Cloth Diapering After Adoption: It's Never Too Late to Start!

Conventional wisdom says you start a family by getting pregnant. You then have nine months to get your life in order…nine months to research cloth diapering, baby furniture, daycare, and pediatricians. You going into newborn-hood knowing you've made good decisions for your baby and family.

My husband and I are anything but conventional. After six years of trying to conceive, we decided that our path to parenting would be though domestic adoption. Five weeks after we were homestudy approved, we got The Call. We then had six weeks to get our lives, home, and work ready for a baby. While cloth diapering had always interested me, I did not have any time to even think though all the possibilities or do any research. I also knew that we'd be living in another state with our newborn for an undetermined amount of time, so disposable diapering was the only option we felt would work for us.

We brought out baby home to Minnesota two weeks after his birth in January. True to Minnesota-style, his arrival home was marked with a blizzard. We spent the next four months with our little guy in disposable diapers, thinking it was too late to start cloth diapering.

But the waste was getting to me. The fact that my kid was sitting in chemicals was getting me. When a Twitter friend started cloth diapering her baby who was older than mine, I decided that it was time for us to make a change to cloth! The only problem was that we had gotten used to the convenience of disposable. After hanging out on various cloth diaper forums, I learned about Hybrid systems, like GroVia and Flip. What a great option…how come no one told me about this sooner! I immediately got us started, and it has been a huge success. I use the disposable inserts when we are out and about, and use the cloth inserts at home. I also found a combination of cover, insert, and booster insert that FINALLY stopped overnight leaks! Kiddo had been leaking his disposables like crazy, and it took cloth to put a stop to that.

The only hitch to our giddy up is that our daycare center does not allow cloth diapering. However, they are looking into whether the hybrid systems with disposable inserts would be allowable by the licensing board. We are eagerly awaiting their reply (cross your fingers for us!).

Diapering with hybrid systems has been such a success, that I'm branching out to cloth all-in-two systems with Best Bottoms and Soft Bums. Heck, I may end up with a little of everything, since cloth diapering is so addictive! And I was worried about the laundry piling up…it's not a problem! I LIKE washing our cloth diapers (shhh, don't tell my husband that)! Every time I put a cloth diaper on my babe, I know I'm saving money, the environment, and his butt.

With another two years of diapering ahead of me, I am glad I made the decision that it's never too late to start cloth diapering.

Photos: Baby CJ in GroVia Shell Snap Closure "Owls"

Bio: Caryn Lantz lives in suburban Minneapolis with her awesome husband of 11 years, and their pride and joy, baby CJ who joined the family though domestic interstate adoption. When not obsessing about cloth diapering, poop, spit-up, rolling over, and other baby-related things, she also knits and designs knitwear, spins her own yarn, and dyes fiber (but that stuff really hasn't been happening much since CJ moved in!). blog: www.fuzzynoodleknits.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/fuzzynoodle