Making Cloth Diaper History in Downtown Ferndale

The Ferndale cloth diaper community participated in making history Saturday afternoon as part of the Great Cloth Diaper Change 2011, in which cloth diaper enthusiasts in more than 400 locations around the globe attempted to set a world record for most cloth diapers changed simultaneously.

Locally, more than 100 people gathered at noon at Modern Natural Baby on West Nine Mile to change their tots into reusable cloth diapers. The final official count at Modern Natural Baby contributed 52 children to the world total. WJBK Fox 2 News was even on hand to document the well-organized and surprisingly serene scene.

Kristina Gay and Victor Warlick of Allen Park brought their 6-month-old daughter, Catherine, to participate in the event.  

"When I was pregnant with Catherine, we started looking into cloth diapering and found out about Emily (Murray, the owner of the store) and Modern Natural Baby through a few websites," Gay said. She now follows the store on Facebook, where she learned about Saturday's event.

In order to be counted toward the world record, locations had to  have at least 25 participants preregistered. Murray had no problem meeting that number and preregistered more than 50 participants.

The first 50 who registered received gift bags with coupons, samples, a T-shirt and other goodies, and all participants were entered into a raffle for cloth diapers and supplies donated by companies stocked at Modern Natural Baby.

The event was the perfect way to inaugurate Modern Natural Baby's new home.

"We closed the old location yesterday and worked until 1 in the morning to get the new store ready," said Murray. "We wouldn't have opened today otherwise, but we needed the room!"

Formerly called and located on Woodward, Murray used the store's relocation to 224 W. Nine Mile as an opportunity to rebrand the business to better reflect what it stocks and sells. 

"We loved the name No Pins Required, but it's very cloth diaper-specific," she said.

With nearly double the space in its new location, the store now carries a wide variety of natural baby products, including clothing, toys, breast-feeding supplies, bottles, diaper bags, baby-wearing gear and much more, in addition to its large stock of cloth diapers. 

"Because we're on Nine Mile now, we get a lot more walking traffic, and I didn't want people to wonder what kind of store it is," Murray said. "It's not as cute as No Pins Required, but it's more important that people know what we are."