Breaking The Habit Of Disposable Diapers

The New York Times:

In 1999, Ms. Dupuy, 37, started Mother of Eden, a company that sells reusable polyester diapers called Fuzzi Bunz. She does not advertise and does not have a sales staff. Yet her company topped $3 million in sales in 2007, and she expects to sell double that amount this year.

“The Internet and environmental concerns have been a bonus,” Ms. Dupuy said. “But even without them, reusable diapers would be meeting a real need.”

Q: I’ve never heard of a reusable diaper curing eczema. Did that really help?

A: I switched to cotton diapers, and it got better, but he still got rashes from the wetness near his skin. That’s when I had my light bulb moment: I bought a square of fleece, the kind that Patagonia uses in jackets and underwear. I stuck that in my son’s diaper, and his skin stayed dry. So I decided to sell fleece diapers with pockets for inserts. I named the company Mother of Eden because my son’s name is Eden, and I am, after all, his mother.

Q: Patagonia uses fleece made from recycled plastics, which are, of course, petrochemicals. Should people feel comfortable putting chemicals so close to a baby?

A: Not everyone does, I know. Some people will only use diapers made of organic cotton. But those diapers are awfully expensive, and they have the same problems as conventional cotton. I trust Patagonia — they wouldn’t use it in underwear if it weren’t safe.

Q: How can reusable diapers compete with marketing titans like Procter & Gamble or Kimberly-Clark, which lead the disposable diaper market?

A: Products like ours wouldn’t exist without the Internet. People do Google searches to find cloth diapers. We distribute mainly through a network of 300 or so stay-at-home moms who found us on the Web, and who sell on the Web. We have 150 more on the waiting list; we just don’t have enough product to supply them yet. Hopefully, this year we will.

And the Internet has enabled lots of working moms — people like me — to work from home. That means they are there to change the baby’s diaper. A mom — or even a dad — is more willing to wash out dirty diapers than your typical day care worker.