Diaper disaster! Jessica Alba learned the hard way that babies will put pretty much anything in their mouths. Speaking with Us Weekly at the two-year anniversary bash for her eco-friendly family brand The Honest Company on Jan. 30, the mom-of-two recalled the time her eldest daughter, Honor, now 5, ingested part of her diaper — and how that scary experience inspired Alba to start her own business.
"My kid's diaper exploded. All of a sudden, these beads were in her mouth," the Sin City 2 actress, 32, explained. "And I was calling my mom, and I was like, 'What happened? What do I do? What is this made out of?' I called my pediatrician. I called 911. I completely freaked out."
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Contacting the diaper-maker did little to ease her mind, she added. "Basically, the company said, 'You have to have your doctor write us a letter and tell us what your child is allergic to. And we'll let you know if we have that ingredient in our diaper.' And I'm like, 'I'm not going to test if there are certain chemicals.' Like, I'm not going to pour petroleum down my kid's throat and say, 'Oh, are you going to have an adverse reaction to this?' No way."
That incident, and another involving an allergic reaction to baby laundry detergent, sent the Spoils of Babylon star on a quest for safe, effective, affordable, eco-friendly products. When she couldn't find them, she decided she'd make them herself — and The Honest Company was born.
The star — also mom to daughter Haven, 2, with husband Cash Warren — is understandably particular about the kinds of products she has in her house. But in a lot of other ways, she's much more lax than she used to be.
"I was much more of a control freak before, probably," she admitted to Us of how motherhood changed her. "You kind of have to roll with the punches and be a little more easygoing with parenthood. I was like, 'I'll never have toys in my living room!' Yeah, right."
Alba said she tries to keep the clutter under control by making her kids donate an old toy every time they get a new one, but — as with a lot of other things when you have kids — that doesn't always work as planned.
"Good luck with that one," she quipped. "Even hand-me-down dollies and hand-me-down dresses that my daughter [Honor] gets from her cousin — I'm like, 'Okay, it's time for you to take something and hand it down to your sister.' And she wants no part of that."
