Sweetheart Blog

I didn’t cloth diaper my first child right from the start. I didn’t really know anything, and in fact I had never even changed a diaper before!

I knew I wanted to use cloth diapers. Just like with breastfeeding, it never occurred to me that there was even another option. I had no idea what modern cloth diapers looked like, or what they cost, but I knew that disposable diapers was out of the question for me.

I didn’t do any research before my daughter was born. There was no where local at the time to purchase cloth diapers other than one kind at the department store, so I bought those, only to find out that my daughter didn’t fit into the smallest size (10-25lb). So we used disposables that people had given us at the shower and waited a couple of weeks for her to grow into her diapers. When they finally fit, we discovered that they were horrible quality and we were constantly getting leaks and poop coming out the sides. It didn’t even occur to me to research online, because if I had I would have come across dozens of wonderful online cloth diaper boutiques! But my sister thought of it, and when my daughter was about a month old a wonderful package arrived in the mail with an assortment of excellent quality cloth diapers!

In my starter package there were a variety of prefolds, fitted diapers, diaper covers, and pocket diapers, and so my journey began! As I became familiar with the diapers, it frustrated me more and more that I couldn’t purchase these wonderful products locally. I found out there was a cloth diaper boutique near where my parents live (3 hr drive away), and started planning trips home around the store’s open hours so I could pick up a couple new diapers to add to my stash every time I went home to visit.

The idea to open my own cloth diaper business came to me when my daughter was 6 months old. She was napping for about 3 hrs every day and it seemed like I had the time. So I launched “Cushy Tushies” and started with accounts for 3 different cloth diaper brands. A couple months in I stumbled across some legal issues and had to change the name of the business and it’s been “Sweetheart Diapers & More” ever since. I worked out of the house and sold online as well as locally by appointment. It was hard to expand into other products without having a show-room, and I soon began to daydream about having a store where I could also sell and demonstrate baby carriers, locally made baby items, natural skin care products, and toys. When the business was almost 2 years old I decided to take the plunge. I quit my other work (teaching piano lessons and working as a piano accompanist) so that I could focus full-time on working at the store. That was just over a year ago, and the store has turned into just what I had envisioned and hoped it would be.

The store now carries dozens of different brands of products and in addition to cloth diapers and diapering accessories, we also have breastfeeding supplies, natural toys, unique locally-made baby items, and a nice variety of styles and brands of baby slings and wraps. The majority of the items we sell are not available at any other local store.

Now I’m ready to go into labour at any moment (I’m 40 weeks pregnant) and I’m looking forward to doing things with baby #2 that I didn’t know the first time around! And so the cloth diapering journey continues. I will get to experience cloth diapering a newborn from the first day he is born. And there are quite a few new cloth diapers that have come out in the last couple of years that I never used on my daughter and I’m excited to try them out!

~Margaret Deneau, owner
Sweetheart Diapers & More