At an Earth Day festival in St Louis this April, we talked with many expectant parents at our DiaperFreeBaby booth. Most people, when presented with information about disposable diaper statistics and their effects on the environment, indicated that they were planning to use cloth diapers. I was excited to share the concept of Elimination Communication with them, as it is very compatible with cloth diapering and results in an even smaller impact on the environment. It's also particularly useful for cloth diapering families who travel. While many people may be comfortable using cloth diapers at home, they often switch to disposables when traveling to minimize stress. But because EC'ing families usually go through fewer diapers, bringing cloth along on a trip is a reasonable option to consider.

Depending on the length of your trip, you could take enough cloth diapers for the duration, bringing the wet diapers back with you in a plastic bag. If you are on a longer trip, you can always wash a load of diapers at a friend or relative's house or at a laundromat. If you only have wet diapers, washing diapers in the hotel sink is another option.

Some reasons why EC makes it feasible to use cloth while traveling are:

• EC reduces the number of overall diapers needed, allowing for fewer diapers to be used on the road.
• Many EC'ed babies prefer to use the potty for poops, so there are fewer or no poopy diapers to deal with while on a trip.
• Some parents find that they are more in tune with their baby while outside the home because they have fewer distractions, resulting in more eliminations ending up in the potty, instead of the diaper - again reducing overall diaper use

On your next trip, why not take the DiaperFreeChallenge™ and plan on potty opportunities for your little one? You just might be pleasantly surprised to find that you don't need many of the diapers you've packed!