Homemade Diaper Wipes????

I did this.
I just used a bunch of cheap, thin, washcloths, and threw them in with the rest of the baby laundry.
I kept a stack of them with the diapers, and just used warm water.
Worked fine.

I just bought a bunch of terry, cut it into little squares, and bound the edges with my sewing machine. When it was time for a diaper change, I filled a little bowl with warm water, and dipped wipes in (only once!) as I cleaned. I washed them with the diapers.

Worked great. Zero diaper rash.

I also got them wet in advance and tucked them into the diaper bag in a ziploc.

Good luck!

One of my friends just used little soft washcloths moistened with water. I babysat for her a few times when her child was still in diapers and it seemed to work well... though I was glad I was not the one doing the laundry later. :-)

It's funny you asked that my friend and I were just talking about the "recipe" we got from Tupperware (we sell it). Tupperware is recommended and I actually have the product IF you want it, otherwise I am sure you will find something comparable to use!

Anyways here it is:

Baby Wipe Recipe
1 roll of Bounty Paper Towels (no substitutions)
1 Cup Warm Water
1 Tablespoon of Baby Wash (any brand)
1 Tablespoon of Baby Oil (any brand)
Pour warm water, baby wash, and baby oil into Pick-A-Deli Container and swirl together with a spoon. Cut paper towel roll in half. Place 1/2 in Pick-A-Deli Container and save other half for next time. Leave stand for 24 hours. The mixture will absorb into the paper towels. Take out the cardboard insert and throw it away. You can take out the cardboard when you first cut them, however it comes out much easier after soaking. You may add more water depending on whether you bought the Jumbo Bounty towels or if you like wetter wipes. Great for your baby as you are making them out of something that they are not allergic to and very easy to tuck a few into a smaller Tupperware container to take with you. Imagine the money you save…and the earth!!!

Use a wash cloth. Soft terry cloth with a little water is much better for your baby's skin than the chemicals they use in wipes anyway and all you have to do is rinse it out with warm water - use a dash of soap every other changing or with messier diapers (or just start using another wash cloth until you've had a chance to wash the dirty one). We used to throw a wash cloth or two (slightly damp in case you aren't near any running water or take some water in a bottle to pour on the cloth when it's changing time) in a ziplock bag for times when we were out doing things or on a plane, et cetera.

Congratulations and Good Luck!

So I did not use cloth wipes, but a few of my friends did, they used baby wash cloths, organic or not and a spray bottle with filtered water to wet the cloth or the booty area. My other friend would wet like 10 cloths for the day ahead of time and store them in a wipe warming contraption you can buy at any babies r us or baby store. I liked the pre-wetted wipes b/c the wipes were ready when you really needed them and the warmer kept them moist and warm. Them just wash them with your cloth diapers.
congrats to you and your new baby to come and cloth is easy and well worth the effort!!

Hi J.,

Congratulations on your baby and using cloth diapers! I've been cd'ing my son for 2.5 years now and its been great. I have used cloth wipes the whole time and they are quite easy to make. Since this was my first child, I didn't have any soft textiles laying around the house so I went to the thrift store and picked up a bunch of receiving blankets and baby towels. I made my own wipes by cutting 7" squares of the fabric, putting one layer of receiving blanket flannel and one layer of baby towel terry together and using a zig-zag stitch all the way around the edges. If you want a more finished edge, you can always lay the fabrics right sides together, sew around but leave a little space for turning it right side out and then topstitch around the whole thing. My homemade wipes have held up great after 2.5 years and they still have plenty of life left in them. The 7" square is great because its big enough to clean quite a bit, but small enough to fit in a standard wipes warmer or travel wipes case. I use a wipes warmer, wet the wipes in the sink and leave them in the warmer. They don't dry out and they stay pleasantly warm for my son. I've always used plain water and never bothered with any of the recipes because I didn't think they were worth the time. Once your baby is older, they also work great for cleaning hands and faces. If you make your own, I recommend making at least 36 wipes because newborns need so many changes. You'll use less as the baby gets older, but its always nice to have a lot of wipes. I also travel with mine, no problem. Good luck to you!

-H.

We use washcloths, bought at Target, and make-up cotton squares in a wipe warmer. You would just put water in with the cloths. I keep a bottle of water next to the warmer for when I re-fill it and had to put a towel under the warmer because the moisture was damaging the changing table. I wash the washcloths with the diapers and then do a second quick wash for the washcloths with softener. The washcloths were getting rough which can hurt if the baby has a rash (which only happens when she is getting a tooth - I love cloth diapers! So many benefits). I use the cotton squares to wipe pee off.

I just used little pieces of flannel, Dr Bronner's baby soap diluted with water. I got the little flannel pieces from a WAHM on ebay--search baby wipes or cloth wipes.

Cloth diapering is great! Good for you!

J.

I just made a whole mess of smallish washcloths out of scraps when I was making diapers, and they work great. Or grab a couple of those packs of like a dozen washcloths for $3 that Wal-Mart and Target always seem to have. With 2 in diapers, I use disposable diapers and wipies when we're out (about 1 day a week), cloth diapers and wipies at home. Wipes get washed with diapers.

We use cut up old shirts, baby wash cloths, etc and keep them in a big yogurt container by the changing table damp with a mixture of water and soap (very tiny bit of soap). They do get cold but he doesn't seem to care. We just wash them with his cloth diapers. When we had a service for his diapers, we would put the used wipes in a separate container and wash them with other rags, towels,etc.
Good luck!!

I diapered all three of my children with the local diaper service. When I was out in the world with my children, I used commercial wipes out of convenience. At home, though, I used a clean wet diaper. If I had time, it was wet with warm water, but otherwise, it was just wet.

With cloth diapers, you change them more often because they don't have the hyper-absorbent chemical in them. I almost never wiped my children if they were just wet. Only if they had poop. Urine is not what causes most rashes.

My cousin washed all of her daughters' diapers herself every week. She had dozens of little pieces of fabric to clean them with and she threw them in the washer with the soiled diapers.

I also had a collection of small wash rags that I used on bottoms. I threw them in the laundry with the dirty diaper covers each week.

Much happiness to you.

One time at Costco I bought a pack of 25 washcloths very inexpensively. Just warm water is best with a washcloth, or soap and water. String up a little clothes line and pick up some snappy clothes pins. Just like up town!

well, i don't know much about homemade wipes, but if green is a concern, comfort a must and cleanliness your ultimate goal, you most likely already have the answer in your linen closet...before green ever came into the discussion and the multitude of seemingly endless infant care options were lain at our feet and simultaneously pumped into our consumer hearts and minds by any means necessary and in every way possible.

a real nice washcloth, or higher end mans hankie can be found at discount retailers, strange colors and singles for next to nothing made from quality organic threads and materials. plain white is the way to go however, toss them in with the diapers, no extra steps...or ask your service to do these as well, if they're a private launderer, if not you've just got one more load of whites or coloreds, or throw the white ones in with the colored ones, you'll have a new set each week can.

more power to you - brave soul; congrats, and happy holidays!!

I bought a pack of 10 face cloths from target for about $4, cut them into 1/4s and have been using them for the past 11 months. I throw them in the pail with the diapers adn they all get washed together. I keep a little pot with water and some wipe soaking. When he was tiny, I did put fresh warm water in each time. Now I try and warm the wipe in my hand before applying. They work well, esp when 'scrubbing' off sticky poop because they have texture. I'm really glad we a) don't have to spend the money on disposable wipes and b) don't have to be throwing them out all the time. I do have disposable ones for the diaper bag.

E.

Congrats on your baby girl! How exciting! I have to say, I never knew you could make baby wipes. I was going to tell you what the nurse who taught our birthing class told us. She said she put hot water in one of those coffee crafts (the kind you push on the top and the coffee comes out the spout thing) every morning and set it on the changing table. Then she would take a baby washcloth and put some of the water on the washcloth and wipe her babies bottom. No chemicals, soaps, etc.
Best of luck and Congrats again!

I just use a washable cotton cloth and water. I also figured out I could usually just wipe downward w/the clean sides of the cloth diaper when needed, and skip the wipes. And...I've started doing "elimination communication" (aka infant potty training), which means far less need for wiping altogether!

Tried this with a recipe I found using paper towels and they molded within a week. Maybe someone else out there has had better luck. Good luck to you! If nothing else and you have to use regular wipes, try cutting them in half, at least for the first few months when things aren't so messy.

Check out Nature BabyCare Diapers and wipes. They are all natural and totally biodegradable (even the packaging) and they are the BEST diapers and wipes ever! Good luck! Good for you for being a green mama!!!

I didn't make my own, but I use reusable wipes. I bought the Lionheart (sp?) wipes warmer and it's wonderful. I imagine it would work equally well if I were using wipes cut from old sheets or whatever. The only part that doesn't work is that the wipes don't automatically pull up through the little hole. I open it each time to get out wipes. No big deal. I love this system. It feels really sustainable and I love not making a bunch of trash every time I change my daughter. We've been doing this for a year and a half.

Anything soft and absorbant will work. We have used baby washcloths, flannel squares, and terry squares. As far as solution. Just plain water works well at first. I find that once they start sleeping longer that a little baby soap and a drop of tea tree oil in a cup of water makes a solution that wipes the overnight urine smell off their little booties.

We use cloth diaper wipes, though they aren't homemade. We just bought 36 of them or something like that from one of the cloth diapering websites, and they are fantastic! We've been using them for almost nine months, and they are still in great shape. Best thing about them, besides being "green," is that you just toss them in the washer WITH the diaper. The few times we've used disposable wipes, we've accidentally tossed them in the washer with the diaper, and it makes an awful mess. The cloth ones are much better for that, if nothing else. :-)

As for homemade, I have a friend who just tore an old flannel sheet into strips and uses those, and she says they work great.

Good luck!

I just cut the flannel receiving blankets I got at my shower into little squares, then I wet them with water. If you want you can put a tiny drop of baby soap and baby oil in the water, or a tiny dash of apple cider vinegar, but it's not necessary. Then just throw them in the wash with your diapers or clothes...

we used just warm water in a thermos and bounty paper towels cut in half (we put two of the half-rolls on a free-standing paper towel holder). The nurses who taught the baby-care classes at our local hospital recommended this b/c it's gentler on baby's skin than the commercial wipes (they said most cases of newborn diaper rash they saw was due to commercial wipes).

I use cloth wipes and I LOVE them! I must confess I didn't make them myself (I got them from Quilter's Nappies), but I'm really happy that we went this route. We use cloth diapers, so I'm already doing the extra loads of laundry, so it was no extra work. I also use a wipe solution that I got from banana peels diapers, but you can make that yourself, too. Just google "wipe solution recipe" and you get a ton of results. We use a wipes warmer, make a tub of solution, dunk the wipes and put them in the warmer.

The wipes we got are flannel on one side and velour on the other, and most changes are one-wipe jobs. We just open up the wipe, use one side, fold it and use the other. Works like a charm & we're not adding to the landfills!

Good luck! :)

With a newborn baby, I absolutely loved the homemade wipes from half a Bounty paper towel roll. Take out the paper roll & cut it into half (the whole roll of paper towels that is!) Put it into a Rubbermaid Serving Saver (round 10 cup size) and put clean water (with about a tablespoon each (it takes very little!) of baby wash and baby oil mixed in - I forget the exact measurements but basically you want just enough to wet the papertowels, without having it sit in a puddle at the bottom. Keep it sealed tight and it works great!
I found that later on as my son went longer between changes, the whole roll of bounty wipes was a bit too 'bountiful' for us and would start to turn brown on the edges before it was finished up. That's when I went to Costco's baby wipes (sorry I'm more about convenience and practicality than being politically correct) and still have Costco's Kirtland brand baby wipes around for on the go cleaning although my baby is a 1st grader! Gentle on the skin, cloth feel, no harsh cleansers, not super-fragrant either. I can use them on our hands & faces and not have to rinse/wipe off afterwards.

I did get a bunch of baby washcloths and still use them to this day as well. I just feel that Bounty is softer on their tushies than baby washcloths?? But maybe that's just me - I can't stand the thought of moms using paper towels to wipe noses instead of kleenex!

I made my own and they worked just fine. Remember, though, you only want to use water for the first month or so, then afterwards you can use a wipe with something other than water on it.

For both of my daughters, I cut up scraps from old cotton T-shirts to use as wipes. I just kept a few of them wet in a plastic container on the changing table and threw them into a covered plastic bin as they were used. Washed them as the bin got full. We did use regular wipes when traveling. I know we saved a lot of money on not buying wipes. I got the idea from my Mom who did the same thing - before wipes were a regular baby item.

YEAH! Good for you for using cloth diapers, I have been using them since my first daughter was born (she is now three) and I love them. If you have not ordered any, check out www.diaperraps.com They are a family owned business and make a wonderful product. Since you will be doing more laundry, you may want to consider using a biodegradable laundry soap. I use MelaPower from Melaleuca. It is gentile enough for the entire family and works really well. Actually, Melaleuca has a great recipe for homemade diaper wipes:

 1 roll of "Bounty" paper towels
 2 cups of cool water
 1/8 Cup Tough -N- Tender
 1 tsp. Renew Bath Oil
 1 air tight canister (3 qt. Round Rubbermaid works well)

1. Lay roll of "'bounty" on its side and cut in half.
(a sharp, non-serrated knife works best)
2. Put water, Tough -N- Tender and bath oil in canister. Mix ingredients together.
3. Add one half of the roll of “Bounty” to canister, put cover on and flip upside down.
4. Let sit for 5 minutes, then remove cover and remove cardboard center. (being careful not to split the two-ply towel apart)
*If not completely used in 14 to 21 days, discard remaining wipes and start fresh. (There are no preservatives; therefore, they will mildew.)

The tough & tender and renew bath oil are Melaleuca products as well. They also have some wonderful ecofriendly, non-toxic cleaning supplies. Check out their website - www.melaleuca.com You do have to be a member to order, but you save money and get free products. If you have any questions, please let me know. I would be happy to help you open your own account. Good luck and congratulations on your new little one.