Diapering, en masse

Moms and babies crowded into the Louis Riel Library on Saturday morning, armed with changing pads and cloth diapers, as they prepared to set a new Guinness World Record.

Winnipeg was just one of almost 400 locations across the world working together to see how many babies can be changed into cloth diapers at one time. Twenty-five babies were changed at the same time at the Winnipeg portion of the Great Cloth Diaper Change, and organizer Jamie Miller was optimistic that the local efforts would count towards setting the world record.

“We’re very excited to say that we had all our participants show up and I think we’re going to break the record,” Miller said.

Miller, who owns one of the baby boutiques involved in the event, pointed out that cloth diapering is both economical and environmentally-friendly. Organizers say that using cloth instead of disposable diapers can save the average family $2,000 per year, and keep an average of 6,000 disposable diapers – which take 250 to 500 years to decompose – produced by each baby from birth to potty-training, from going into landfills.

“We support cloth diapering to really preserve our environment,” Miller added, “It’s a great way to save money also, if you’re a new mom, especially if you’re having multiple children.”

Other participating locations include communities in Australia, Japan, Chile and Japan.