Potty training and international travel

[MamadeRumi]

Hello mothering folk, here's my situation DS is nearly 3 (his birthday is next week), and he has used cloth diapers and cloth training pants from the beginning.  Even a couple of summers ago when we travelled to DC for 5 weeks and to Prague for 10 days, I hauled a bunch of cloth diapers and a wet bag along and spent far too much of my time in Prague tracking down laundrymats.  That was the one time that I regretted cloth diapers and thought that if I were to do it again I would just use disposables for that time. 

Well, here we go again.  We will be travelling to the Caribbean for a month on a research trip (I'm a professor on sabbatical).  DS is in the process of potty training, but there are still a lot of accidents.  I don't know that there will be laundrymats available, and I don't want to spend my precious research time doing laundry, so I'm considering doing disposable training pants, but have several questions.  1.  are there any brands that are less environmentally harmful and safer for my son?  2.  Any estimates of how many I might need?  I usually have him go potty in the morning, then get him into training pants and take him to preschool.  He often comes home with a wet bag filled with one or two wet training pants (though sometimes not), and some times that's it but then some times there are one or two more accidents before bed. Wow, now that I write that down it doesn't sound so good, but really I think he's doing pretty well. 

anyway, my other concern is that I still put him in a diaper at night, but I'm not sure how to do that on our trip.  I suppose I'll bring some cloth diapers and some cloth training pants and a bunch of disposable training pants and wet bags galore, and somehow make it work. 

Any advice?

[heatherdeg]

Neither of my kids (one boy, one girl) was fully potty trained before age 4, so don't sweat it.  A full month of disposables can be monetarily costly, but yeah--if you're going to have issues around finding time and places to launder, it might be your most reasonable option.

I know that one of the major issues I try to avoid is bleach in the diaper.  I believe there are a few brands that don't do bleach (Seventh Generation?) but I honestly don't know how well they hold up to soaking and/or how easily you'll find them (I guess you could have them shipped to where you'll be if you really wanted to--Frontier carries Seventh Generation so if you can place an order you'd get them cheaper)

Otherwise, I'm not sure.  I DO know that the different brands have potential to bother a child's skin--so I would absolutely be testing the brands now, before you go, so that your trip is not further complicated by a little one with wicked diaper rash.  I think one of the major brands has a line that notoriously reacts with some kinds in a way that causes something like a mild burn, but I don't recall the details.

[sassyfirechick]

We CD but when we drove from CT to SC - 16hrs - to visit my sister, I briefly toyed with bringing along my stash of diapers (DD was 10mos at the time) but realistically even though we had accesss to a washer at our destination, trying to pack it all into a rental car while doing diaper changes in rest area bathrooms just wasn't going to be easy.  DD is SUPER sensitive to disposables - I can't remember why but I needed a diaper once and the only thing available was huggies....omg poor child's rear was hot to the touch for days afterwards! We've successfully used the seventh generation and the whole foods brands (365 I think it is) with no rash and no leaks.  Now when she was younger and colicky and prior to my realizing her dairy intolerance and eliminating it from my own diet, she would have blown out of ANY disposable - I used to put the CD covers over the top to keep everything in.  So maybe take a cover or two along just in case!  But those were two brands that we've used without issues.

[MamadeRumi]

Hey, I just wanted to update everyone who responded.  We survived a wonderful, frustrating, amazing, aggravating month in Cuba (research trip), with a toddler in tow.  We used seventh generation training pants and diapers (for night time), and all went well. It may have set his potty training back a bit now that we're back, but I absolutely would not have been able to launder diapers there, so, this was the best way to go.  Thanks for your input.