Cloth Diapering in Hawaii

This post is going to end up being two in one: a new Hawaii post, and an entry in the Thrifty Green Thursday carnival over at Green Baby Guide. It just seemed like a perfect match!

I am really proud of myself for cloth diapering on vacation. I wasn't all that sure I could make it work, but I did. We didn't actually do it 100%, but it was close to 70%. We were in Hawaii for ten days total. If using only disposables in that time, we would have gone through a little over a pack of diapers. We packed a partial pack; I'm thinking it was about 3/4 full. We came home with about a dozen diapers. So, how did we make it work? I bought a dozen flats. We already had some JamTots covers, and I packed a couple of those. They weren't the best option because they are made of Minkee, which doesn't dry particularly fast, but they worked well enough. I didn't really want to buy new covers, although I might go with something like a Bummis or a Prowraps cover next time. Both of those have the shiny side of the PUL facing the inside, so they are easy to wipe clean between uses. I also brought a few of our BumGenius 3.0s. These are the only diapers we rely on for nighttime use. They also don't take very long to dry if you turn them inside out, which was the main reason I brought them. Left behind were the AIOs and both microfiber and hemp inserts. These are not easy to clean in a hotel sink, and they take forever to dry, even in the dryer, so not a good vacation choice. Flats, on the other hand, are fantastic for travel. I almost wish I'd been daring enough to try them out when I first cloth diapered. I could have saved us some money. I paid all of $13.00 for our dozen, with shipping. They are fairly easy to hand wash, and they dry quickly. I didn't take the time to learn any fancy folding methods, either. I just did the following:

First, I folded them in half:

Then, I folded them in thirds the long way: Finally, I folded that in half:

I took the end result and laid it into a diaper cover (just like what I did here), or stuffed it into one of the pocket diapers. I never had any leakage problems. They also packed pretty well, which is a big problem with cloth diapers. They take up so much room. Bringing along cloth diapers had its other perks, too. While we were on the Big Island, we introduced Oscar to the pool for the very first time. It was kind of a last minute decision to put him in the pool, so we didn't have his swim diaper handy. No problem; cloth diapers work just as well! We were lucky enough to be visiting relatives while we were out there, so we had access to a washer and dryer for part of the time. We only did one load of laundry, though, which surprised me. The rest of the time I just washed them out in the sink and let them drip dry. Oscar tends to poop in the morning, so we used the disposables mostly for nighttime and the morning diaper change. We also did all flights with disposables. I didn't have the patience to deal with cloth in the limited space of an airplane. If you do decide to take the plunge and try this, remember to pack whatever detergent you are used to using on your diapers. I just put some in a tiny Tupperware container (we use dry soap). No matter how well you rinse, you'll probably end up with some detergent build-up, but it shouldn't really be an issue while you are gone. Just give your diapers a really good wash with some extra rinses when you get home, and all should be fine.