Diapers stink.
“That’s our motto,” said Chelsea McAmis.
Chelsea’s the creator and owner of Flappy Nappies®. In the face of deeply engrained cultural and national narratives, Flappy Nappies is going against the stream – quite literally – by offering parents a new way to approach potty-training.
Diapers do stink, Chelsea says, and you don’t need them.
“Instead of using diapers, your child can use a toilet,” she said.
Welcome to Flappy Nappies.
As a young girl, Chelsea and her family lived in Germany; one day, during a play date when Chelsea was a wee 10-month old, her mom saw a European woman doing something quite particular.
“She was taking her baby to the potty,” Chelsea said, whose own mother reacted with surprise:
What? You can’t do that … can you?
Apparently, you can.
There in Germany, Chelsea’s mom did, in fact, learn how to take her children to the toilet, sans-diapers.
“I was potty trained around 18 months,” Chelsea said. “I was potty trained before I could walk.”
Over time, it became family practice, tradition and lore. So, when Chelsea became a mom several years ago, she thought back to her own mom and that German playground.
Raising her three children in Chattanooga, Chelsea began training them to use the toilet and not remain fully reliant on disposable diapers.
And that’s how Flappy Nappies was born.
Flappy Nappies makes and sells training pants for infants and toddlers so that diapers become unnecessary and obsolete. With a training process and curriculum that teaches parents how to teach their children to use the toilet – even at the youngest of ages – Flappy Nappies is providing a type of freedom that’s quite rare in the West.
“Go diaper-free,” she said.
She began in 2021 with an Etsy store. Sales have doubled every year. Flappy Nappies – “Nappy” is the British term for diaper – offers cloth diapers fashioned to encourage and facilitate “elimination communication.”
“The term for baby potty-training that most people now use. EC is a process with a baby.”
She sells multiple sizes and options – organic, wool for winter – each with easy-quick snap system that avoids what can often feel unnecessary, difficult and, well, messy.
“This huge mess of pins and snaps and all these really obnoxiously hard to use belts and snaps,” she laughs.
Instead, Flappy Nappies offers something simple: one cover – organically produced – with built-in pads connected by snaps.
“You put this on him and it’s very, very easy to put on and off,” she said. “Two snaps and the flap opens.”
Beyond the Nappies, Chelsea provides training, support and instruction. It often begins with an eye-opening question:
“What did people do before disposable diapers or washing machines?” she asked.
The answer: this.
Today, Flappy Nappies has offices inside INCubator on the North Shore, an opportunity that has proven immensely helpful, giving Chelsea a classroom where she can teach parents and hold classes, a place to store distribute and market her products, along with a community of mentors.
“A business consultant. A taxes and patent lawyer. A space to host events,” she said. “Being in INCubator has been hugely helpful.”
INCubator is part of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce’s ongoing pledge to support regional entrepreneurs with the highest and most robust form of support: from training to physical space in the heart of the North Shore to access and networking with investors and regional leaders; the county is known for its start-up power and identity. INCubator is the lifeblood.
“There is a huge community in Chattanooga that is eco-conscious,” said Chelsea. “This is the perfect kind of city for something like this.”
