Homemade poopie wipes

For those of you with little ones (or are expecting) you know how expensive those wipes can be. A 180 count box from Huggies/Pampers run about $5 and lasts maybe a week or two. A pediatrician friend of mine started me making my own from Bounty paper towels and I love them. I've even converted a few Huggies die-hard friends myself.

1. Buy the 8 count rolls of Bounty. Each roll has 64 (quilted 2 ply!)sheets. I think you can get them for about $5 for the 8 pack on sale.
2. Get a round tupperware container (okay, you have to splurge $3 here if you don't have one) that holds 10 cups. Cut the paper towel in half (I use my serrated bread knife) and remove the inner cardboard core. The half roll fits perfectly in the tupperware.
3. In a glass, squeeze 3 tablespoons each of baby oil and baby shampoo and fill with warm water and mix. Pour all over wipes. You can add more water if you like - I like mine pretty moist. Voila!

Each roll ($0.62 each!) is 2 sets of wipes (128 wipes)since you cut it in half and just cost you a mere fraction of the cost of ready made ones. I have experimented with cheaper paper towels but they don't work as well (rip easily or don't wipe the bad stuff off as well) and went back to Bounty since as they say, is the quicker picker upper! After all, if it's good enough to wipe our mouths, it should be good for the other end, too!

[fluffhead]

We use washcloths - we bought a whole bunch of them when my daughter was born, and we use a wipes container to store them. We mix about a liter of distilled water with 5 drops of tea tree oil and 5 drops of lavender which we keep handy to make more wipes. We pour it over the wipes - just enough to make them damp. Distilled water is important so things don't grow in it.
In the winter I keep the container over the hot air blower so she doesn't freak when I wipe her.
I wash them when I'm close to running out. We use cloth diapers too so I just wash the wipes with the diaper wraps. (we have a service for the diapers).
(off topic - I LOVE using cloth diapers, and with the service it's about the same cost as disposable, and just as easy - any questions please ask me)

[Cumberland]

ok, i am not a parent, but i hope to be soon.... that's another story. BUT, i have always wanted to use cloth diapers but know no one besides my mom that used them. How much cheaper are they? What about leaks etc? My mom used to put plastic pants over them, which caused diaper rash, what do you do nowadays?

[SueC]

I just made my own wipes a few weeks ago, though I made it more complicated then it needed to be. It never occured to me to cut the paper towel while it is still on the roll! I tore them out one by one and laid them on top of each other and THEN cut them in half. Then I tri-folded each one and put them in an old diaper wipe container that was filled with 12oz. of water and a squirt of baby bath. The wipes are durable enough and smell really nice, and cheap too! I'll try your approach next time and probably save myself a good 20 minutes!!!

[Amiens]

Sue- That sounds like something I would do!

BTW- I am loving the book! We have recommended it to tons of people. I think even perfect strangers.

Crystal

I used a cloth diaper service for each of my 3 for their first year of life. It comes out to be the same price as if you used disposables because the service does everything. You toss cloth diaper and wipes into the bag (they also give you a plastic trash receptacle to put it in). You don't have to dump the waste first. Once a week they pick up the diapers and drop off new ones. They charge by the diaper. Newborns go through more so if I remember correctly, at first it was about 60-70 diapers a week. As your baby grows and wets less often, it dropped to about 40-50 a week. You never have to worry about running out of diapers.

I used velcro wraps around the diaper. You can get them used for about a buck each. No pins here - I'm all thumbs and at night with no sleep? I'd be drawing blood.

The reason I stopped after a year was the smell factor. Since they were breastfed, it didn't smell bad but once they started eating solids and table food, the crap (pardon my french) stank. The lid for the can has a built in place for deodorizer but then you smelled deodorizer AND smelly crap.

But I did like it when it wasn't smelly. Not the poop but the service.

I made wipes with my first three kids. It was so much cheaper and easy to do. I got lazy when we moved to Arizona though and got away from making them. Definitely use Bounty. We tried the cheaper ones too and they just fell apart!

Robin

[fluffhead]

I haven't really had a smell problem with the cloth diapers. The velcro wraps are great - we use imse vimse (I feel like an idiot saying that, but it's the name of the company). The diaper service really takes the hassle out - though perhaps it doesn't smell cause I dump the solid waste in the toilet (which is something you should really do with disposables as well!)
We use cloth liners at night, which we wash with the wipes and wraps. If we run out of liners we use 2 diapers at night.
If we didn't have a diaper service in our area I'm not sure we'd do cloth.

ok, i am not a parent, but i hope to be soon.... that's another story. BUT, i have always wanted to use cloth diapers but know no one besides my mom that used them. How much cheaper are they? What about leaks etc? My mom used to put plastic pants over them, which caused diaper rash, what do you do nowadays?

I used cloth diapers for my oldest and used them with my second child until we moved. They actually run up to 10 bucks cheaper. If I had another kid tomorrow I would not use them. The babys room always had a little stink to it despite the fact that the pail had a deoderizer. It got out of hand when there were two pails in the room because my two were in diapers at the same time at one point. We lived in an apartment complex at the time and had to leave them in the hall. They would be picked up early but I would never recommend anyone do this just because you have neighbors so close. I did feel that these diapers were the most natural way to go. I would definitely go with the diaper genie now!! It ends up being much less hassle for a busy mom!

[PrincessFiona]

poopie wipes

OK...let me just say that just the title of this post has me cracking up.....you guys are real troopers. My dh and I tried cloth diapers and oil wipes (homemade) for the first week when Andrew was born. We even bought those special cloth diapers that look like real diapers...and had velcro to close.....and we gave up after less than a week. We didn't have a diaper service and the whole thing was just a little too...much for us. Hats off to those of you who stick it out

Kris