BY JULIE MURPHY

It is that time of year. The holidays are upon us. With the majority of us traveling to spend quality time with friends and family, a question may start to creep into your mind: “will I travel with my cloth diapers?”

At first the idea may sound overwhelming or even impossible to accomplish, but rest assured that it is not as difficult as you would think. I recently took a trip across the country with my son in cloth diapers and it was far less stressful than I thought it would be.

Here are a few tips for traveling this Holiday with your Cloth Diapers:

Have a game plan, and a back-up plan that answers some questions such as:

• What if my luggage (with the cloth diapers) gets lost?
• What if I don’t have access to a washer and dryer?
• What if my little one breaks out in a rash?
• Will you use cloth during the actual travel, or when you arrive at your destination?

If at all possible, it is best to travel with the minimum amount of cloth diapers you will need. It may be more loads of laundry, but it will less hassle, especially when flying. Depending on the age of the baby this number can be anywhere from 6 to 12 cloth diapers a day.

It is best to carry-on your cloth diapers when flying. This way you do not have to worry about lost luggage. This is part of your “game plan.”

Don’t be afraid to use disposables. When I flew across the country to visit my sister I did use a few disposables simply so I wouldn’t leave dirty diapers sitting in my diaper pail at home for 2 weeks. Pop a few disposables in your bag for those “just in case” moments.

I recommend using the FuzziBunz Large Hanging Wet Bag when traveling. It is easy to store any place and takes up very little space. It is important to have a large wet bag to store all your dirty diapers when traveling.

The less bulky the cloth diaper, the better. Try to choose your most trim fitted cloth diapers that will take up the least amount of room.

Don’t forget your cloth diaper safe rash ointments and detergents.  A lot of time you can purchase sample packages of detergent or rash balm for very inexpensive or even free with some orders. These sample sizes would be perfect for travel.

Be creative with your packing. As mentioned above, sometimes cloth diapers can take up a lot of valuable space, especially if your space costs extra money on an airplane. Try packing your cloth diapers in your carry on or even use them to protect more delicate objects such as a lap top or other fragile gifts you picked up in your travels. The more creative the better! When I traveled with my stroller, I stuck my bag of cloth diapers in the bottom of the stroller, so that when it folded up, you couldn’t even tell! This way the stroller boards with me and baby and I don’t have to pay for extra luggage!

Have a spraying strategy. If you can’t bring your diaper sprayer with you, it is best to bring some type of flushable biodegradable diaper liner that can simply be tossed or flushed away after use. This will make your traveling with poopy diapers much more enjoyable.

If you are going to be around people who don’t normally cloth diaper, what a great way to introduce and expose them to cloth diapers. I first learned about using cloth diaper from watching friends who did it. Every time I travel with my cloth diapers I quickly grab the attention of everyone in the room! You never know, you may have a convert on your hands!

Have you ever traveled or plan to travel with your cloth diapers? What are your favorite tricks or hints when traveling with cloth diapers?