Homemade Baby Wipes

When we had our baby shower, we received some really great gifts. One of my favorites was from one of Barry’s family members (Thanks Joy!). Part of her gift was a wonderful tub of homemade wipes. She included the “recipe” because apparently she had heard that I’m really into that. 🙂 Those were my favorite wipes of ALL TIME! They blow store-bought brands out of the water. You’d be amazed at how much poop you can wipe up with those things! After all, Bounty is the quicker picker upper. Bet they didn’t have THAT in mind when they were coming up with a slogan.  Anyway, a reader asked me if I’d do a step-by-step for how to make your own wipes. When you read this, you’ll wonder why you’ve not been doing it all along! It’s SO easy and they work great! Let’s use Joy’s recipe and wipe some butts, shall we?

To make your own wipes, you need stuff you’ve probably already got around the house……especially if you have children. If you don’t and you’re making this for a gift, you could just buy what you need and then include it as part of the gift. That way, they could make more wipes of their own. Yes! I am FULL of great ideas….or full of something. You need BOUNTY paper towels, baby wash, baby oil, and water. That’s it. See, I am not about difficult stuff. Notice that Bounty is in uppercase letters. What does that mean? Actually, I think it might mean that I was “yelling” but that’s not what I mean, so don’t get offended….I mean, you should really use Bounty. Bounty is really a superior paper towel. I cannot stand cheap paper towels. What’s the point? If you can’t use it to wipe butts or counters with then why use it at all? Bounty will soak up all the solution and stay intact….instead of disintegrating when you pour the stuff on. I have also used Viva successfully for these wipes and I really liked them.  I’m a Bounty girl at heart though. Bounty Basic is my FAVORITE brand of paper towels. For this, you just need the regular version. And make it a big roll. I got the regular sized roll and it yielded wipes that were REALLY wet but still worked great. I grabbed the wrong kind. I get distracted by Annie in the grocery store. She’s still at that age where I can blame things on her instead of my own craziness. I plan on using that until it runs out.

You need this type of container. It needs to be air-tight and have a nice lid. This was the container that Joy gave the wipes in, but I also have another one. It needs to be 6-10 cup capacity. I have one that’s 6 and it works great for a regular sized roll. I think this one might be 10 cup. You can find these at just about any store – maybe even the Dollar Tree! Guess how much they cost there? It just needs to be large enough for the wipes to fit down in.

Now comes the fun part! Get out your serrated knife. I guess you could ask your husband to cut it in half with his table saw, but why do that? This is really good therapy…….and your kids will think you’re really strong! Tell them it’s because you eat your peas. If you try to cut it with another type of knife, it won’t work as well…..I know, because I tried it. I’m just here to keep you from making mistakes.

Now, use your super bionic strength to pull out the cardboard center. This is usually pretty easy. Well, I must be a sissy now. I had a hard time getting it out this time. I tugged and tugged. Finally it came out. Shew. Workout, check!

When you pull it out, the center towel will likely come out with it. That’s ok because you need it out anyway…..that’s how you get the wipes out. Unless you’re like me. I prefer to get mine from the outside edge. Yeah, I know. I’m a strange one. You can do it however you like. Be normal, or strange like me.

Now, drop your halved roll into the container. See how mine isn’t very tight? That’s because this time I used a smaller roll. If it was the bigger size, it would be a tight fit. If you want to use smaller rolls and a smaller container, then just cut back a bit on the amount of solution that you make. I hate math, so figure it out yourself. Ha, ha!

In a small mixing bowl or a large measuring cup, put two cups of water. To that you need to add 2 tablespoons of baby oil and 2 tablespoons of baby wash. Ahhh, I just love that clean baby butt smell!

Mix it up! Oil and water do not mix. I’m a continuous science experiment. Actually, it does sorta mix up, so I guess I proved that theory wrong. Don’t mix too hard! I know you’re getting excited, but don’t go overboard. If you do, you’ll have lots of bubbles. This isn’t time for a bath.

Pour your solution over the paper towels. It’s going to soak it up pretty fast. You’ll be amazed at how fast….once I dropped a roll of paper towels in the toilet, so I am never amazed at how fast they get wet.

Now, put on the lid and let them sit. It might take about an hour for them to soak up all the solution. Some people like to turn the container over, but I just let mine soak it up until it’s pretty evenly distributed.  Since you’ve got an airtight container, they’ll stay wet for a long time! You probably use them so often you never worry about your wipes getting dry.