Day 3 of Dirty Diaper Laundrys 2016 Flat & Handwashing challenge. The Flats & Handwashing Challenge is now hosted by the Cloth Diaper Podcast. 

For today’s open topic, I thought I would write about my yesterday!

We were flying! So here’s our experience of Flying with Flats.

Traveling doesn’t have to mean a change of routine. Traveling is already expensive enough, let alone adding the cost of disposable diapers. Keep your routine the same, keep cloth on the bum!

Flats are perfect for traveling, and I’m excited to share my brief experience with flying with cloth diapers

 
Why Cloth on Travels

Before choosing to use cloth or use dispable diapers on our travel adventures, we always have a conversation considering the pros and cons of the situation.

• Cloth Diapers are bulky and take up luggage space.
  • Truth, BUT Flats are easy to roll up and easy to pack. I can fit two days worth of Flats in less space than a days worth of AIO diapers.
  • The other perk is if I NEED more space at the end of our trip, it wont be the end of the world if I leave the receiving blankets at my moms house. They cost $5.
• Disposable Diapers are expensive and a hassle to track down.
  • Truth, on our trip to Italy it was a hassle and expensive.
  • Truth, in Montreal, I was short 8 diapers and had to buy another $14 package.
  • Truth, I hate finding a grocery store or hunting down the best priced sale diapers.
  • Both trips I spent more on disposable diapers than the cost of the extra bag to fly with. Pro tip, sometimes a sympathetic airline clerk will check your babies bag for free… Not a guarantee, by the way.
• Cloth Diapers require access to laundry facilities.
  • False, this challenge is showing that all you need is a basin, detergent and space to hang.
  • Even if you have access to hotel washers, washing flats is much less stressful than fancy diapers. Flats are easier to clean, and less likely to screw up in a sketchy machine.
• Disposable Diapers are prone to disasters.
  • So much truth. I’ve had the worst poop clean ups in disposable diapers. Even with diaper covers… There’s just something about a cloth diaper that keeps the poop contained.
• Cloth Diapers require time
  • Truth, but sometimes it’s okay to slow down and just stay home and wash diapers
  • Right now my diapers are soaking during their pre wash. It takes maybe 45 minutes to hand wash diapers, and much of that time is downtime… we all have 45 minutes in a day… that time is often time you could be spending at a grocery store. ugh.
  • Time is valuable , choose what works for your time frames

Packing Flats in Checked Luggage

Flats fold up super flat and simple. They easily compress and honestly take up very little space in my luggage. I rolled them up, and layed covers on top.

PS If I loose my luggage, its not like I packed hundreds of dollars of diapers.

 Packing Flats in Carry On

Baby is going to need diaper changes during the day. I plan for one change every two hours. For ease of use, I also folded them all up and tucked them into my covers. I’ve also got a fair sized wet bag, a change pad, and disposable wipes (because I wanted to keep something easy).

We had a busy travel day. It would take us 4 hours from leaving our house,dropping off pets and boarding planes before we’d land in Vancouver. We were also going to dinner at my Aunts before driving 90 minutes to my moms house. We’d be gone about 10 hours. I packed 5 diapers and would have access to my bag in Vancouver.

My Experience

The night before I washed diapers and they were just dry the next morning. Some of the receiving blankets were damp, but I didn’t have the time to deal with the, they got rolled up and squished in the bag.

I lucked out. We had our poop before leaving the house. This meant I could dump the poop in the toilet AND rinse it out before tucking it in the wet bag and stowing it in my checked luggage. I was in horror at the initial thought, but eventually came to terms that this was better than dealing with a poop on the go.

Honestly, I prefer disposable liners when traveling and out about. I usually put them in a plastic bag and deal with later – versus dealing with poop squishing everywhere. But for the purpose of this trip, they aren’t allowed. So I used fleece liners.

We changed every two hours: at the airport, in the back of the car, on the beach, at my aunts. We had no leaks. We had no incidents. It worked great.

 

Baby at the aiport. flats are so trim, you cant even tell he is wearing cloth.

Flats are bulkier than disposable diapers. But, honestly, I feel like I already have SO MUCH stuff when flying, that it doesn’t matter. I really fail at minimalism and they work great for us. In past, I have used disposables for the flight and cloth at our destination. It might depends on the size of your bags and the reality of the trip.

In my humble opinion, it’s easier than making a special trip to the store just for diapers. And we all know the small packages are e most expensive.

If I had known about Flats when I went to Italy, I would have kept cloth diapering my baby on the trip. Guess this means I need to plan another international trip?