Traveling with Cloth?

[47jennifer]

I'm going to be visiting family with my son who is cloth diapered. It's a 6 hour flight. I will be staying with my mother, and there will be access to a washing machine. I'm currently debating whether I should just do disposables for a week and a half, or if i should continue cloth. I want to do cloth diapers, but don't want to have to bring a whole ton of extra stuff along (especially since it costs money to check extra bags!) Does anyone have any personal experience traveling and using cloth? Any tips to make it easier, especially in the airport and on the plane? Or should I just give in for a week to disposables??

Thanks!

[My3guys]

While I don't think traveling while cloth diapering is hard (although not for everyone), I do think flying brings it own set of challenges. Particularly in terms of the limited amount of stuff you can bring. If your child has his own seat, than your diaper bag can be one of his carry-ons. That helps.

Is shipping stuff ahead a possibility? If not, prefolds and covers always were the easiest to pack for me. While prefolds can be heavy they don't take up that much space. PUL covers are so easy to wash and dry and weigh next to nothing. They pack really well.

A couple thoughts. If you do decide to do disposables, please do a test run at home first. You don't want to be far away at home and dealing with diaper rash issues.

For the plane, I would suggest AIOs or prestuffed pockets. Planes do have changing tables in the bathrooms but they are still confined spaces. Bring the diapers that you can change fastest and most simply. For me, that was always AIOs. Another idea is a Gro Baby diaper with the disposable/biodegradable liner. So, all you have to do is toss the liner and snap a new one in. That could work well on the plane. Obviously, a terrific wet bag is necessary.

I would have your mom purchase any laundry supplies you might need so you don't have to bring those. However, if her water is hard and yours is soft, or vice versa, you might have to do a couple loads before you figure out your new system.

Good luck. We LOVE to travel and our boys, come with us each and every time, diapers and all.

[mum2row]

this is the only time I am willing to do sposies. To me it is not worth the extra hassle of hauling all the dipes. I only take enough sposies for one day (or appropiate to the travel time plus a couple extras) then buy more for when I get to my destination.

[aikigypsy]

I have travelled using cloth lots of times on the 6-hour flight, 14+ hour trip, between home and my husband's home town. I just bring what we need, plus a wet bag. It does make for a bulkier carry-on than we would have if using disposables, though, and one time it seemed like we had to pack another whole check-in bag just for diapers... but we always avoided excess baggage charges somehow. For a short trip, you really don't need to bring that much, and there's sometimes a baggage allowance for the infant, too.

The main issue for me has been that my mother and MIL both think I'm a bit crazy for using cloth diapers. They help out and go along with it, but I can feel their reluctance. If they were any less enthusiastic about using cloth, it might be awkward to do the diaper laundry at their houses. If your mother isn't supportive, it might be worth using sposies at her house to avoid conflict.

[mambera]

I take my cloth with me but use sposies in the airport and on the plane. Cloth just takes up too much space in the carryons. I pack all the cloth diapers in the checked baggage.

[bjorker]

I have done it both ways, but that was before airliners started charging extra for checked bags. At the time, it just depended on varying factors like how long we'd be gone, what our accommodations were, how busy we'd be, etc. There were some trips dd and I took that were about crazy family woes where we had no set plan and I knew it'd be kind of nuts (this is of course making a very long story short! ). So I didn't bother, and just bought sposies for the trip. Other times it was more of a relaxing thing and I had nice big bags so it was no biggie to just pack cloth and wash while we were gone. With bag fees, I'd probably be more likely to only pack the essentials and give in to the sposies while gone.

You may also entertain buying one bag of sposies for use during actual travel, and still bringing the cloth. I think we did that more times than not, even when bringing cloth with us. That way you can save room in your carry-on and make the airplane/airport experience a little bit less of a hassle.

[kirstenb]

I have done both. I do think it is easier to use disposibles on the airplane just because they take up so much less room. If you have access to a washing machine at your destination it isn't any harder to use cloth there.

[Michigan Mama]

If I'm flying somewhere, I've always taken sposies, and I'm glad. Then I don't have to worry about carrying it all, washing issues, etc.

And there have been times where our flights have been delayed. Once we got stuck overnight in Chicago and while it was a challenge, we were able to go buy sposies. If we had had cloth, we would have run out, and had to go get sposies anyway, plus have had to tote around a bunch of dirty diapers.

Either way, take more with you in your carry on than you think you might need, just in case.

I'm also one for taking some with me and buying once I get to my destination.