Almost every brand-new parent has them in the house: binky wipes. Not only can you use it to clean dirty bottoms, but also dirty mouths and hands are clean in no time. Unfortunately, disposable baby wipes create a lot of waste and often contain not so nice - and moreover - unnecessary ingredients such as preservatives, synthetic fragrances and (micro)plastics. Fortunately, you can also easily make your own wipes. Homemade zero waste wipes are not only kinder to baby's delicate skin, but also to the earth and your wallet. Let's get to work!
Reusable wipes
Both for home and on the go, you can easily make wet wipes yourself. You can buy ready-made reusable wipes such as these wipes from 100% organic katoand. Even cheaper and more sustainable is to make the wipes yourself from old fabric scraps. You can do this, for example, by cutting up old T-shirts or fitted sheets of 100% cotton. This way you can still do something useful with your old cotton fabric scraps, and it's also no problem if you throw away a cloth that is too dirty to wash - hello baby poo. This way, by the way, you can also easily making inserts For washable nappies. We have written about washable nappies before.
Zero waste wipes for home
If you want to use homemade wipes at home, you don't need to prepare anything for this. All you need are reusable wipes (which you can cut yourself) and water. Have a bowl of water and the wipes ready next to the changing table so you have everything you need to clean your baby's bottom. For those cases where you can't get it clean with just water alone, you can add a few drops of almond oil use. And if it is very cold in the baby's room, you can keep the water in a thermos to keep it nice and warm.
You can use reusable wipes at home as well as on the go.
Zero waste wet wipes on the go
On the road, you could take a bottle of water with you to wet your reusable wipes on the spot. But you can also prepare the wet wipes so you have them quickly to hand. Let us have a handy recipe for just that.
Recipe: zero waste wipes on the go
Tools
- 10-20 reusable wipes
- 200 ml of water
- kettle
- heat-resistant dish
- 1/2 tbsp almond oil, coconut oil or olive oil (organic)
- a few drops of baby wash gel
- box or bag to store the wipes
Instructions
- Boil the water.
- Put the water in a bowl and add the oil.
- Add a few drops of baby wash gel so that the oil dissolves well in the water. Then stir well.
- Fold the wipes together so you can take them out easily (see photos).
- Put the wipes in the dish and let them soak for a while so that they absorb the water well.
- Put the wipes in a handy storage box or bag. This way you can store them for about 2 to 3 days.
Notes
Step-by-step plan to make your own wipes
This allows you to fold the wipes so you can easily take them out of the box one by one
More sustainable tips from thegreenlist.nl
- Sustainable baby gear: what does a baby really need?
- Which is more sustainable: Washable nappies or disposable nappies?
- Sustainable pregnancy: list of things you really need during pregnancy.
Sources: wherein, Zero Waste Netherlands, windelwissen.de, Utopia. Photo credits: Kirsten Schoner.
