Friday, April 2, 2010

A Word on Cloth Wipes

I have been asked a few times recently, if I personally use cloth wipes. The answer is yes, absolutely! Well, I personally use them for a few things like washing my face before I go to bed at night. Mostly I use them on my 15 month old son.

Warning here- if you do not want to hear about poop in any way, shape or form please stop reading! I will be mentioning it in this post ;)

When I first started cloth diapering I had no idea that cloth wipes existed. This is back when I was using Bum Genius 2.0s and thought fitted diapers were pointless! How things have changed...

We used disposable wipes for quite a while. They are easy, quick and convenient. Then I thought of all the money we were still spending on wipes! Even though we bought them in big economy boxes, that is still an avoidable expense right? I decided to make some and give it a try. It only took one diaper change and I was immediately hooked. Now, my son has just turned 15 months old- he is not a newborn, no longer breastfed. As you can imagine this does not make for pleasant diaper changes! My three year old is also still in diapers overnight, and occasionally she will have a mess in the morning. Not so often anymore thank goodness!

What I hadn't realized before was how easy cloth wipes are, and most of all, how much better they work! You would be amazed, it usually takes me one wipe to clean up a poopy toddler diaper. Sometimes two, but never more than that. I love my wipes with flannel on one side and bamboo terry on the other- I recommend this to my customers and usually stock wipes like this in my store. Flannel/terry wipes are so nice because both sides are great at cleaning up messes! I do not really recommend the fancy schmancy velour wipes, in my opinion they just do not work quite as well. Get yourself an OBV blanket to enjoy instead ;)

So how does one go about using cloth wipes? Very very simple my friends.
First of all you should probably have a wipes warmer. Now, this is not necessary but very helpful! I highly recommend the Warmies Wipes Warmer by Prince Lionheart.

This is the first wipes warmer I have seen that is made specifically for cloth wipes- and it comes with a starter back of bamboo terry wipes! Kudos to Prince Lionheart!!
In case you were wondering their wipes are extremely soft and nice, just a little bigger than my personal preference. I still use them for sure though!

Anyways. All you have to do, is fill up your bathroom (or kitchen) sink with hot water, and squeeze a little bit of Johnson's baby shampoo in there. Or whatever baby shampoo you're partial to- but expensive wipes solution is definitely not necessary. Wring out a little bit of the excess water, fold each one in half and place them in the warmer- that's it, you're done!
I keep my warmer in the bathroom next to our changing pad and wetbag hanging on the door, that way I can throw the dirty ones right in the wetbag and do them with the diaper laundry.

Some wipes I just made the other day for Phineas


To see all the Flannel I have available go HERE
For coops I also allow knit print wipes but no specific prints, just boyish/girlish or gender neutral and I'll surprise you!