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Going Camping

544 views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  Jes'sBeth 
#1 ·
Well I finally agreed to go on my first camping trip hurray. Now how do I keep my babies bum in cloth while camping for a week???

Here is what I was thinking. Use flats preferabley hemp so that if needed i can hand wash them and hang them to dry and Hemp is antimicrobial so no need to worry. I was also thinking I would get some grren earth covers because they are inexpensive so if they get a little beat up while camping no biggy right? I am hoping to be doing a bit of ECing while we commune with nature so this diaper stuff should be great right?? am I on the right track? anyone gone camping and CD successfully??

OK well I know my Mom did but she had to CD she had no choice and well I have no choice either since I made a commitment to my Daughter and to the Earth


Oh yeah nad just how do you hand wash diapers???
 
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#2 ·
We did a two week camping trip this past summer when DS was about 8-9 months old using cloth. I've read here about some mamas who have highly recommended using flats, but since I didn't have any flats and no extra $$ to spend buying them I just took pockets.

The plan was to wash them every night and hang them to dry. I brought a 5-gallon bucket tight fitting lid and deposited the diapers in their during the day. I had a little bit of water and a squirt of soap in there too and the idea was that they would agitate a little as you drive around. We cut a hole in the lid to accommodate a toilet plunger- at night we would rinse the diapers in cold water, then heat water over the camp stove to wash them using the toilet plunger method, rinse, and hang to dry.

In practice though, it didn't work out so well. Draining a heavy bucket of poopy water was next to impossible, especially since there wasn't an outhouse or toilet facility at the first place we were camping. I didn't think it was a good idea to just dump that much human waste on the ground. Also, we were a LONG way from the water source, so washing them was just a total pain and a huge chore. Lastly, it rained for the first 7 days we were camping, so with all the wetness and humidity the darn things NEVER dried.

I had brought enough diapers with me to last about 3-4 days anyhow, so in the end it just turned out to be a whole lot easier to find a laundromat somewhere in the nearest town every few days. Worked out well since we were running out of clothes too!
 
#3 ·
I would not try washing hemp by hand. It takes a lot to get hemp truly clean, and takes a long, long time to dry. Honestly I would recommend flats. I used flats in India and hand-washed on the road, and they were dry by morning. They are easy to rinse and clean. I had to double them up for my dd but at the end of the day I only had 10-12 flats to wash. I soaked them for awhile in dish soap and then went back to wash them. I did use a lot of water, rinsing each one under the faucet. Not sure if you can do that on a camping trip. Maybe just pack enough and do a load when you get back, or use them the last few days of your trip.
 
#4 ·
Hi,
I did a 10 day back country trip with my then 1 year old. I used homemade flannel flats and handwashed. We were canoeing, so we had water. Basically, I disposed of poopies as with my own and then had a collapseable bucket to wash in. I would put my dirties in a wet bag during the day (this worked GREAT!) and then wash at our camp site every night with castille soap (biodegradable) and then rinse with fresh water 2-3 times. They dried pretty fast, even when it was raining (we put them under a tarp or near the fire.)

The things I would have changed were:
I brought wool- very arrogant and DUMB! IMO
It did not dry and was hard to clean!
I wish I had all Bummis SWW and perhaps 1-2 fleece.
Also, I use snappis with my cpf at home, but they did not work on the flannel. I used pins, but never really got the hang of it. The pins were nice as clips on the line though.

Lastly, don't forget to bring a line and also, I just remembered, I tried using rice paper liners, but poop still got on the dipes and they did not make clean up much easier, but they are worth a thought if you have toilet acces.
Anyhow, hope this helps. Have a great time!!!
 
#5 ·
We used cloth on our canoe trip this summer too. No problem. As the clean diaper stack got smaller, the diaper bag got fuller. They all were in the same bag seperated by plastic (of course!) as in the dirty ones were double or triple bagged (I forget how many garbage bags we had stacked inside each other...!)

We were only gone for 4 days though and just packed everything out and washed when we got home. We took every scrap of diaper we had. The biggest problem was that we forgot the snappi for the prefolds DD was wearing a pocket on the way to the entrance. oops! Still, all we had to do was rinse the covers a few times. They dry fast. We have a stash of flats for a longer canoe trip this summer that we'll hand wash in similarly to Jenh. We have other friends who have done the same and had great success.
 
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