cloth wipes and wipe solution recipe
I think that a lot of people talk about cloth diapers, but fewer people talk about cloth wipes. I’m not entirely sure why. When I decided to use cloth with my first babe I bought a package deal that came with the most wonderful cloth wipes. My mom used cloth diapers with me, but always used disposable wipes, saying she never thought to use cloth instead.
It seems to be just as easy to rinse a wipe off as a cloth diaper, especially since I have my handy bumGenius Diaper Sprayer. Seriously not sure how people could ever do without that and use cloth…I am all for saving money and don’t have a huge problem with cleaning them…but anything that helps I love 🙂
Around the same time that Emma was born I was very concerned about buying wipe solution for my cloth wipes. I knew from babysitting experience that a dry flannel wipe was not going to cut it for those messy changes. Unfortunately, the only thing I could find was some seriously expensive wipe solution from my local cloth diaper store (yes, we have those up here in Maine :-)). What is a girl to do? I don’t want to waste the money (or have the chemicals) with disposable wipes, and I couldn’t afford to continue buying a $20 wipe solution pump every other week. Well, of course, I decided to make my own.
I looked at several recipes online. There were some seriously complicated ones, and ones that were mainly water and baby shampoo (something else I didn’t have in the house). What I ended up with was my own blend which works extremely well. We don’t have diaper rashes while using this, and that is a big thing to me 🙂
Wipe Solution Recipe – I make mine in a 32 oz spray bottle
25 oz water
4-6 drops of tea tree oil
1/4 cup olive oil (i use the evoo that is in my kitchen)
1/4 cup Dr. Bronner’s – i use the peppermint kind
Mix all together in a spray bottle, and then spray the wipe when you need to use it. We then throw these in the bucket with the diapers, and I wash them every other day.
This wipe solution is amazing. It actually helped our family move to all family cloth, instead of toilet paper. My husband was completely against it, but since I do all the shopping I have a little bit more control over some of those things. Imagine his surprise when he preferred it. I know, not necessarily something that would work for everyone, but for us, it is awesome!
Do you cloth diaper? Or use family cloth instead of toilet paper? Would love to hear your stories!
Linking up with the barn hop again today! Hope no one is scared away 🙂
Greta post. I use cloth wipes solution too: http://www.nzecochick.com/2010/08/wipes-solution.html
TMI question, I apologize in advance. How do you spray off your wipe if you're sitting on the toilet??? And if you get up first, where do you set down the wipe while you get your pants up?
I definitely stand up to spray off the wipe 🙂 You could either not pull your pants up and then spray off the wipe, throw it in the bucket and then pull up your pants – or – you can set the wipe down in the bucket so you can easily grab it again, pull up your pants and then spray the wipe 🙂 Great question! I typically do the first. I'm at home, so not too concerned about it 🙂
Hm! Alrighty then. We don't actually HAVE a sprayer because we do diaper free, so our poopy diapers are pretty rare… I've heard some just swish in the toilet bowl, but that seems WAY ickier
I laughed out loud at the part where you said that since you do the shopping you have a little more control over these things! hahahah
I LOVE Dr Bronners! This sounds great, gal–and you make a great point that if you're doing cloth diapers, might as well do cloth wipes! BTW Tagged you in a 11 Things share on my blog, if you want to participate!
What a good idea. I never thought of cloth wipes! But then again, I have been out of the diaper scene for 15 years. I'm not sure if my hubby would go for the switch from toilet paper, but I can see the benefit of keeping that in the bathroom. Thanks for the info.
Our first child is due any day, and we are planning on using cloth diapers and wipes. One of the only things left on our to-do list is cloth wipe solution. I started using old, cut up tshirts when I go #1 (since being 9 months preganat means peeing every 5 minutes and I can't justify buying that much TP!) and may move to full on family cloth (for myself, at least) soon. Thanks for sharing your wipe recipe!!