Non-biodegradable diapers are not only an environmental nightmare, but they often cause terrible rashes and cost a fair sum too. Cloth diapers are one viable alternative, but washing them is time consuming, requires energy and water expenditure, and frankly doesn’t look like an awful lot of fun. So how about mitigating all of these problems by building a Beshik cradle from Uzbekistan? Hit the jump to learn more about baby’s first bed pan.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CexblIkpoLA[/youtube]
After sleeping with their mothers for six weeks, Uzbeki babies are treated to their first major celebration — the Beshik Toyi. This involves a gathering with family members who show up with armfuls of food and other essentials, and baby’s new cradle.
The elder women leave the younger generation to create a festive environment while they bed baby down in this unusual contraption using blankets and straps. The cradle is decorated with all sorts of colorful tassels and trinkets, and they come in varying degrees of opulence.
There’s a hole at the base of the Beshik, which appears to be an exit point for baby’s number two, while a bucket at the end of the cradle catches urine transported via a short pole that looks like a very thin and hollow eggplant.
Since boys and girls have different apparatus, it stands to reason that different mechanisms are used to capture their waste.
Having met a handful of talented Uzbeki musicians, I can attest that they seem perfectly normal and not at all traumatized by starting out life strapped to a cradle.
That being said, we are uncertain how long they stay in their Beshik or how they stay clean and dry when running free.
Still, we are big fans of indigenous solutions to daily needs and this is no exception.
More on Diapers and Babies:
Are Cloth Diapers Green Even in Water-Scarce Middle East?
Going Halfway on Kushies Washable Diapers
All About Cloth Diapers
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
They don’t run free. They stay in the cradle up to 20
Hours a day, until they are almost two. It’s not a pleasant contraption, just something to make the best of a situation where they can’t afford to diaper.
🙁
There’s no hostility Ra’anan… Karin was being funny 🙂
Karin, where did that hostility come from???
Me thinkest that thee doth protest too much!!!
Ra’anan maybe you should ask a carpenter to build you one. You can add your own pipe.
Whatever works!
This could be useful for lazy adults as well, no?