Cloth Wipes

Since we decided to go with cloth diapers, it only made sense to go with cloth wipes as well. With each load of diapers we wash we'll just toss the wipes in too. Sounds easy enough in theory! I ordered a whole slew of these cloth wipes from Baby Kicks:



They are made from organic cotton with one side that is soft and fleecy and the other side slightly rougher. One of the complaints I read about this particular brand was that the tag was so big that it reduced the usable space on the wipe. That was easily solved by cutting off the tag. Super genius!!

We will also need a cleansing liquid to use with the wipes. All you need with a newborn (so I've read) is water at first, so we will have a spray bottle with water to spray her with before wiping her down. Soon we will need to upgrade to something with more cleansing power. There are a lot of different recipes online but this one seems nice and simple:

1/8-1/4 c. baby shampoo
1/8-1/4 c. baby oil/olive oil
2 cups lukewarm water

We will put the mixture in the spray bottle (some people prefer to put it in a jar and dip the wipe in but the spray bottle seems tidier to me) and a couple of sprays should be enough. I've never tried using cloth wipes before, so we may end up tweaking this method once we get started. It seems pretty straight forward though!

We also purchased this wet bag instead of a diaper pail. It hangs on the back of the door and can be washed along with the diapers and wipes. We looked into getting a pail with a reusable liner, but we liked that this takes up less room.

There are many loads of laundry in our future, but we feel good about doing our part for the environment. Speaking of, here are some disposable diaper facts I found at www.realdiaperassociation.org:

• No one knows how long it takes for a disposable diaper to decompose, but it is estimated to be about 250-500 years, long after your children, grandchildren and great, great, great grandchildren are gone.

• Disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills, and represent about 4% of solid waste. In a house with a child in diapers, disposables make up 50% of household waste.

• The manufacture and use of disposable diapers amounts to 2.3 times more water wasted than cloth.

• Over 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of petroleum feedstocks and 20 pounds of chlorine are used to produce disposable diapers for one baby EACH YEAR.