One of the best gifts I received from a friend post-birth, was the recipe and supplies for homemade baby wipes.
I loved them!
How did I NOT know about homemade baby wipes before my 4th child?!
Not only are they cheap and easy to make…they are also way better for your chubby baby’s bottom than store-bought wipes.
Supplies
- 1 roll Bounty (this b
- A very sharp knife or an electric knife works best (*UPDATE* We found a much better way by using a Miter Saw)
- 1 T. baby wash
- 1 T. coconut oil (you can use other oils but coconut has lots of good benefits so it’s a good choice)
- 1 C. water (make sure it is hot if you’re using coconut oil so it’ll melt)
- 1 container the appropriate size to house the wipes (the one pictured came from Dollar Tree)
Directions
Remove the cardboard roll inside the paper towels and cut the remaining paper towels in half. (as noted below by Amber, you can leave the roll in there and remove it as the final step…whichever works best for you)
Mix the baby wash, oil, & hot water around to make sure the wash and oil are evenly distributed.
Pour the mixture into your wipes container.
Add the cut paper towels and let them sit for about an hour until all the liquid spreads throughout the paper towels.
Pull wipes from the center.
To make them more travel-friendly, I take a chunk out and put them in a quart-size Ziploc.
It’s unbelievably easy! And I simply love this particular brand of baby wash which I bought from Target.
The best part about these…they do not contain alcohol and they are super-soothing for those delicate areas, especially if you’re dealing with a diaper rash.
Just make sure you get the right size Bounty. I bought rolls that were too big once and I couldn’t fit them in my container.
Made these today and used them for the first time. Worked like a charm! I added a few drops of jojoba oil with the coconut oil in the solution for extra skin conditioning, and later read in the comments about adding tea tree oil, which I’ll skip for now as I read of the possible effect on boys (I have two sons). Does anyone know if the jojoba oil has any risks healthwise or if it is detrimental to the antifungal properties of the coconut oil? Hope not!
I made the wipes exactly as directed on 9/14 and noticed today that mold is growing in the container!! Any suggestions or ideas on what I did wrong?!?
I’m sorry to hear that Natalie. I have a couple of thoughts…
1. Was your container completely clean?
2. Are you in a humid/hot climate?
I’ve never needed to do anything different than as posted but some recommendations to ensure zero mold are…
1. use distilled water.
2. use a couple drops of tea tree oil or lavender essential oil
Add 1T Aloe Gel and it’s amazing against diaper rash! I also use old cut up t-shirts so I can wash and reuse 😉
Great idea Brandi, I’m going to have to give the aloe a try! Thanks for stopping by!
Tea tree oil is very potent.
Avoid using it.
Hello, I just wanted to drop in and let everyone know something I found out once about paper towels. My dad actually worked for Kimberly-Clark (producer of Scott brand paper towels and Viva) and he has told me there are a lot of dangerous chemicals in the paper towels. (I was using them to smooth out icing on a cake to achieve a fondant like finish and he told me this because he didn’t want me eating the icing after he saw me do that). So if you are doing it to save money it sounds great but if you are doing it to reduce chemicals you might not be achieving much. Maybe a Better option to reduce chemicals would be to make organic cotton reusable wipes for #1’s and then just use these homemade hdisposables for the #2’s. Just my thoughts after hearing the comment from my dad!
I think Brittany might be referring to the dioxin that has been used in paper mills. I was raised in a city with a paper mill nearby and have endometriosis, which can be caused by exposure to dioxin. (Studies done on Rhesus monkeys show the same.) Many of my friends had trouble conceiving children, which can be caused by that condition. I was so glad to learn I was having a boy instead of a girl because I’ve suffered (and still do) so much.
We were all raised with many benefits that would otherwise seem to preclude this type of problem and away from other types of chemical locally that would cause such problems. For example, those raised in poverty often have health problems due to environmental factors. We were raised without any of those issues except exposure to the chemicals from the paper mill, which could not be avoided anywhere we lived, as it permeated the air and probably the water supply. If anything, based on our environments and advantages we should have all been supremely healthy.
Now I worry about my son being affected by other chemicals, and what we will collectively pass down to my grandchildren. So, even in his adolescence I still insist he use bath products like Burt’s Bees or others that don’t have possibly damaging chemicals to his hormones.
If someone isn’t willing to do fabric for the really messy wipes then just use paper for those and use fabric for the rest; just split the difference by making two batches. One with paper for the really messy wipe needs and another with fabric for the “follow-up” wipes and/or less messy wipe needs. Every little bit of lessening the chemical load helps.
Thank you for your comment! Chemicals are definitely something to consider and you bring up a good point along with a solution.
Have you ever searched the connection between insulin resistance and PCOS? Here is just one of the links I found, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10576524. I wonder if this couldn’t be the cause. A low-glycemic diet, (Trim Healthy Mama is a great one) or Plexus would help to correct the core problem. Just throwing that out there…if you search insulin resistance and PCOS, the connection is startling. Best wishes!
hi I am thinking of giving this for a new baby.Any problems with the liquid not soaking thru all the paper towels? I was wondering if it would be better to slowly pour the liquid in from the top once the paper towels are already in place in the container?
Sorry for the late reply Allison. You could try pouring slowly but it really does soak in quickly, especially if you flip the container after it sits for a few minutes.