Homemade and all natural baby wipes

Baby wipes are one of those expenses that adds up quick when you have little ones that aren’t potty-trained.  Fortunately, they are easy to make yourself! In addition, by making them yourself, you avoid all the nasty chemicals and other random junk in store bought ones.

These links give more information on the questionable safety of the ingredients commonly found in baby wipes:

-http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/news/a42367/baby-wipe-rash-methylisothiazolinone/

-http://downtoearthmother.com/2015/03/10/babywipesingredients/

-https://ireadlabelsforyou.com/hidden-ingredients-in-baby-wipes/

Even “natural” baby wipes can STILL contain questionable ingredients:

http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/product/653579/Seventh_Generation_Free_%26_Clear_Wipes/#.WmmMRa6nGpo

I originally got this recipe from my mom, who got it from someone at one of my brother’s baby showers.  The original recipe called for baby oil and baby shampoo.  Upon reading the ingredient labels for those, I decided I would replace those ingredients with something truly natural, as you will see below.

Ingredients:

-1/2 of a ‘Huge’ Bounty Paper Towel Roll (These ones: Bounty Select-a-Size Paper Towels, White, Huge Roll, 8 Count)

-3 cups filtered/distilled water

-2 TB almond oil (my favorite: NOW Sweet Almond Oil, 16-Ounce)

-2 TB baby body wash (check out my recipe for it here: http://herbivorehomemaker.com/diy-moisturizing-liquid-hand-and-body-soap/)

-15 drops lavender essential oil (optional, feel free to leave out if EO’s aren’t your thing)

Cut the bounty paper towel in half with a sharp knife.  Put half of the paper towel roll in a container that it fits in or you can put it in a gallon sized plastic bag.  I personally use plastic gallon ice cream containers from my mom that I cleaned and repurposed as baby wipe containers.  Mix all of the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.  Pour about 1/2 cup of the wet mixture on the center of the paper towel roll, to get the cardboard roll moist.  Then pull the cardboard roll out once it has been moistened, as it will now be much easier to remove.  Once that is removed, pour the rest of the wet mixture all over the paper towels. Voila!  You now have your own baby wipes.  You can easily pull them out through the center of the paper towel roll.  You can pull a bunch out and put them in a plastic bag to take on the go in a diaper bag, as can be seen in the image below.

I did a messy job of putting the baby wipes in the bag, but you get the idea.

A double batch of these homemade baby wipes typically lasts about 2-3 weeks for one child.

Variation: If you aren’t able to get the ‘Huge’ Bounty Paper Towel Rolls, any regular paper towels should do, as long as they aren’t too flimsy.  Depending on the paper towels roll size, simply reduce the water amount to 2 or 2 1/2 cups and reduce the lavender essential oil amount to 5-10 drops.  Also, only use 1 to 1 1/2 TB of almond oil and 1 to 1 1/2 TB of baby wash. Also, feel free to use whatever baby body wash and/or liquid baby friendly oil you have on hand. You don’t have to use exactly what I specified if you have something else on hand you can use.

Final thoughts:  I recently noticed at Target (and I’m sure it is at other stores too) that they LITERALLY are selling baby wipes that only have water.  One could simply get a washcloth or paper towel wet and clean their babies butt with that for a lot cheaper!  So, that’s always an option too if you want super easy baby wipes.  Now that I cloth diaper, I use cloth wipes and LET ME TELL YOU they work great. If you are feeling extra crunchy, washable cloth wipes are always an option too.

Have you ever made your own baby wipes?  If so, how did you make them?  If you haven’t, are you going to try?  Do you have any questions for me in regards to making baby wipes that I didn’t answer?  Let me know in the comments below.