Diarrhea Fashion

Typically the entrance into fatherhood does not take people by surprise who are not on Jerry Springer. Occasionally in Hollywood films a man will discover that he unknowingly fathered a son many years before, and happens to be pointing a gun at or holding an axe above this son’s head when he finds out the news. In other words new fathers have time to prepare. But just the same, as much as one prepares for fatherhood, there is really no way of being prepared for fatherhood.

From the very beginning of a child’s life the surprises start coming one after another. The act of birth itself is so surprising that many fathers are introduced to fatherhood from a face-down-on-the-delivery-room-floor position. For anyone who has not watched the miracle of a live birth, line your floor with pillows and then Google it.

I could write volumes about how life-changing and incredible my own personal experiences with fatherhood have been thus far, but then this blog would read more like a personal diary. I believe parenthood is just so different for everyone that it is best left to experience; in my opinion reading about it does not do it justice. So instead of writing about my daughter in a diary fashion, I am going to write about a Good Idea inspired by my daughter, called diarrhea fashion. First things first, here is my lovely daughter:

Some readers may recall that I made a promise years ago that I would never again write about poop. Then I had a daughter, and along with changing my life she has changed my mind about writing about poop (and this is not because my daughter only looks like me when she is pooping).

Babies are like the book “Eat, Pray, Love” except it would be titled “Eat, Cry, Poop, Sleep.” And it does not necessarily happen in that order. It can be more like “Eat, Cry, Poop, Cry, Eat, Poop, Cry, Sleep, Cry, Cry, Cry, Poop, Sleep, Cry.”  And this process usually begins at 4am.

As my daughter grows I have noticed that even though the diapers get bigger, she still manages to have what most parents of babies call ‘blow outs’; where the amount of poop produced in one face-color-changing push cannot be contained by the diaper, subsequently ruining her outfit permanently because baby poop apparently has the same chemical makeup as a yellow permanent marker.

Here is the face:

And here is the resulting damage:

People without babies will ask “why not just throw it in the wash really quickly so it doesn’t set in?”

To them I say “bite me.” If I had time to do a quick load of laundry, I would also have had time to take a shower, mow my lawn, and write a ‘new baby’ blog before my daughter was 3 months old. At this rate our baby announcements are going to be a picture of our daughter’s high school graduation.

The problem seems to be that when a baby is brand new they are extremely time-consuming. Then as they get older and start to have personalities, it is hard not to play with them when they are awake and not crying, sleeping, or pooping. This results in not being very productive, and definitely not doing quick loads of laundry.

I had a Good Idea to solve this problem called Diarrhea Fashion.

By constructing outfits out of adult-sized diapers parents can enjoy the dual benefits of a cute baby and a disposable outfit! No more will pooping up their entire back ruin the outfit and the blanket the baby is laying on.

The only drawback of the current design was that my model was not cooperating. Now I know how all the designers in New York feel.

While the outfits are not as cute as baby Gap or Carter’s, they serve a purpose that our daughter seems to be needing more and more as she grows (and eats more and more). It may look odd now, but if new parents everywhere agreed to dress our babies in Diarrhea Fashion, we would all save money in the end (and also I would make a lot of money in the end). Anyone interested in buying from the Diarrhea Fashion line, please leave your order in the comments, and I will get back to you sometime within 18 years.