.

I suggest if anyone will be swimming hand wash swim items immediately if they have been exposed to chlorine  as PUL and chlorine do not mix. If you are not able to do this do not store wet suits with chlorine on them with your diapers. It can cause delamination.