HOW TO MAKE BABY WIPES – ONLY 3 INGREDIENTS

Are you in a pinch and need baby wipes now? All you’ll need are simple ingredients, a few kitchen tools, and about 10 minutes. Let me show you how to make baby wipes with only 3 ingredients!

It took me a long time to jump on the DIY baby wipes bus. But I’m so glad I did, because once I discovered how easy and cheap these wipes are, I started making them whenever I was in a pinch!

I generally use cloth, reusable baby wipes that I made myself. But ya’ll know laundry is a mothers enemy and we are bound to run out (and it’s always when we REALLY need them)

But, with 3 cheap ingredients we can make homemade baby wipes in under 10 minutes!

The only things you will need to make homemade baby wipes are:

• Paper towel roll
• Castile soap
• Coconut oil
• Optional add-ins mentioned at the bottom of this post

Why make baby wipes?

Reason 1: convenience

There’s nothing more inconvenient than running out of wipes! Especially during a holiday, storm, or when you are sick.

Throwing together this homemade wipes recipe is fast and easy. It really is a life saver when you need it most! It’s also a great alternative to disposable wipes in general, so a win win to me!

Reason 2: saving money

With something like baby wipes that will be touching my baby and toddlers skin many… many times per day, I prefer a product with a top EWG (Environmental Working Group) rating. In searching for top rated baby wipes, I found that I would be paying roughly 6-11 cents/wipe depending on the brand.

First, let’s look at some examples of EWG top rated baby wipes and what they cost (american pricing) :

• Attitude: 11 cents/wipe
• Honest: 6 cents/wipe
• Niki’s Natural: 8 cents/wipe

Now in comparison, here are the prices per wipe for Costco’s Kirkland Signature paper towels and Walmarts Bounty paper towels:

• Kirkland 2 ply rolls: 0.17 cents/wipe
• Bounty Essentials rolls: 0.22 cents/wipe

Even when you factor in buying ingredients, the savings are still immense! It obviously varies by location and as prices fluctuate, but currently, it would cost me about $95usd to make my own baby wipes for the year! Even assuming I take it easy and only spend $40/month on the store bought wipes, that would still cost $480usd per year.

I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather spend that $385usd in savings on basically anything other than baby wipes.

Reason 3: non-toxic ingredients

The challenge with store-bought baby wipes – even the more natural ones – is that they typically have to use some sort of preservative. It makes sense – they need to be sitting on a shelf for many, many months without going bad.

I’m assuming this is why I couldn’t find one brand of natural baby wipes that had only excellently rated ingredients. At first, I was frustrated by this, but I’m so glad that it pushed me over the edge to just try homemade!

In contrast, my DIY baby wipes only have two other ingredients besides water: Pure Castile Soap and coconut oil.

What you need to make baby wipes

Ingredients

Here is your ingredient list. Note how many items are optional! You only need 1 item to be a disinfectant, everything else is optional. I generally choose essential oils since I like the smell.

• 1 roll paper towels
• 3 C. water
• 1 T. castile soap
• 4 drops essential oil of your choice *optional*
• 1 T. coconut oil *optional*
• 1 T. natural preservative *optional*

Tools you will need;

Here is the short list of tools you will need to make your baby wipes!

• cutting board
• bread knife
• saucepan
• stirring utensil
• measuring cup

How to make 3 ingredient baby wipes

1. Cut paper towel roll in half

First, lay the paper towel roll onto your cutting board. Use a sharp knife (I use a bread knife) to cut the paper towel roll in half (the short way). Brush off the paper dust into the garbage.

2. Mix ingredients on the stove

Next, add water, and castile soap to a saucepan. Warm on medium heat, and stir until all ingredients are combined. This step is especially important if you are adding coconut oil. (do not add the preservative or essential oils until mixture has cooled if you are adding them to your recipe)

3. Pour half the liquid onto each half of the roll

For this step, I like to place my paper towels in a bowl to contain the mess.

Carefully pour half your liquid into a glass measuring cup. Then, pour the mixture onto one half of the paper towel roll. I usually stand it up on end, and start by wetting the top and the bottom. Then I lay it down and pour the liquid onto the sides of the roll while turning it slowly.

When you’re finished with one side, repeat this step on the other side with the remaining liquid.

4. Remove paper towel centers and pack wipes

Once the liquid has saturated all of the paper towels, you’ll be able to remove the cardboard centers from the paper towel rolls.

Lastly, choose a container for storage. Some people like to use a glass jar or container. I have done glass containers for home use, but generally choose a Zip-lock bag for ease in travelling.

How to use homemade baby wipes?

If you’re using a container or bag, simply remove the whole stack, and tear off what you’ll need for that diaper change.

If you have left over wipes in the pile, you can stuff them back into the container to use next time. Don’t want to waste any of that cheap, non-toxic goodness!

How long do homemade baby wipes last?

The short answer is about 1-2 weeks. This recipe doesn’t have any preservatives, so left too long, the wipes can mold. I have never experienced this personally, but because adding a preservative is optional you need to be aware that expiry is fast.

So based on my experience, here are some tips to keep your wipes fresh:

• Only make 1 batch at a time (or however much you’ll get through in 1-2 weeks)
• Only use filtered, distilled, or boiled (and cooled) water
• Use a preservative (more on that below)
• Essential oils will help prolong the life of your wipes as well

What is the purpose of the ingredients?

Filtered or spring fed water

I prefer to use spring fed water to lessen the exposure to chemicals found in tap water. Water quality varies based on location, but where we are currently living, natural spring fed water is the best you can get. Filtered water is the next best thing in my opinion, which you can get by using something like a Brita or Berkey!

Distilled or boiled (and cooled) water works as well.

Organic coconut oil

Coconut oil is very soothing to the skin. Also, many sources say that coconut oil has antimicrobial properties. Sounds like a great combination for baby’s delicate skin!

I buy organic coconut oil in bulk so that I always have a large amount on hand.

Pure-castile soap (unscented)

Non-toxic soap is the “cleaning agent” in our recipe. You only need 1 tablespoon per batch of diapers, so one container of soap should last you a long time!

If you want to learn more about castile soap I found this great article all about it! READ HERE

Variations to DIY baby wipes

Size of rolls

You could use any size paper towel rolls, really. You’d just need to experiment with increasing or decreasing the liquid amount to properly wet all the wipes.

Regular sized rolls would fit better in a mason jar, if you’re going that route. Larger rolls work as well and will be the best bang for your buck. My favourite is Costco paper towel because it’s so strong and the rolls are huge!

Vary amount of soap and oil

You can adjust the amount of castile soap and coconut oil to fit your preferences. I’ve tried both more and less of each, but I like this combination because they get the job done without making the wipes feel too soapy or oily.

Add natural preservative

If you have concerns about using wipes without preservatives, there are many options for more natural preservatives that you could add to your wipes. I don’t always use these because I prefer to keep them as simple as possible for my own convenience, but some common choices are Witch Hazel, Grapefruit Seed Extract, or Vitamin E oil.

Use essential oils

Essential oils are a popular ingredient in homemade baby wipes. Be sure to check the safety of using your chosen essential oil directly on skin because different oils are meant for different things! I am comfortable using small amounts of Organic Tea Tree oil, Lavender and Wild Orange for instance, but it is up to you to figure out what works and what is safe on your baby.

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