November 3, 2009

I can't believe I didn't find this sooner...

I'm talking about homemade baby wipes! Seriously...I cannot see myself ever buying commercial baby wipes again. Ever. I am almost at the point of potty training my youngest and a few weeks ago I found a recipe for making your own baby wipes. I know it sounds complicated, but it's super easy, much more convenient, safer, and cheaper than buying pre-made baby wipes.
I did a little bit of basic math and found out that:

1 pack of baby wipes @ $7.97 = 231 wipes
6 rolls of bounty (81 sheets each roll) @ $7.98 = 972 wipes!!!
(this is not including the cost of baby soap, oil and water used for the wipe solution)

Isn't that an incredible difference though?

And that's just price. I have found that homemade baby wipes actually clean better, absorb better, AND you know what's going onto your baby's skin. Not to mention, they actually take me less time to make at home than it would to drive to the store and pick some up. So they are definitely convenient.

If I have convinced you to give it a try, here's what to do:


You will need...
- a clean, cylinder, air-tight container big enough to hold half a roll of paper towel. I am using a modern-looking glass container with a brushed metal lid from Ikea. (the 2.2 litre one)

- a roll of Bounty paper towel (please, don't cheap out on this) - also, please pay attention to how many sheets are on the roll. I use a 40-sheet roll for this recipe, so if yours has 80 sheets, double the recipe and possibly the size of your jar.

- a cup of hot water

- a teaspoon of your favorite, natural, liquid baby soap (right now I'm using Avalon Organics Olive & Grape Seed gel)

- a few drops of almond oil or baby oil

- two drops of tea tree oil (for disinfection)


The recipe:
- First you will need to use a carpet knife, strong scissors or a sharp, straight-edged kitchen knife to cut your roll of paper towel in half. This is the most difficult part of the whole process..unless your knife is sharp, then it's a breeze.  :)  Save the other half-roll for your next batch of wipes.
- Remove the inner cardboard cylinder by twisting to loosen and then slide it out, leaving the roll intact.
- Loosen the outer sheet of paper towel from the roll.
- Slide the roll into your airtight container.

- In a separate bowl, combine a teaspoon of your favorite baby soap, a few drops of baby oil, and the tea tree oil (or lavender oil).
- Add very hot, filtered water to soap mixture and stir until it's all combined.
- Pour this mixture into container with the half roll of paper towel.
Let this sit for a few hours to soak into paper towel.
You can then start using your paper towel baby wipes by pulling from the center of the roll and break them off one by one. They work great! I hope you love them as much as I do!

3 comments:

Julie said...

Lovely Idea, we supply the wies for some kids at the daycare, so this will be my next little side project. thanks for keeping my inspired to go handmade and natural E!

Christina Durksen said...

Well, more than a year you after posted this, I've done it! The wipes are awesome, easy, cheap, fast and Emmett's little behind is happy too! Thanks for such a great idea!

Laura said...

So I saw this, then I was at a trade show where they were selling organic essential oils and the girl there gave me the ingredients to do this using tea tea, lavender and fractionized coconut oil. Cant wait to try it!