Homemade Cloth Diaper Wipes

When I jumped on the cloth diaper band wagon, I decided to go all the way and also use cloth wipes, too.

To my mom's horror, I made cloth wipes from her stash of old receiving blankets left over from my childhood. We have a stack of 70, which seems to be plenty for our washing schedule. I don't know how to use my serger (although I do have one), so I just sewed a fancy stitch around the edge of each wipe. They have frayed but the strings don't seem to get in the way of wiping a poopy tush.

After lots of reading about homemade wipes online, I settled on the simplest recipe and we've found that it works great. One quart of wash solution lasts about 4 days (we wash out the wipes container before refilling it because it will start to smell musty).

Simplest Homemade Wipes Solution

• 1 quart water
• 2 tablespoons baby soap/shampoo
• 2 tablespoons baby oil
• Quart Mason jar with lid
• 1 tablespoon measuring spoon
  
• Plastic container to hold solution and wipes

Directions:

• Almost fill a quart Mason jar with water and add 2 tablespoons baby soap and baby oil.
• Shake to combine and then pour into a wipes container or spray bottle.
• If you use a spray bottle, you will want to shake the spray bottle before each use to distribute the oil.

I prefer to soak my wipes instead of spraying the solution on them because it is quicker to squeeze the excess liquid out than it is to spray enough to really wet them. Since these wipes result in a wet, but very clean, bum I always blot Eddie's tush with a dry wipe before putting on a fresh diaper.

These wipes are tossed into the diaper pail once soiled and we wash them right along with the diapers.

Although we do use cloth diapers when we're away from home (unless we're out of state in which case we use Costco disposables), we do not use cloth wipes when we're out. There is always a giant bag of Costco brand wipes in our diaper bag. I really prefer our homemade wipes, in part because they are much wetter and have more texture than disposable wipes--so they clean poop off Eddie's bum much more easily. But I've found it too difficult to take the cloth wipes out with me. I could probably bring a zipper bag or screw-top container full of damp (not dripping wet) wipes with me...but I haven't tried that yet.