Watch your step this week.  There is a movement afoot that could get messy.  If you see an adult carrying a baby and resting on your front lawn for a moment as they pass your house, be on the alert.  It’s GO DIAPER FREE WEEK.  Seriously.  It’s a movement that more and more young parents are getting on (the urinary) track with.

Here’s what you should know so you can be totally PC with EC, elimination communication (yes, there’s a name for it).  The impetus for going diaper free is manifold.  Of course, there is the green movement – not to be confused with the yellowish-green bowel movements that often emerge from a newborn.  The push here is to spare the environment of so many disposable diapers, which are filling landfills.  I do think that it’s clever that this aspect of going diaper free also has the potential to green up your yard as strolling parents pick up on the clues their babies are sending to them and hold the child over your hedges or lawn for a baby bowel blast.  (I’m also wondering if the doggie poop bags that people carry when walking their dog will now simply be called poop bags.)

Going diaper free also helps diaper rash as the baby does not have a wet diaper clinging to the irritated diaper area – wet clothes or blankets maybe, but not diapers.  Of course, the parents have to change their clothes often, clean rugs, mop floors and do a lot of laundry which has been soiled or peed upon, but hey, it’s a movement (literally).

Then there is the financial reason.  That’s one I could get behind.  I even did the cloth diaper thing with my daughter for a season – a messy season.  It did help financially, but not enough for me to embrace it long-term.

Finally, my editorial note – I loved communicating with my four babies.  Often I knew when they were filling a diaper, but not too often did I know that they were about to fill one.  And, even in those times when I did know, I don’t know that I would have been able to run to the sink, toilet or outside fast enough for success in the diaper free arena.  Hum, the Diaper Free Arena – not one which I wish to enter.

I read several accounts of moms who love EC and the bond that it gives them with their baby.  One mommy said she keeps a Tupperware handy so she’ll always be prepared, which is brilliant because you can seal in the freshness; but as a former Tupperware Lady, I’m pretty sure that odors are not covered in the lifetime guarantee.  Of course if you break it, crack it, chip it or if it peels while you are using it for that special purpose – then you’re golden.

When You Really Need Freshness, You Need Tupperware