4 Months in Europe with Cloth

[Lucy]

Following this:
http://www.nappycino.com.au/forum/tr...ight-help.html
discussion, I thought I would post with my experiences of not only flying long haul to and from Europe, but managing numerous shorter flights and holidays within Europe using cloth.

NB. baby in nappies was aged about 5-9 months.

I decided to get some eenees booster pads before the departure to use in transit. I was rather disappointed in my trials of them, as they didn't reach capacity and instead just leaked through where the small 'wet zone' was once it was bulging full. In addition to that they were a pain to dispose of, requiring at least one or two flushes to flush completely and making me nervous on a couple of occassions (pre trip) that our sewerage pipes would overflow! So, I would never recommend them, nor use them again myself, and wish I had listened to everyone who had suggested NOT using them before I went down that path.

So, with my hesitation about those things in mind, a friend gave me a hand full of disposables to carry with me and use if I needed. I took a few as back up, because I thought I should...

BUT! I didn't find the need to use disposables once in the flight from Melbourne to London, so didn't take any with my for the remainder of our nomadic 4 months in Europe.

While we were based mostly in London, in an apartment on the fourth floor of a building with no outdoor space for a clothesline, we did lots of travelling around Europe, and did it all, bar 2 eenees pads, using cloth on Thomas.

Matthew, who is now 3, toilet trained within 2 weeks of arriving in London, and while the early days of this experience were stressful with hasty rushes to random toilets in random places and a few accidents in beds of holiday accommodation, having one less child in nappies made life much easier!!! We had several training pants for him to use at night, but he day and night trained at the same time, so they were more back up than anything else!

I took a bit of a variety of favourites - about 8 one size pockets ,with bamboo and hemp boosters, 6 bamboo fitted one size nappies with extra bamboo boosters, 2 different bamboo fitted one size nappies, 1 hemp one size fitted, 1 different hemp one size fitted, 2 large and 2 medium all in ones, 2 medium and 1 large all in one, a pile of flannellette squares and borrowed about half a dozen bamboo terry squares. I also bought 1 bamboo nappy in London. I also had about 4 or 5 pul wraps (large), and a couple of other pul wraps in medium, as well as some wool wraps.

We committed a terrible sin - the lack of ambient drying space meant that we used a clothes dryer on just about every load of nappies, if not to part dry, then to fully dry I have never felt so environmentally guilty in my life. We arrived in London in September, while the weather was still mild enough to not need to use heaters (wall radiators), but the ambient heat just didn't get through the fitteds (a limited collection given luggage allowances!) we were using within 2 days. Once the heating had to go on in November-ish, we were about to use the radiators to dry things, but only partially. Clothes and nappies have all now seen better days, and I have to wonder if one of the most expensive components of our trip was the deterioration in the above. It was nice to always have soft nappies to use on him though!

Wool wraps quickly went to the bottom of the choice pile, my few bamboo one size nappies were night only choices due to their great capacity yet, relative drying time, Pockets and AIOs were saved for (frequent) outings, and all others used when I needed to.

We also took side trips to Norway and Denmark, each for 5 days at different times. In Norway we commenced the challenge of finding accommodation which had washing facilities. We coped, streching out the nappies as much as we could per use, and spending a bit on cash washers and dryers with labels and directions in foreign languages. In Denmark, I stayed with 'relatives' (host families from 10-odd years ago!) and used their machines

Before we left London for the continent, I reviewed the range of nappies I took with me, and settled on mostly pockets, about 4 one size bamboo fitteds, a hemp one size fitted, another of a differnt brand hemp, all the AIOs, 2 different bamboo one size fitteds, flushable liners, fleece liners, and the best fitting PUL covers.

Following our London time (about 3 months) we headed off to Germany and Switzerland for a few days. I found myself hand washing nappies in the bath of a hotel in Munich, with Dan wringing them out and rigging up a hair-dryer to part dry the nappies. Switzerland (Interlaken) we had no trouble with machines in our accomm, and France (Samoens) over Christmas was the same. Italy was a bit of a challenge, as in once place (Bellagio, Lake Como) we had a washing machine, but no dryer, but managed to utilise the towel rail in the bathroom, which doubled as a heater, to dry all the nappies, the second place (Portolo, near Trento) had a temperamental washing machine but no dryer and under floor heating so Dan rigged up a hair dryer airer as well. Unfortunately that apartment was incredibly humid, and to be honest, I don't know how the nappies managed to dry over 3 days, in fact, I am surprised they did. Our last place in Italy (Vicenza) no washing machine or dryer, so I hand washed and wringed the nappies again, and hung them over the towel rail to dry. Unfortunately I was exhausted at the time of night I did that, so they weren't washed well and ended up being a bit smelly and needing re-washing asap afterwards, though I used them if I could before doing so. In Austria we stayed in a 'guest house' or 'pension' like a B&B (Imst, near Innsbruck) where they did our washing for us if we paid them about $4Euro (about $6AUD). I put the nappies in the machine (couldn't stand the thought of them putting their hands on Thomas' smelly nappies!) for them, but they did the rest, bringing them up washed, dried and even folded the next day - was rather luxurious really!). Next place in Austria (Salzburg) had a washer but no dryer, so we used the radiators and airers and managed to get them all dry. I managed to make it 3 days without washing after then, somehow, and had great accommodation for our last continental night in Munich where we machine washed and part dried a couple of loads of things, and then radiator dried them to finish. Our last night was in London, and we had accomm with a washer and dryer which I used to ensure I wasn't lugging home to Aus 12 wet nappies!

All this in mind, my conclusion is intuitive: the easiest to launder and dry were pul pockets and hemp boosters, although, if left on too long, this set is most likely to leak. For reliability, a fast drying fitted and good fitting PUL cover wins hands down!

In the flight to Europe we used the most absorbent Bamboo fitteds and PUL covers, with a pocket as back up, and on the way back to Australia I used pockets only with a couple of fitteds as back up. On shorter flights I managed to avoid changing nappies by using the most absorbent ones I could. A bit of a delay (3 hours) at Heathrow before one flight meant I was well stretched for nappies that I had in hand luggage, but managed - note to self, always have extras to allow for Heathrow delays!

We made it home an I was amazed to see the nappies I had left behind here! Relieved, as so many of the ones I took with me have lost elastic or the pul has started leaking possibly due to their increased use and repeated drying in a machine... But unfortunately, the ones I had over there were among my favourites.

The trip demonstrated that all styles of nappies have their place, and yes, they can be a right PITA to deal with when you are away from your own laundry routine... especially if you have to hand wash nappies in a bath because the laundry facilities are $7AUD per item luxury service! but it can be done. If I was to do it all again, I would take more pockets, more hemp boosters, and a few good fitting pul covers and fast drying bamboo fitteds. Ideally around 3/4 of my travel 'set' would be pockets. Flushable liners are a must!!!

Anyway, if you have got this far, I hope my review of my personal experience helps!

I have tried not to mention brands, but if people want to know more specifically what I used, I am happy to provide the details via pm.

[davina]

What an awesome run-down! And...it is *wonderful* to have you home

[mustangshelly]

Wow you are a true inspiration. Hope you had a marvellous time. with envy lol.

Cheers,
Michelle

[MGlatte]

Wow! What a comprehensive "report". It made for interesting reading. Hope you had a good trip.

[alineanne]

awesome run down there lucy. welcome home!!
on a side note, did you enjoy your holiday with the 2 kids? i backpacked to a lot of those places and loved them. *wishing* for those days again ..
(and fwiw, i second your recommendation for pockets and absorbent fitteds. that worked the best for us too)

[KristyMum]

yay Lucy!

Awsome run down indeed Aline! This will be plenty perfect for the next o/seas unkown washing/drying situations - and shows where there's a will there's a way and that yep, every nappy has it's place