Using My Surplus for FREE Wipes

Prior to last week I had not even thought I would want to do cloth wipes.  I saw we were running low on wipes and figured why not give them a try.

This is the thing... I am all about spending a bit to save in the long run.  Yet, cloth diapering is one of those things that can easily turn on you.  What happened to the days when cloth diapering was the cheapest way to go?  Determined to keep it that way, I hand wash my diapers, don't do AIOs (all-in-ones), but use prefolds (which are much cheaper), and cycle through 4 wipeable covers (the old Smart Bottoms).

Keeping up with keeping it cheap and simple, cloth wipes only made sense to me if I did not have to buy some special wipe solution nor had to buy the terry or flannel for wipes.  I considered what I already own -- flannel receiving blankets (just cut them up), and terry wash cloths.  For some reason I have seen moms always have more receiving blankets and wash cloths than they need, and these happen to be the best materials you could use for wipes.  Flannel works great for urine cleanup, and the terry does well for the poopy ones.  Of course, these are not ones I already had in use for baby, but were surpluses collecting dust.

Next was the solution.  I have a stock of essential oils, and often use them on baby.  For my everyday solution I decided to go with Mountain Rose's sweet orange oil and tea tree, 7 drops a piece, in a 50 mL glass bottle filled with my Berkey's water.  That size is good enough for us; I have a bit less than half a bottle left after a week.  Note, I use glass because the essential oils are strong and it appears as if some of them causes almost a stripping reaction to plastic.  I speak through experience, having dropped a bit of oregano oil on my keyboard once and the polish came off of that area.  I also have friends that will likewise refrain from putting essential oil dilutions in plastic containers.

You could be diverse with this though.  For instance, lavender is a great diaper rash oil, so you may want to use that instead.  Tea tree is good for yeast rashes (I use as preventative for my baby) and orange oil's limonene is a known cleanser, hence why I chose these.

I dabble some of the solution on baby's bottom and wipe up.  Since the solution is sanitizing, if the diaper was just wet one, I have found myself to rinse and reuse a couple of times, if not dab a bit of soap and then rinse and reuse.  You could use a spray glass bottle for your solution, which would probably be easier.  I just didn't have one, and you know I'm all about using what I already have.  In this, cloth wiping has literally cost me...nothing!