Traveling with Cloth Diapers

I always liked the idea of cloth diapers even before I had a kid. They are super cute, easy on the wallet (although with the aforementioned super cuteness this one isn’t always true), eco-friendly, and chemical-free. It was just actually using them that I was unsure of.

Turns out, it’s a lot grosser to clean up a blow-out that comes from using disposables than it is to clean a cloth diaper, so we made the switch and have been using cloth full time since she was 8 weeks old. It would never fail with disposables that I would have to use the extra outfit that was in her diaper bag because her clothes would get destroyed with a poop-splosion. So far (fingers crossed) this hasn’t happened using cloth!

So when we were starting to plan our first trip with a baby, we talked about getting disposables for the ease of use while flying. Sure, disposables can be thrown out then and there and you don’t have to worry about hauling a mess around, but if there were any accidents that involved clothing, unless you are willing to toss the outfit, you will be hauling a mess around regardless. And wet bags are amazing! You would never know the stench that goes on in them until you open it up and dump it straight into the washer. Plus, if you use liners you can still toss out the worst of it. If you have a few weeks before you know you are going to fly, you can make your own for pretty much no cost: Instead of throwing used baby wipes in the garbage, toss them in the bag to be washed with your cloth diapers. Run them through your normal wash routine, let them air-dry, and you’ve got yourself some disposable liners.

Ideally, you want to be someplace that will have a washer, access to a diaper service, or Laundromat nearby. If you are going somewhere for a week or less, you can likely get by with plenty of wet bags. Anything much longer than that, I would be fearful of damaging any pockets or AIO’s, but if you’ve got flats and covers, then washing them by hand becomes an option.

For me, especially since we are going to be traveling in the summertime, I wanted to be able to show off our favorite Smart Bottoms, not some dull ‘sposie that does nothing to add to an outfit. And the frugal part of me thinks we already spent the money on the cloth, I’d rather use the money for literally anything else than buying disposables. It just takes a little extra planning, a little extra suitcase room but it can be done and then you can spread the love of cloth diapers on your travels.

Lisa is a baby-wearing, breastfeeding, cloth diapering new mama. She loves running, yoga, craft beer and exploring all things about natural parenting.