My friend Dana texted me the other day saying, “I’d like to post how to make homemade wipes!” and with her message she included a picture of her stinkin’ cute 8-month-old sitting next to two batches, ready-made.
I used cloth reusable wipes when Rad was little and I definitely read about homemade wipes and thought I might give them a go, but it never happened. Now I am sucked into the world of luxuriously-premium, generously-sized, Honest Co. wipes and I can’t go anywhere in my house, in my car or in my world without a package.
But, when I saw this glorious little photo pop up on my phone –
– I thought, Well, that looks like it might be really easy and totally worth trying.
Thank you Dana for the how-to and photos! Read below for Dana’s super-simple, budget-friendly DIY.
***
DIY Mama: Homemade Baby Wipes
Dana Reaume
You know those baby poops – the ones that have you shuddering in anticipation as to what you may find when that diaper comes off? Did it shoot up the back of the diaper? Out the sides? How are you going to manage to get the clothes off of your little one without smearing it all over them? Yeah, these wipes were made for those moments.
Here’s how they came to be:
Dave and I are on a tight budget, as many new little families are. So when I set out to buy some wipes, Costco seemed to be a budget-friendly solution. So, a case was ordered and I was content with the price we paid for them. Two wipes into the case of about five million, Z broke out in blisters. Ugh! So out to the truck I went to grab an old pack of wipes from the diaper bag (did I mention this was in December, in Revelstoke?) Get the wipes in, go to change the bum – the wipes are frozen solid. One gigantic brick of Huggies wipes.
Now I was really in a pinch. So I did the only thing I could think of – I Pinterested (is that a verb now?) Pinterest has tons of recipes for homemade baby wipes from mothers who have far more experience than me in this mothering thing. I found a few recipes but settled on this one because it seemed the easiest. Easy is good:
http://thenewlighterlife.com/homemade-baby-wipes/
If you’d like to make re-useable/cloth wipes you can find a great recipe here:
So how do they compare to the store-bought ones?
I think they’re way better and the hubs agrees. Actual words from his mouth the other day after a “Class 5” poopie diaper was, “I am so thankful that you make these wipes!” Price-wise these are so much cheaper than the store bought ones. If you can catch your Bounty paper towels on sale or use a coupon they’d be even cheaper (Yes, you must use Bounty – trust me, I tried other ones. Epic fail).
For one, you can use just one little square (which is only 1/4 of a sheet of paper towel) or you can pull out a whole string of the wipes for those crazy diaper times! You can use them for wiping baby’s face, hands and other grimy bits too.
Also, I like that I know what’s going onto my baby’s skin. No phlalates, weird chemicals and other stuff that could potentially harm his bum. If you have a baby wash that you love and believe in, use it.
So here are the step by steps if you’d like to try it yourself.
Step 1: Gather your things. You’ll need:
1 roll of paper towel (Again, trust me, use Bounty)
2 tbsp of coconut oil
2 tbsp of your favourite baby wash (I like the Weleda brand and it was recommended by my midwife)
2 containers big enough to fit 1/2 roll of paper towel in them (I used yogurt containers that I had saved)
2 cups of hot water
1 measuring container and a spoon
Step 2: Measure out your coconut oil and baby wash into the measuring container. As you can see I am not being exact here. Keeping it easy.
Step 3: Add 2 cups of hot water to the coconut oil and baby wash mixture. Stir well to melt the coconut oil and dissolve the baby wash.
Step 4: Cut your paper towel roll in half. I like to use a serrated knife. (I have actually used an electric saw to do this once but Dave thought it was a bit of overkill. I think he used the phrase, “This is like shooting a hamster with a machine gun.”)
(Clearly not an exact science.)
Step 5: Once you have your two halves of paper towel put them in the containers
Step 6: Pour 1/2 of the mixture overtop of the first 1/2 of the paper towel and repeat with the second.
Step 7: Pull out the middle cardboard part of the paper towel and pull out a bit of the middle of the roll…
…voila! Wipes!
Step 8: To keep the wipes moist, you must keep them covered. I use the lids of my yogurt containers. They squish the wipes down a bit, but it doesn’t affect them.
Z is always such a good helper 🙂
Little Tot Landing 