by Monica Vereana Williams

Created on: June 28, 2008

Are you stunned by the incredibly high price of disposable wipes? Are you concerned with the amount of alcohol and other chemicals that may be in your wipes? Even though you may opt to use reusable wash cloths to clean baby's bottom, even the eco-friendliest of us will sometimes need a disposable wipe, especially when we are on outings.

The following is a simple recipe for making your own eco-wipes and some great ideas and tips to help make them eco-great!

Materials You'll Need

Storage Container You can simply reuse a wipe container that you've purchased, instead of buying a new container. Ask around for one from friends that may have an extra one lying around. If you do buy a plastic container of some kind make sure that it is deep and wide enough to accommodate a piece of paper towel.

Knife Although many recipes call for a serrated knife, I find that using a very sharp Chef's or Carving knife does a better job. Using a serrated knife makes a stunning mess of bits of wasted paper towel.

Paper Towels Although I'd like to recommend a green brand, I find that any brand besides Bounty is simply not thick enough; I end up using 2-3 times as many during a change and thereby defeat the purpose of using a green brand. Bounty Select-a-Size are the best as they are narrower and therefore easier to prepare for this recipe, as you'll see.

Baby Wash Using standard baby wash is fine, as most brands (regardless of price) are gentle. If you like you could also eliminate the baby wash, as it isn't entirely necessary.

Baby Oil Although the scent of baby oil is delightful, using extra virgin olive oil is better for baby's skin; it is natural, very skin-friendly, biodegradable and if baby gets some in her mouth its no big deal! You could also use essential oils for scent; lavender is particularly helpful in calming baby.

Water Don't go to any great lengths to sterilize the water, or buy bottled water. The incredible environmental effects of bottled water are staggering; we don't need more plastic in the world. Good old tap water is perfectly sufficient.

Instructions
Using the knife, cut the roll of paper towels directly in half, cutting right through the cardboard centre. Put aside one half. I highly recommend taking the time to accordion fold (along the perforated seams) the roll; it make take a few minutes but it'll be worth it when you are trying to get a wipe out of the container later.

In the container, put approximately 2 cups of warm water, and add the baby wash and oil, mixing together with a fork. Insert the wad of paper towels and let stand, soaking up the mixture, for a few minutes. You may need to turn the wad to absorb up the other side, and you may need to add more water. When it is entirely soaked up, you may want to squeeze off any excess water; you want them to be damp but not soaking wet.

Turn the wad of paper towel to lie flat in the container and, if you are using a wipe container, feed the first wipe through the hole. Voila!

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