How to Travel with Cloth Diapers

When I first suggested to my husband that we cloth diaper our second child, he looked at me like I was crazy and made it clear he wanted nothing to do with it. Once I researched signing up for a diaper service, I was able to sell him on the idea. The one comment he had was, "Well, we will still use disposables when we are out right?" Hmmm.... I hadn't thought of that. "Well, yeah, I guess so," I replied.

But when my daughter came home from the hospital and we began using the cloth diapers, I found them so incredibly much better than disposables, I could hardly imagine wrapping her cute little bum in a paper diaper. So, I figured out how to leave the house with cloth diapers. And then when her first trip out of town came around, I just figured out how to make that work too.

Having now managed several trips, including one involving air travel, I definitely have the process down to a science. Now, keep in mind, I use a service, meaning prefolds that they wash for me weekly and covers that I wash myself.

1. Determine how many diapers you will need for how long you are going to be away.

Figure out how many diapers a day you need. If you (like me) have no idea how many diapers a day you usually use, this is where it helps to have a diaper service. I called them and asked what my weekly number of diapers used has been and they were able to tell me my highest week in the last month, which I just divided by 7.

Pack as many as you think you will use, but throw in a few extra. I find that we sometimes use more when traveling, depending on what we are doing.

If you are going on a trip of 3 days or shorter, you will probably be able to fit the diapers in your suitcase and/or diaper bag. If your trip is longer than 3 days, you will probably need a separate duffel bag for diapers.

If you use a diaper service and will miss your delivery day, be sure to plan in advance. Call your diaper company in advance to get a double order the week before you leave so you will have enough. Most services are fine with this and do not charge extra, as long as you leave double the number of diapers for pick up when you come back.

2. Prepare for the wet diapers in advance.

When you are packing for your trip, you will need to have appropriate waterproof storage space for the wet diapers. If you are traveling for 2-3 days, then just a few average wet bags should do the trick. I pretty much plan for 1 wet bag per day. I highly recommend Kushies wet bags for this purpose because they are so thin and fold up very small to store them before you are going to use them.

If you are going to be gone for 3 days or more, you will need a slightly more complex plan. Without an odor proof diaper pail to hold several days of stinkage, you will need a storage solution. I suggest packing an extra diaper pail liner from your diaper service or a very thick large garbage bag. You can fold it up and stick it in the duffel with your clean ones on the way there.

3. Remember that most airlines charge for checked bags.

When making your plans, realize that most airlines do charge for checked bags. You can either travel an airline that does not charge for checked bags (like Southwest Airlines- which does not currently charge, as of the time of this publication), or you can really limit your own personal luggage to figure out how to bring diapers as a carry on (frankly, this sounds impossible to me), or you can just break down and pay to check bags. If you do decide that you will just pay to check a bag, hopefully you have made this decision before choosing your airline and you can add the cost to the cost of the ticket to find the truly cheapest airfare for you and your bag.

4. While you are away...

Bring lots of wet bags for during the day, while you are away from your lodging. Pack an empty one in your diaper bag each day. At the end of the day, when you get back to your hotel or wherever you are staying, drop off your wet bag. If you are on a prolonged trip, where they will start to stink and you will need to bring them back dirty, either just throw the entire wet bag in your extra liner or trash bag, or if you are limited on how many wet bags you have to use, empty the wet bag into the big bag and rinse off your wet bag. Some moms bring extra bags to avoid this and help with the stench. One possibility is saving bread loaf bags. They make for good wet storage and usually come with a tie of sorts to help keep it air tight.

Keep in mind that poopy diapers are stinky no matter what you put them in, and it does help if you can dump solids in the toilet (dump, do not rinse) when doing your changes, before sticking the diapers in the wet bag. Just a little tip.

Now about covers....

If you use diaper covers like most moms who use services, then you will probably have a handful of soiled covers at the end of the day. My advice.. if you are limited on covers (our family can probably make it 3-4 days without doing any laundry), then you will probably need to hand wash and dry at least some covers. This really is easier than it sounds. A quick rinse (use some hand soap if necessary) in the sink will usually do the trick. Just hang them up somewhere to dry overnight. They are made to dry quickly and will dry overnight.

5. Getting it all home.

On the way home, just shove that whole bag of wet diapers in your extra duffel bag (the one the clean ones were in on the way there). If you are flying, I highly recommend you check this bag at this point, since it really would not be fun to try to explain to TSA why you have a duffel bag essentially full of human waste. It is not something I have tried, so I am really not sure what the reaction would be to this.

As you see, cloth diapering away from home is simpler than it seems. Plus, remember that there will probably be stores wherever you are going, and the worst thing that could happen is that you would have to go buy some disposables when you are there.