Elysia's Story

It’s been a huge six months since I’ve stepped in as the new owner of Designer Bums. In the last 4 weeks alone we have moved to our permanent location, launched our first collection for the year (Continuum), had our Earth Day shoot, exhibited at the PBC Baby expo in Melbourne, and between all those things we’ve had Easter, my husband’s birthday, my daughter’s birthday, and my littlest nephew was born!

With Earth Day approaching, I’ve been reflecting on my own choices and I thought it was about time I came in here to tell you a little about why I’m here and to share my honest story.

I was not always a cloth nappy advocate.

When my husband proposed we should do cloth nappies, I scoffed. “Will you wash them?!” I had finally landed my dream job just as I became pregnant, and expected to go back to work sooner. How could cloth fit in? No way.

The year was 2017, and I considered myself environmentally conscious. We recycled, had a worm farm for organics, RedCycle was going, and there’s eco-friendly disposables now, right?

The more I looked into it, the more I realised that eco-friendly disposables was an oxy-moron, and you still had to dispose of waste in the toilet, not the bin (check the packaging next time you’re at the supermarket), and some components still had to go in the bin. I didn’t have capacity to compost that volume of nappies at home. But still, there’s the washing… how could this be feasible?

It may surprise you to know that it was an advertisement in a catalogue at a storefront entrance that changed my mind. The advertisement read “Each baby will use between 3000-4000 nappies”, the gist of the advert was that if you’re using this many, you want the best. These days the estimate is upgraded to 4000-5000. 

I had at that time recently learned that the first disposable nappy ever used still exists… in its entirety… will take 250 years to break down (and we weren’t really talking about microplastics back then), now they say 500 years! Because honestly, we don’t know, they haven’t existed for that long.

In that moment my pregnant brain imagined 4000 nappies in a pile, times 1 million Australian babies every year, plus however many else in the world, what does that pile look like? Would it go to the moon? How can I add to this pile.

I couldn’t add to that… let’s explore this washing nappies concept further….

I was picturing terry flats and covers, a big fat cloth booty that doesn’t fit under modern baby onesies. Buckets with stinky water and a wooden stick. My friend who was also pregnant was researching alongside me.

Clean Cloth Nappies was a fantastic resource! I was easily able to grasp the wash routine and realised it wasn’t that complicated at all, its just another load that runs a little longer with extra detergent.

Ultimately I bought 3 nappies from 3 different brands that rated well to try them out, including Designer Bums.

After unsnapping all the pocket nappies to take a look, my pregnant brain couldn’t fathom how to put some of them back together. The Designer Bums were more intuitive… which I was more than secretly happy about because they were far less bulky and much prettier!

I had a c-section with my first and used disposables first to give myself “a break”. We said this would last 2 weeks, but we didn’t last 5 days! We could not believe the stink once they became wet, and our red bin filled up so quickly, not to mention the blowouts and outfit changes.. So much extra laundry from that alone.

I am so glad I made the switch. Cloth only got easier with the purchase of a dryer, since we had solar panels we could make it work economically. Inserts in the dryer, shells on the rack. Too easy!

But here’s the thing I never expected…

My phone serves me memories every day, from my phone gallery and Facebook, that prompt me to look back. And what I see are those cute nappies featured, sometimes matching outfits, tiny works of art that were just… part of our days.

I look at those photos and I feel something, a fondness I didn’t anticipate. Are you going to look back at disposable nappies peeking out and think “oh I miss seeing those?” That’s part of the memory, it’s woven into the moment.

That’s what I didn’t expect, and it became one of the things I felt most proud of. In the DB community I found a support network of other parents doing their bit and sharing the moments each day.

One small change really does compound. And you might just find, a few years from now, that your phone is serving you memories you didn't expect to love quite so much.

Earth Day has a way of making you stop and think about the small choices that add up over time. I’m so glad I made mine, and if you’re still here reading this, I have a feeling you’re thinking about yours too.

Elysia x