Change A Diaper, Change the World

Saturday at 12:30 Eastern Time, in 400 locations in 24 countries, from Latvia and iceland to Tanzania and the Philippines, thousands of babies simultaneously had their fresh, clean bottoms wrapped in fluffy, cloth diapers.

The Great Cloth Diaper Change 2011 was meant to set a Guinness World Record and raise awareness about the benefits of diapering your child in cloth.  In Athens, 13 babies and toddlers participated at FloorSpace in the Tracey Street complex.

“We wanted to participate because it’s an international event, and we have a good cloth diaper community here in Athens,” said Rebecca Almy, owner of The Natural Baby and one of the organizers of the event. “It’s a way to start talking cloth diapers with more and more people, and we’re hoping people will wonder what’s going on and try to learn more.”

Lacey Finley drove 45 miles to Athens from Toccoa with 6-month-old Piper and two friends with their babies.

“It’s an awesome way to get the word out on cloth. Everyone I talk to thinks it’s just pins and prefolds. They don’t realize there’s a lot more out there,” Finley said. She considers herself “crunchy” and said that with the environmental issues and cost-savings of cloth diapers, the choice to use them was a no-brainer.  

April Brown brought 4-month-old Joanna to the event because she wanted to make a difference. Brown and her husband have cloth-diapered all five of their daughters, and they feel strongly that it's the best choice for babies and for the planet. They originally started with cloth because of concerns over skin allergies to dyes in disposables, a problem April herself had as a baby. 

Her husband encouraged her to go because he said so many people are trying to make the Guinness Book of World Records with silly events, but with this one, he told her, maybe you can raise awareness about something that matters.

Doula Cassie Nunn changed her 2-year-old daughter Kaitlyn’s diaper at the event, too. Nunn, of Winterville, has three children, but didn't discover cloth until her third child. She's learned about cloth diapers while visiting Full Bloom Pregnancy and Early Parenting Center and is now a cloth diaper instructor.

“I didn’t think they would be easy, but once you get into a routine, it’s just as easy as putting on a disposable,” Nunn said. “We’ve been using the same diapers for two years. You can’t say that about disposables, they would have been sitting in the landfill for two years.”

The final tally for international participation has yet to be revealed, but organizers expected at least 10,000 babies, with hopes of even more next year.