Going cold turkey…
…on baby wipes…
This may not seem that scary if you are not in possession of Small people, but believe me people, this is quite a ‘BIG STEP’…
We use re-usable nappies and wipes on SmallSmall 90% of the time. However, when we are out and about, I have to confess a packet of wipes invariably comes with us, and then wipes up the obvious-poos etc, faces, sticky hands, and the not so obvious-sticky marks on other people’s furniture, small patches of wee on the mother in laws carpet if SmallSmall has been allowed to wander ‘nappy-free’ for a touch too long… you get the drift…
I asked my mum what she used in the days “BBW” (before Baby Wipes) and she said they just didn’t bother. Must quiz her further on what she did for the bottom department, but I’m guessing mucky faces got the good old ‘spit on the hanky’ routine (actually, I’m not guessing, it is imprinted on my memory…)
We are presently guilty of having a pack of baby wipes in nearly every room in the house, as they are just so handy for cleaning up Small people and all their many and various messes.
But no more.
As I said, for mucky bums, we already we have these lovely bum wipes
which I bought years ago when we first started using re-usable nappies, and I have to say that I prefer them for bum wiping to normal wipes. They are nice soft fleece on one side, and then either towelling type material or somtehing a bit smoother (not sure what the technical name is..maybe velour?). I just wet them under the tap when I need them, although when BigSmall was little I spent ages experimenting with various solutions to soak them in, so they were ready to use. I eventually settled on a mix of a mug of cammomile tea, a slug of almond oil, and a few drops of lavender essential oil. But now, I can’t really be bothered with that, and just use good old water, and it seems to work fine! I will pre-wet a stash of these when we go out and keep them in a zipock bag in the changing bag.
For faces and sticky hands, and wiping up messes on other people’s furniture, I have made us a handy selection of wipes/flannels from old towels, and we will keep a stash in the kitchen, a stash upstairs, and a stash to go in the changing bag.
If you want to do the same, it is really very easy…
This is what you need:
- old towels
- pinking shears (or just plain old scissors)
- pins
- sewing machine and thread
And I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you, but this is what you do:
- Cut your towel to the desired size and shape-I have made a variety of sizes-flannel size ones and some smallers ones too-if you are being cunning, then try and make use of the already hemmed edges to save you a job!
- Fold over about 1cm hem and pin-I didn’t bother folding over twice to make nice neat hem, as I figured that a) this would make it too bulky for the machine, and b) these are flannels for wiping mucky faces-they do not need to be aesthetically pleasing…
- At the corners I chopped off a small triangle of fabric to avoid too much bulk at the corners. Again, it really doesn’t have to be that neat
- Sew around all 4 edges-at the corners, leave the needle in the fabric, and turn your flannel through 90 degrees, and then sew on again. Remember to go forwards and backwards at the beginning and the end to stop your sewing unravelling!
- Trim your loose threads, and you are done.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
You could even just cut the towels with pinking shears and not bother hemming the edges. But I did try this, and even with pinking shears, the edges started to fray after being washed.
The hardest bit is going to be the discipline to actually use them. Which is why we are buying no more packets of wipes-the temptation would be too great!
My plan is to find some suitably sized tupperware or old ice cream tubs etc, to keep a stash in, in the kitchen, and upstairs. And when we are venturing out, I will pre-wet a handful in the same way as the bum wipes.
I will keep you posted as to how we get on…!
PS. If you can’t quite face the thought of life without baby wipes, then please do consider supporting Ellie’s Fund.
