Exploring Cloth Diapers and Wipes

Diaper Cover

prefolds

I am new to cloth diapering and homemade wipes. Let's just say that I was extremely uneducated about them. I still had the old fashioned idea in my mind of prefolds, plastic pants, and water pails. After educating myself, I came to realize that cloth diapering can be just as easy and much greener and healthier than disposables. Thus, my journey began. I had some prefolds that I had purchased to use as burp cloths for all of my kiddos, so, I just purchased some diaper covers to start. I went with Green Bees because they are local and very inexpensive! (http://www.greenbeesdiapers.com/) My goal is to have all pockets eventually, but for now I am building as I can afford them.


Next, I decided after learning that my current baby wipes were a 'moderate hazard' or 3 on the cosmetic data base (http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/product/468024/Huggies_Thick-n-Clean_Baby_Wipes%2C_Fragrance_Free/) I decided to try to make my own wipes. In an effort to be green and save even more money, I decided to try cloth wipes. After using my trusty Google search engine, I found several different recipes for the wipes solution. I went with the following recipe:

1 c water
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp baby wash (I currently use Burt's Bees which is a 'low hazard' or 1 on the cosmetic database)

I then went to the trusty Dollar Tree and purchased 20 baby wash cloths and a container to put them in ($6.51)

I mixed all my ingredients in my container, folded the wash cloths, placed them into the container, and closed it to allow time for the solution to absorb into the cloths. (I need to add here, if you are not going to use
your wipes quickly, you should add some tee tree oil to ward off mildew.)

It was a flop! They were way too saturated and caused my daughter to break out. I rinsed them very well and rung them out completely so that they were only slightly damp. This made a huge difference. Daddy T (the biggest cloth diapering critic alive) even fell in love with them after that! We only use 1 wipe even when changing our 2-year-old! That being said, next time I will cut my mixture in half.