CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — It is a sound every parent knows.
"We were out having a nice lunch and [our baby] had the dreaded diaper blowout," said Chicago mom Addie Gundry.
Gundry said the baby bottom blowout — and the bathroom frustration that followed — helped inspire her to launch Pluie, a company working to ensure parents always have a safe, clean changing table.
"I had to change his diaper, and when it went into the restroom I was confronted by a product that to me, as a new mom, felt uncomfortable and really inconvenient,” she said. “I wanted to go to my car.”
Gundry, who also serves as Pluie’s CEO, said that diaper dilemma in the summer of 2018 led to research about bathroom changing tables, which led her to design a changing table that self-sanitizes after each use with ultraviolet light.
"Spent about a year-and-a-half on my nights and weekends designing what is now Pluie, working with engineers and industrial designers," Gundry said.
Several years later the first Pluie changing table was installed at a nonprofit on Chicago’s West Side. Since then, it's been a story of growth. Pluie changing tables can be found in 20 states. Baseball fans can see them at Guaranteed Rate Field. Gundry said the White Sox called her out of the blue.
"It was a lot better than getting some sales person calling me,” Gundry said. “It was a shock. It didn't really feel real.”
Gundry added that she wants to do her part to ensure the changing tables are in men's rooms as well as women's restrooms and family bathrooms.
"It's amazing that in 2022 it's still a conversation,” she said. “Sometimes we see them in family restrooms. But they really should be accessible to everyone in every public restroom.”
Pluie recently won an "Up and Comer" award at the Chicago Innovation Awards.
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