One More Way to be Green with the Little One

Since our sweet Little One has come into the world we produce more trash than ever before! For the first few weeks of her life we used disposable diapers and disposable wipes- for a household that recycles and composts this jump in our garbage was a bit unsettling to me.

When the Little One was about 6 weeks we transitioned over the cloth diapers, this was the plan all along but she was just too tiny to fit into what we had gotten for her. My friend, Jessica was a HUGE help in figuring out what kind of diapers and how much to get before she arrived. After spending all that money for diapers I couldn't bring myself to purchase cloth wipes, I figured I would buy some once the shock of how much cloth diapers cost up front wore off (yes I know, in the long run we are saving TONS of money but initially you have to spend some cash!). I just never actually got around to getting any, so we kept using the disposable ones.

Just like disposable diapers, the cost of disposable wipes add up. It seemed like I was running the the store every week to buy more, even when I bought the big pack. So what does a mom do? I made my own! Now they aren't pretty since I'm not too handy with the sewing machine and I still need more. I made my first batch with some flannel I had leftover from another project and measured them so they would be a perfect fit for the wipe container I had on hand.

When using cloth wipes you need something to moisten them with, you can just use warm water or make your own solution. I chose to make my own solution since I didn't want to leave the baby on the changing table while I ran to the bathroom to wet her wipe.

 It didn't take much to make the wipe solution! 

The recipe I used was:

• 2 tablespoons baby shampoo or wash
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups hot water
• 2 tablespoons of aloe gel

 I found the recipe here there are several other recipes depending on your babies needs or what you have on hand. Once I mixed it all up I just put my wipes in my old wipes container and poured the solution over them. It only took about half of the solution to wet my wipes so I just transferred the rest into a tupperware for the next round.

Though we are not using these cloth wipes exclusively yet it makes me feel better that I am cutting down on my use of the disposable wipes. I like that we won't be spending as much money and she is getting less exposure to whatever chemicals the disposables have in them. I just need to get some more flannel to make some more as that girl can go through some wipes!