Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Homemade Baby Wipes

I'll confess that I'm the type of person who LOVES to research ideas about how to do different things (sew, quilt, cook, bake, etc. etc.) but RARELY do I ever put these things into practice. I'll blame it on tiredness, too much other stuff to do, homeschooling, no time alone....you get the idea. I'm trying to put a stop to that and actually DO something when I find an idea I like. How profound right? 8-)

I came across this recipe for homemade babywipes and Kailie and I have made 2 batches so far. Each batch has lasted 2 weeks (and that's for 2 kiddos in diapers right now). I figured out that it will save us roughly $100 a year or so from buying wipes (we were buying a full case each month), but the best part isn't even that! All of our kids have sensitive skin and break out EXCEEDINGLY EASILY from just about anything that touches their skin, be it laundry detergent, shampoo, bubble bath or baby wipes. This recipe was tested during our week long battle with tummy flu (and many, MANY disgusting diaper changes!) and the end result: NO RASHES! I was so surprised and am now a committed homemade wipes convert - it only took 5 kids to get me here. ha!

Here's the recipe:
4 cups water (we boiled it for the first batch, but the second time we just used warm from the tap)
2 Tablespoons Rubbing Alcohol
2 Tablespoons Antibacterial Soap - your choice
2 Tablespoons Baby Wash - your choice
2 Tablespoons Baby Oil - your choice, we used the Johnson and Johnson with Aloe Vera and it smells very good! I think I'll try Lavender sometime too....

Pour over your choice of wipes. The first batch we cut Bounty papertowels into fourths. This took about 15 minutes of time. They worked really well but if you use a thinner towel I can't guarantee they'll hold up during the wiping.... Most sites I've seen recommend cutting the towel roll in half and then pulling the wipe up from the middle of the roll. I don't have a large enough circular container to store this style in, that's why we cut ours up.

For the second batch I just cut up an old bath towel into small squares. I got about 50 cloths from one towel and these can just be thrown into the wash and reused. 8-)

I store the wipes in a rectangular Ziplock container, they stay really moist and have worked wonders on speeding up the length of time cleaning the kiddos. I also use them as handwipes and face wipes since they don't cause any breakouts.

I read a tip online that suggested keeping a Ziplock bag of dry towels in your diaper bag and putting the solution into a spray bottle. When you need to change the diaper just spray the solution directly on the child and wipe off. This will help prevent the solution from leaking in the diaper bag.

3 comments:

  1. Way to go! I always just used a pump of the baby soap I use and two drops of tea tree oil. Mix it up in a plastic wipe container and then add the cloth wipes. But my kids aren't nearly as sensitive.

    Now that Ike is potty-trained, I still keep the cloth wipes for wiping their nasty booties after poops. I just get them wet first.

    I seriously hate poop.

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  2. Sarah Ganser21 April, 2009

    Caryn- I've read that you can use a 1-gallon ice cream bucket for the half roll of papertowels. I also found a recipe for homemade laudry soap if you're interested. I haven't tried it so I don't know how it works.

    Sarah

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  3. I haven't tried the laundry soap yet; mainly because of the kids' sensitivity to everything. I have; however, made our own dusting polish and dishwasher detergent. It's funny how accomplished I feel after completing these super easy tasks! 8-) Let me know if you do try the laundry detergent.

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