How to Make Homemade Disposable Baby Wipes and Natural Wipe Solution
Crafts & Tutorials, Fun Stuff, Parenting — By Lindsey on January 24, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Last month I was driven to find a natural alternative to regular store-bought baby wipes – mainly because my daughter didn’t seem to like the wipes I was using (the Target brand). She constantly grabbed at herself down there while I tried to wipe her (trying to stop me, I believe), cried pitifully, and generally gave me a hard time about it. At first I thought she was just being difficult (she’s always been restless and doesn’t like being still), but it didn’t take me long to figure out that they were irritating her. There was no rash, but something was bothering her.
This is probably TMI, but my ultimate test was using them on myself to see if they bothered me. And they did! I couldn’t help but feel bad – maybe I should be trying these products on myself before using them on my baby’s sensitive skin. But at least now I know.
So I did an internet search for natural baby wipes. My one problem was that I didn’t want to spend a ton of money on “natural wipes” that were disposable. And they do get expensive. So I decided that making my own wipes was the way to go. I’ve been wanting to go more green and organic, anyway.
In my research, I’ve come across some great resources that I will share at the end of this post – but right now I’m going to show you how to make your own simple baby wipes and wipes solution!
Now, this is only one option. There are many different ways to do this, but I’m going to show you what works best for me.
Collect the following:
100% pure therapeutic-grade essential oil (I use Young Living’s Gentle Baby Blend, a gift from a good friend)
Olive oil or Baby oil (so that the wipes will gently glide over baby’s skin)
Water (shouldn’t be hard to find ;-)
A spray bottle (or a squirt bottle)
Soft paper towels
Step 1
Fill the bottle with water, and add a small amount of olive/baby oil and one or two drops of essential oil.
Step 2
You can cut the paper towels in half using a serrated knife so that they will be a convenient size for using as baby wipes. I did this myself the first time and it is hard! Thankfully, my hubby did it (without my even asking!) the second time. It didn’t take him near as long, either. lol
Step 3
I pre-tear the paper towels and put them into my reusable baby wipe container so that they’re all ready to grab and spray. You can also keep the paper towel roll in the container and tear as you go if you wish.
That’s it!
Now when you’re ready to use them, just grab a paper towel wipe, spray a bit of “wipe solution” onto the paper towel, and wipe!
Other options/variations:
You can also soak your paper towels in the solution so that all you have to do is grab and wipe, but that didn’t work so well for me. Maybe with heavy-duty paper towels, it would work better. But I feel that my method works well for me and I don’t waste any solution or paper towels.
Oh, and you can also use gentle baby wash in the mix, even in place of the essential oil (that would be sad, though). There really are a lot of different ideas out there. Just google “How to make your own baby wipes” and see what you come up with!
Score!
This ended up being a wonderful alternative for us, one I’m really happy with. Emma calmed down and doesn’t cry anymore when I wipe her. She’s totally relaxed now. And, it’s great not to have to buy wipes! The only thing you do have to buy is a bottle of essential oil, though that’s not entirely necessary, either. I just love the scent, and it’s also formulated to calm baby. I believe it works. :-) And a little goes a LONG way. It’s pretty potent, I only use one or two drops in my solution. You can also use it in baby’s bath and put it on their favorite toy at bedtime to help relax them.
Note: Make sure that if you buy essential oil, buy the stuff that is PURE – this is something you’re putting on your baby’s bottom. It needs to be the real stuff, 100% pure. Not all oils are safe enough to be put directly onto the skin!
Online Resources:
Cloth Wipes 101 (The Cloth Diaper Report)
Wipes Solution Recipes (The Cloth Diaper Report)
How to make your own cloth baby wipes (Excellent tutorial by Nathan’s Fight)
More ideas for making your own disposable baby wipes
More easy baby wipes solution recipes
7 Comments
Wow how wonderful I’m so glad that things worked out so well and I bet it saves money too. Thanks for the great tip and “HOW TO”.
No problem, and yes it definitely saves money. :-)
I make my own wipes as well. And yes, cutting that roll of paper towels in half is TOUGH! I opted for the roll of towels that have half sheets. They are just the right size. :-)
Great! What brand do you use? I didn’t see the half sheets but that would be an easier idea. :-) Thanks for sharing!
you could just use a wash cloth (the original re-usable wipe)
Yes, you could! :-) This is a tutorial on making *disposable* wipes for lazy people like me who don’t want to deal with washing the cloths. lol
I did include cloth wipe resources at the bottom of the post – it’s another awesome option!
I make my own babywipes too, and I love them! I always and only use Bounty (do not use the half-size sheets), but I do cut the roll in half as well. We use an exacto with the blade fully extended. A friend of mine uses her electric kitchen knife, but that didn’t work too well for me. I place 1 cup of warm water in a 2 L Ice Cream container with the oil. Then add the half Bounty to it. After it sits for a bit you can pull the card board centre out, and voila, you have a dispenser by cutting an “X” in the lid of the container. If it dries out a bit towards the end, just add a bit more water to the container. It’s simple and easy and cheap!!