By Joanie Morris
For the Salisbury Post
CONCORD — Parents in Cabarrus County found a different way to celebrate Earth Day on Saturday as parents from all over the county came together at McGee Park on Corban Avenue to help set a Guinness World Record with other parents all over the globe.
The Great Cloth Diaper Change was an event celebrated in more than 400 locations worldwide. Parents got together, and at exactly 12:30 p.m. changed their child’s cloth diaper. In order to qualify, each location had to have at least 25 children changed.
Stephanie Brown, owner of Nutty Brown and organizer of the event in Concord, said on the other side of the world, parents changed their little ones at 12:30 a.m.
She organized the event in Concord simply “to bring awareness to cloth diapering.”
“I’ve been trying to find a way to get people who cloth diaper together,” said Brown. When she got information from other store owners who had heard about the event, she decided it would be the perfect chance to get those parents together and maybe bring other parents to cloth diapering.
As a mother herself, Brown understands the hesitation to cloth diaper. Her daughter, now 5, started out in disposable diapers. She did some research and while she was pregnant with her son, she switched her daughter to cloth diapers. The two are 15 months apart and Brown says she saved hundreds on diapers by cloth diapering when both were in diapers together.
Jessica Miller, who brought her daughter Elizabeth to the event, started as a mom who used disposables. Elizabeth is her third child and the first she’s cloth diapered.
“I think they are easier than disposables in some ways,” said Miller. “You never have to go to the store for more.”
Miller said not only are the diapers convenient — all you have to do is a load of laundry if you’re on your last diaper — but they are better for the environment and her daughter’s behind. Cloth diapered children have less instances of diaper rash than children who use disposables because of the chemicals found in disposable diapers.
She does the laundry every other day, but admits she could probably do it even less than that. She spent about $300 to start cloth diapering. According to Diaperco.com, in one year, a child can go through about 3,000 disposable diapers. At an average cost of 20 cents per diaper, parents spend $600 on diapers alone per year. Miller will not have to buy more diapers, because she has one-size diapers that her daughter will be able to use until she potty trains.
In addition, parents who cloth diaper can clean their diapers and sell them once their children are done with them.
Miller admitted that cloth diapering is addicting.
“It’s like a sickness,” she said with a laugh. “Once you start buying them, there are so many cute ones out there you want them all.”
Miller and the other 25 parents and guardians who participated in the event waited for the countdown and started diapering their little ones at exactly 12:30 p.m. They were all done by 12:31 p.m. In other parts of the world, parents and guardians were doing the same. Event coordinators estimate that 10,000 children were cloth diapered at 12:30 p.m. EST.
In addition to cloth diapering their little ones, Brown also coordinated an Easter egg hunt for the children, and had a raffle drawing for parents. She gave away gift certificates to local businesses, as well as things like car seat ID tags, training pants, coupons and even earrings from The Bead Lady.
For more information on the Great Cloth Diaper Change, or cloth diapering, visit www.nuttybrown.net.
Contact Joanie Morrisat 704-797-4248.