Traveling with cloth
We recently took a road trip to visit family and friends for Emma's first birthday party. It was a blast...once we got there. Traveling with cloth diapers is not for the faint of heart. We usually take the cloth diapers with us to use while we're gone but until this trip used sposies for the car ride. It was a rough trip. Here's what I think know I did wrong:
1) Using diapers with only one insert. Rookie mistake. One insert is fine when she gets changed every hour or two. One insert does not cut it when we have to go 3-4 hours between changes. I want to get some hemp prefolds to use as extra inserts anyway and now I think I've found my selling point for getting my husband on board too.
2) Using diapers that I know have the tendency to leak at the seams. What was I thinking? Answer: I wasn't, I was frantically trying to get everything packed and loaded into the car so we could hit the road. This led to the car seat cover needing to be washed at both ends of the trip. Sigh.
3) Not being selective about our choices for where we stop. Changing a baby on the back seat of a small 4 door car with a giant car seat, a hyper dog and squirmy 1 year old because the gas station we stopped at doesn't have a diaper changing station in it = very frazzled mom.
4) Using cloth wipes. Usually no big deal to use cloth wipes when we're out running errands for the day. Usually. Apparently, riding in the car really brings on the poop. I would have loved to have been able to throw those wipes in the trash can instead of stuffing them into the wet bag.
The lesson I learned from this whole experience is that while I have normal day-to-day cloth diapering down to a science, I have yet to master it. I need to put more thought into my traveling diaper protocol for future road trips. I may look into doing a hybrid system (cloth cover with disposable insert) next time. But I'd also love to fully master cloth diapering in any and every situation life throws at me. So, I've learned from this experience and will try very, very hard to remember the lessons of the road.
1) Using diapers with only one insert. Rookie mistake. One insert is fine when she gets changed every hour or two. One insert does not cut it when we have to go 3-4 hours between changes. I want to get some hemp prefolds to use as extra inserts anyway and now I think I've found my selling point for getting my husband on board too.
2) Using diapers that I know have the tendency to leak at the seams. What was I thinking? Answer: I wasn't, I was frantically trying to get everything packed and loaded into the car so we could hit the road. This led to the car seat cover needing to be washed at both ends of the trip. Sigh.
3) Not being selective about our choices for where we stop. Changing a baby on the back seat of a small 4 door car with a giant car seat, a hyper dog and squirmy 1 year old because the gas station we stopped at doesn't have a diaper changing station in it = very frazzled mom.
4) Using cloth wipes. Usually no big deal to use cloth wipes when we're out running errands for the day. Usually. Apparently, riding in the car really brings on the poop. I would have loved to have been able to throw those wipes in the trash can instead of stuffing them into the wet bag.
The lesson I learned from this whole experience is that while I have normal day-to-day cloth diapering down to a science, I have yet to master it. I need to put more thought into my traveling diaper protocol for future road trips. I may look into doing a hybrid system (cloth cover with disposable insert) next time. But I'd also love to fully master cloth diapering in any and every situation life throws at me. So, I've learned from this experience and will try very, very hard to remember the lessons of the road.
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