If you have commercial baby wipes within arm's reach as you read this, take a minute and check out its ingredients. Chances are, you will see a garden of chemicals including parabens. Making homemade wipes ensures that what you use for your baby is safe. It's easy as making a cup of coffee. You simply stir the ingredients in water. The only hard part is slicing the paper towels into two. If you don't have a very sharp knife, you can just score the roll with a knife and cut it around using scissors. Repeat till you get to the core. You need to remove the core after because you'll be pulling from the center first.
You will find a lot of recipe variations in the web but this proportion works for us:
1. 1/2 roll of Kleenex Viva paper towels (I tried other brands. They tore easily --> epic fail. Just stick with Viva! TMI: It works with wiping poo-poo. I promise.)
2. 3/4 T jojoba oil (safe for babies!)
3. 1 T aloe vera gel (for extra soothing effect)
4. 1 drop lavender essential oil (You can use other essential oils as long their safe for babies. Do your research.:))
5. 1 T castile soap (I ran out of the liquid kind so I just grated this soap bar.)
6. 1-1/2 cups distilled water
Procedure:
1. Mix items 2 to 6 above.
2. Pour the 1/2 to 3/4 of the mixture in an old cylindrical wipes container. Push your cut paper towel in the container. Let the liquid seep in the towels for a few minutes. You may cover the container and turn it upside down to ensure that the liquid is well distributed. Add more liquid mixture if necessary.
3. Slap on a cool label on your container. I used The Jam Labelizer to make the one on the image below. I know, I know the site is for making jam labels. I was making a label for Jam so not much difference really, yes?:)
Now go forth and be proud of your newest, awesome DIY product!
Important note: Make sure to use distilled or boiled water for this homemade product. Estimated shelf life is about a week. To learn more about working with water, check out this article via Crunchy Betty.
