Every parent knows: when it comes to babies, there's nothing you go through faster than diapers.
Growing interest in making 'green' parenting choices has sparked a rebirth of the old tried-andtrue cloth diaper in recent years - but with modern fabrics, easy-to-use features and a rainbow of colours, today's cloth diapers are not just functional, they're also fun.
Burnaby's Sarah Brade is helping moms find their perfect cloth-diaper fit through her online store, Baby Footprints, which ships across Canada. The NOW caught up with her this week to learn more:
Question: Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Answer: My name is Sarah Brade, my husband Kelcey and I have lived in South Burnaby for five years. We have two kids - Milo, 2, and Rooney, six months.
Q: What inspired you to start this business?
A: A couple of years before I had my son I came across cloth diapers on the internet (I really have no idea what I was googling that led me to them!), and just the appeal of a product that was healthier for babies, less expensive than disposables and better for the environment was compelling enough for me to register a business name, buy the domain, and tell anyone that would listen what a great idea I thought they were.
It took me until I was pregnant with my son to get serious about really putting my idea into action. The name "Baby Footprint" comes from the idea of keeping our carbon footprint small.
Q: What's the range of services and products you offer?
A: Right now we stock the leading cloth diaper brands: BumGenius, Bummis, GroVia, Flip, FuzziBunz, Mother-Ease, Thirsties and Tot Bots, as well as all the cloth diaper accessories you need to cloth diaper effortlessly like wetbags to store them, cloth-diaper friendly laundry soap, cloth wipes, flushable bio-liners for easy clean up. We also have a few breast feeding accessories and cloth training pants, too.
Q: For someone who has considered cloth-diapering, how would you encourage them to check it out?
A: If you are pregnant and considering cloth diapering I highly recommend our newborn cloth diaper rental kit - it's $20 per week for minimum six weeks (maximum 10) and it gives you the opportunity to try out our most popular cloth diapers to see which system you like best, as well as use the newborn sizes (6 to 12 pounds) with little monetary output.
If you have been using disposables and are becoming frustrated by the amount of money (and trash bags) going out the door for diapers, I would encourage you to start with maybe six pocket diapers or all-in-ones and use during days at home. A trial pro-gram is also in the works.
Q: How about cost?
A: The cost savings is huge, conservatively about $1,000 using cloth over disposables. Here is some really simple math: The average baby toilet trains at two-and-ahalf. Average number of diapers per day is seven (remember they are going through upwards of 12 during the first three months!), so that is 6,500 give or take in their lifetime. Cheap or sale priced disposables cost about $0.25 each - that is $1,600. A cloth diaper costs between $5 and $30. Most of the popular pocket and all-inone diapers cost between $20 to $25. You could buy two dozen cloth diapers (enough for two to three days use) plus the necessary accessories for about $600. Voila - $1,000 (saved)!
If you plan to have more kids, the savings continue to add up since you already made the initial investment.
Q: Is this your full-time job (on top of parenting!)? Where would you like to see the business in five years?
A: I also work in human resources, although currently on my mat leave with my six-monthold daughter. I love my job, I love my business, and I love my family - life is full, to say the least.
I am blessed to have a husband that works weekends so he has two to three weekdays off, as well as a mom that helps out too. I will also hopefully be taking on a WAHM (work-at-home mom) partner in the coming months. In five years, I would love to have a "bricks and mortar" store in South Burnaby.
Q: What has been the number 1 best thing about cloth diapering for you?
A: No late night trips to the store when I am out of diapers, and cases of diaper rashes that I can count on one hand.
Check out Sarah's site at www. thebabyfootprint.com for more info.
