It turns out the baby wipes you buy in the store contain things like formaldehyde, chlorine, dioxins and alcohol. Super. Making your own is not as easy as the washing detergent we made last week, but it's close! Or maybe I was just more tired tonight.
LIST OF INGREDIENTS
1 roll of quality paper towels (I used Bounty because that's what I had)
1 cup boiling water
1 heaping Tablespoon of coconut oil or other carrier oil
1/2 cup witch hazel
a few drops of Tea Tree Oil or Lavender oil
A couple light squirts of a chemical-free or chemical-light baby soap
Air-tight container for holding wipes
The point of the witch hazel is to soothe and the tea tree oil is an antimicrobial and thus natural preservative. The soap is obviously the part that cleans. Duh.
Cut the roll of paper towels in half. Or get your husband to do it, because honestly, it's a bit tedious.
Dissolve the oil in boiling water and remove from heat. Dump in the witch hazel, soap and essential oils.
Put towels in container. (FOOTNOTE: Apparently you're only supposed to do one of the cut rolls at a time. I didn't know this, and did both halves of the roll of paper towels. It still worked out, but apparently I won't use them fast enough. Oops.)
Poor the mixture around the base and slap the lid on for 5-10 minutes. After that time, the cardboard center comes out of the rolls. Let sit overnight to fully absorb.
My favorite part of making these, other than knowing my baby's bottom will be chemical free from now on, was smelling the coconut oil. YUM! It doesn't hurt that I just saved a bajillion dollars, either.
Baby wipes are big business. In 2000 the industry made $263.9 million. (http://www.enotes.com/how-products-encyclopedia/baby-wipes) I'm all about capitalism, so go team for that entrepreneurial spirit. Boo for making something we use on our BABIES, toxic. That's totally a Fail, Huggies. In case you were wondering.
Next week on You Make It!: Toothpaste. Yup. I'm totally serious.
Thanks to Whitney for the recipe and letting me re-blog her blog.
3 comments:
Did you use the 1 cup water mixture for both halves of the paper towels? I just do one half at a time- I don't use them that fast and I don't want the paper towels to break down. But I use the 1 cup of water mix for just 1/2 the roll of paper towels.
ps- I LOVE the smell of coconut oil too! yum!
Oops. I will say it totally worked, but the cloths aren't the most moist ever. I'll make that addendum right now.
I went with cloth diapers and cloth wipes, and just wet them with water. Cheap and they worked totally fine :)
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