Camping with a Cloth Diapered child?
One of the many questions we get from our cloth diapering parents is how many of their favorite pre-baby activities can they do post-baby. One of the most common questions revolves around camping. Can you camp with a cloth diapered baby? The answer is…of course!
Camping and cloth diapering can work. It just takes a bit of preparation. Personally, I find it easier than the hassle of trying to camp with disposables. We always practice Leave No Trace camping. The LNT motto is to “Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.” So, how do you do that and cloth diaper? Easy.
First of all, we only travel with prefolds when we camp. They are simply much easier, for us, to wash and to dry than any other type of diaper. We only bring PUL covers and they, in particular, dry very quickly. We always bring a wet bag and a little unscented wipe solution and wipes as well.
If you are going on a short trip, it is easy to just dump all the diapers in the wet bag and do laundry when you get home. Longer trips require some washing and that gets a tad tricky. If you are in bear country, hang the wet bag up high the same way you hang your food.
In either case, solid waste must be buried. We always pick a spot a couple hundred feet away from our water source and the trail. A sunny spot helps decomposition so if you can find that, it helps. We dig a “cathole” which is just a small, 6 inch or so deep, hole. We place the solid waste there and then cover it with dirt and leaves. We scatter the catholes far and wide so as to not concentrate possible pathogens in one place and to help protect the wildlife.
If we have to do wash, we always bring a big bucket and gather river or stream water. We then use biodegradable soap and wash the diapers several hundred feet from the water source. When we need to dump the water, we dig another cathole and place it there. We then hang the diapers in trees or near the campfire for drying.
Have fun on your trip!