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Have you shied away from taking cloth diapers camping with you? Are you wondering if cloth diapering in the backcountry is a possibility? I am here today to tell you that IT IS POSSIBLE and WE’VE DONE IT!
I don’t think I tell you often enough, but I’m not an expert. At anything really. I’m simply someone who likes to try new things and tell others about it. I bake on occasion and share some recipes. I hike a lot and share some tips. And now I’ve gone camping with cloth diapers and want to share my experience. So, be warned that this “advice” comes from just one 2-night stay in the backcountry at our local provincial park. I’ll have more to tell after the next trip, and the trip after that, and then one day I might call myself an expert, who knows!
I wrote a little narrative post about Huckleberry’s first camping trip, if you’re interested in those details, but if you’re just here for the cloth diapering dos and don’ts, read on!
When camping with cloth diapers…
Do:
- Track how many times you change your baby’s diaper in a day for at least 3 days leading up to the trip (this will help you know how many to pack)
- Go with AI2s (covers + inserts) instead of AIOs or pockets as they take up less space and the covers can be used more than once
- Bring an extra wet bag – we packed 3: one for clean diapers, one for dirty diapers at the site, and one for dirty diapers on our day hikes (you won’t want to bring all of your dirty diapers on a day hike)
- Pack dry cloth wipes and an all-in-one wipe solution like Les produits de MaYa ointment
- Grab some disposable liners, like these *Bummis Bio-Soft Liners from Well.ca, then you can ditch the doo-doo in the privy
- Bring a thin, packable change pad
- Set up a changing station with everything you need in one accessible location – we just used the end of the picnic table and have everything in one little backpack on the bench there
- Bring a diaper change into the tent with you so you don’t have to dig around in the middle of the night in case Babe springs a leak
- String up a clothesline to hang the used covers to air out before you use them again – we used a shoelace and bread clips
Don’t:
- Pack everything separately – we quickly realized it made way more sense to pack everything in “diaper change bundles” with an insert, liner and wipe stacked together
- Rely on pre-moistened wipes – we had some packed for big messes but the Ziploc bag didn’t seal properly and they dried out quite a bit, so bringing a few extra cloth wipes to pack with your solution is a better idea
- Bring more than you need – obviously an extra insert or two is a great idea, but I packed an extra insert or two for each day (i.e. 6 extras) and we didn’t end up needing to change Huckleberry’s diaper as often as we do at home, so we had probably a dozen unused diapers by the end
- Just throw your wipe solution loose in a bag if it can open itself easily – that is not a fun mess to clean up, in fact next time we will probably pack a smaller amount of Les produits de MaYa ointment in a small travel bottle like this *GoToob from Amazon.com
The next time that we go camping with cloth diapers, we will repeat our dos, avoid our don’ts and try a few new things like wool diaper covers and flats.
Great advice! I’ll admit that we didn’t even consider bringing the reusable diapers on our backcountry trips… but you lay it out in such a way that it seems quite easy! And bread clips, I’ll have to try that for hanging clothes. Thanks for sharing!
Jenn recently posted…Your New Approach to Solving the Picky Eater Problem
Good advice I will pass along to my daughter & SIL who will be taking their 6 mo. son camping next weekend for the the first time! LO loves the outdoors and this advice will help make their trip well prepared.
Such a wonderful post. You shared so many things that didn’t knew. Although, I wouldn’t prefer cloth diapers for my baby during camping but still I will try them out.
Sue recently posted…Allnites Overnight Diapers Coupon
I love the bread clips tip! We will definitely be using this info this summer (unless we can potty train by then)!
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I loved these tips! Something as simple as keeping track of how many diapers you use instead of just guessing was something that I probably would have forgotten to do and packing things stacked instead of separately.
You might as well learn from someone else’s experiences lol…packing too many diapers is just annoying!
This is great info! We’re big campers and I’m due with our first in June, just in time for warmer weather. I’ve always planned on cloth diapering (disposables aren’t an option as we try to live as plastic-free as possible) but hadn’t even thought of the “how to”. I’m going to save this post to refer back to!
Great tips. The advice which works best for me is to make “diaper change bundles” and not pack things separately. Very useful one.
Thank you for the tips. I’ll pass this post on to my cloth diaper / outdoorsy friends!
deanna recently posted…Disney MOANA
I am not a mom yet. But I have a little brother, who is 6 months old. I will definitely tell my mom to read this as it will help her a lot.
Jane recently posted…Huggies Diaper Coupon – Get $2 Off Huggies Little Snugglers
I have done it! I honestly don’t think I could add anything, all good advice! I wish I had read this before I did it!
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this is some great tips, love to go hiking and camping even if only a small trip.
Baby steps!
Great info as I can’t wait to go camping with my little one 🙂
Great information! I don’t know a lot of people who cloth diaper while camping, but this makes it sound easier than I thought!
Excellent tips!! Thank you for sharing, since I wouldn’t know where to start planning for a cloth diaper camping trip!
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