Diaper wipes aren’t a very sexy blog post and clearly if you don’t have babies then it certainly isn’t relevant.
If you gotta wipe a baby booty, though, well you need a wipe.
Before I had Amethyst, I had all these grand plans to not only use cloth diapers exclusively, but also to use reusable and washable wipes like cloth ( organic hemp, of course lol.) Cloth diapering is totally worth it to really make an effort and try to make it work, at least in my experience with my family.
But the cloth wipes… For me, it just hasn’t worked out. The first time you have a blowout poop to deal with along with a crying baby and the knowledge that at some point you will have to deal with the poopy diaper, the idea of using a cloth wipe is unbearable! It’s like please give me something I can just use and throw away! Fuck it, I will be a bad environmentalist if it means touching even a little less poop throughout the day.
What I can’t do though, is wipe my littles’ precious boot with normal baby wipes. Even in the so-called natural ones there is still a bunch of ingredients I can’t pronounce but I know that at the very least I don’t want triclosan, parabens, sodium laureth/ laurel sulfates, and a bunch of iso-, butyl-, propyl-, hexl- what have you’s. This is where homemade wipes come in. Now, I know they aren’t perfect as it is still wasteful and using virgin forests, etc. But man, living in the world is hard sometimes.
First, get a plastic box with a lid. Something smallish and rectangular but big enough to fit a standard roll of paper towels.
Next, get a roll of paper towels. Awesome if you can find/ afford recycled ones. Place the roll into the box.
Now gather your ingredients.
You need some kind of mild soap. I use Dr. Bronners unscented baby soap because I use that soap for everything I need to wash for Amethyst.
You also need an oil (coconut oil is great because it is naturally anti-fungal but you can use whatever good quality oil you have on hand like olive, grapeseed, sesame etc.) and some essential oils. I always use tea tree oil for antibacterial goodness and lavender oil because it is soothing and smells divine. Sometimes I will add in another oil like rose, peppermint or rosemary.
In a blender, put two cups of water, a generous squirt of soap, a tablespoon of oil and a few drops of each essential oil.
Blend for a few seconds until it is foamy and then pour on top of the paper towel roll that you put in the box.
As it sits soaking up the liquid, you will be able to remove the cardboard tube in the middle.
That is it!
If you need some for on the go, just take some from the roll and put them into a ziplock bag. I have one in my diaper bag that I refill as necessary. It works out so much cheaper for us to do this! So, even if you don’t have babies, pass this idea along to any mamas you know who might be interested.
Since moving to Shreveport, I haven’t had the time to take on yet another project like that yet. I still love getting my gut loving probiotics in sparkly beverage form though, so when I have a chance to lay my paws on some local booch, I always do. Like this one I got in Austin that I loved so much and is truly my favorite kombucha EVAR!!
