Conservationist Camping....Cloth Diapers?

Camping with cloth diapers for my little man is surprisingly easy. I worried deeply about our first trip camping with children. Woods and Ethan mix well, too well in fact. He usually forgets to express his needs while entralled in his favorite woodland setting. Even my most cloth diaper-committed friend told me to go buy Pampers. Gasp. I couldn't bring myself to do it. At 500 years to biodegrade a diaper, maybe if we're lucky, the proposed convenience is not cheap.  Could the convenience be morally wrong when camping in God's good creation? Just a thought that nagged me as I packed. I decided the truly convenient and right choice would be to simply keep our system and see what happened.

We took our wet bag that zipped tight (no critters please). We took our Baby Bjorn Potty, which is fantastic and can be used from birth to, ahem, well adults in a pinch. We won't mention names! We took our night-time small potty measuring cup for the tent. The sucess came from keeping our normal routine. Potty-tunities are after meals, before bed, whenever big brother goes for a boy's potty run, and during the night once. We had wet diapers for sure, don't get me wrong. I was buy; he was busy. But he always came to show me whenever he needed attention. And, we didn't pollute creation. We showed our children how to bury waste - far too much fun for Nathan, my 3 year old, to "feed" the worms. (My husband is to blame for this potty picture). We talked a ton about composting and God's created order. We showed them the ways we are good stewards of God's gifts.We used our stainless steel dished for meals, biodegradable soap, cloth napkins, and Kleen Kanteen water bottles. Purposeful, but easy. We had almost no trash.

As I was running, I felt incredible. I ran through the incredible, mature forest at Lake Hope; I knew that we had enjoyed the land gently. Being a runner and conservationist at heart, this was the perfect way to introduce my three little loves to camping. And they certainly enjoyed it. God knew we didn't want to ever leave so He kindly sent us Tornado Warnings and a Flash Flood watch to motivate us on our way. Still, we loved every second of it and the worries of meeting children's needs while camping disipated into simply enjoying every moment of being together in God's world.