Hippy Mom Nonsense - Cloth Wipes

I am a hippy mom. I do crazy things to my baby (and force my husband to do them too). I went without drugs for my baby's birth. I refused the hospital eye ointment. I didn't let them clean my baby until I breastfed. I plan to breast feed at least a year. We use a baby wrap. We co-sleep. We use cloth diapers.

Now cloth diapers will get their own 'Hippy Mom' entry but my sister-in-law is going to send me some she's making me so I'll wait until I have more info to give you (also I just started trying wool diapers and want to have more experience with them too).

Having tried it both ways, I cannot imagine consistently using disposable wipes if you use cloth diapers. The few time we've used disposable wipes we've had to root through dirty diapers to remove them before we wash and we've always missed at least one. What a pain! Plus you can't feel all high and mighty about using cloth diapers and saving money and the environment if you're constantly buying and throwing away wipes. It's lame.

So we use cloth wipes. We have a variety. We have some bumgenius bamboo cloth wipes we purchased, we have wipes that are really baby wash clothes (for some reason we got tons of those), we have pieces of 2 cut up flannel shirts. It really doesn't matter.

We use cloth wipes in 2 different ways. In the diaper bag we have dry wipes and a small spray bottle of my wipe solution. In our bedroom we have a wipe warmer filled with wipes and my wipe solution. They're marvelous. Rarely do I need to use more than one (although to be honest the flannel ones are a little thin and before Peanut starts pooping more than breast milk I'll double them up and sew them together so they're a little thicker).

My wipe solution is a very simple one I made up after doing some very basic research.

Wipe Solution:

1 c water

1/4 c liquid aloe vera*

2 T liquid castille soap (I use Dr. Bronner's baby soap)

2 T oil, plant-based but no nuts (I use safflower oil)

2-3 drops essential oil* (I use a lavender/tea tree combo)

*optional

The aloe and essential oil are optional but I like them. This is freakishly cheaper and has nothing in it to irritate my baby's skin. I highly recommend it (plus it's kind of fun to mix it up yourself- you feel so effective and hippy-ish).

Should you be using disposables or just can't bring yourself to switch over to cloth wipes you can still use this solution to save money and be gentle on a sensitive babies bottom. Just buy paper towels (I've heard Viva are the best for this), cut them in half and use the solution the same as I do. You can even skip the spray bottle and pack pre-moistened paper towels in a ziplock in your diaper bag.

Go and be more hippy....