Homemade Natural, Safe and Healthy Baby Wipes (2 Recipes and Both Easy)

These are not only perfect for baby wipes, but as facial cleaning wipes, on the go wipes – essentially a replacement to Wet Ones wipes as well!

If you like this idea, please “Pin” it to Pinterest so that you don’t forget about it and can find it easily when you need it!

I know that we have had the Spring Cleaning theme and we have been sharing our 26 recipes for homemade cleaning products for $12 by sharing a few each week this Spring, but I am taking a slight bunny trail.

I mentioned that I make many of our personal care items too – not just natural cleaning items.  I also shared that this will be a theme in future months/seasons so that we can get through sharing our homemade cleaning products.

But…. I don’t want to wait to share this next recipe because I want to save as many baby’s bums as soon as I can!

I make my own baby wipes.  It is so ridiculously easy, so rewarding and so, so, so good for baby, baby’s bum and for general health!

I am going to share two recipes… a popular one that I see floating around and one that I developed which is my personal favorite and that I regard as much better for baby.  But I also believe that both are a much better option than any commercial ones anyway!

It took baby #5 and a lot of rashes and sore baby bums for me to figure this out.  You see, I have super, super sensitive skin, which means that our kids have super sensitive skin.  We very often would have to switch diaper and wipes brands because all of the sudden, one brand would cause redness, rashes and ultimately flare ups.  We would switch products, they would be fine for a while and they they would flare up again.  Then one day  I was sick and had been for a few days and thought I would use baby wipes to bring relief.   I grabbed the baby wipes and used them.  I started screaming!!! It was so painful!

I then just began crying and crying and realizing that my poor baby’s bums would get a little sore and rashy and then I was rubbing them with these commercial alcohol filled wipes… no wonder why they would scream… it was the wipes, not the rash!  I felt so bad!

I was determined to find a way to clean them up without problems.  One thing I did for a long time, I used Witch Hazel with a cotton ball to clean them up when they had a rash.  I then would dab a bit of diluted lavender essential oil (diluted in another carrier oil like fractionated coconut oil) on the rash.  This actually worked well and I still use it to this day for extra cleaning, but not on every diaper change.  I wanted a quick wipe that was comforting and nice for them to use everyday!

So I found a really popular recipe that used 2 cups of water and several drops of Johnson’s baby shampoo.  I am not opposed to this and think that it probably does well based on the popularity! So you can use this recipe if you want!

But, I wanted something more simple, more natural and something that wouldn’t leave a residue on baby’s bum. I always figure that if you can find a way to make something homemade with the simplest ingredients possible – especially for baby- you have lowered your cost and have introduced less ingredients to your baby.

So, I am going to share the second recipe, which is very simple, very cheap, loved by baby with evidence of happy diaper changes, less rashes, and more subtle, clear, happy skin!

Here’s the ingredients:

• 2+ cups of filtered water (I didn’t want chlorine or anything else in the water)
• 15 drops of lavender essential oil.… I do believe that this is the BEST essential oil for baby and baby’s skin.  I have dozens of different essential oils for many purposes, but this is my #1 and only pick for baby wipes. As a bonus…lavender essential oil is also a top oil used in homemade cleaning products, so this means that you can buy one bottle and have dozens of uses.  See the previous post on where to get pure lavender oil for a great price. Remember that they seem expensive, but they are actually very affordable in the end.  a 15ml bottle contains about 300 drops of oil!
• Roll of paper towels and please note… the higher quality paper towel, the better baby wipe you will get.  I use all kinds of paper towels, including the cheap ones, for my homemade antibacterial cleaning wipes. But for baby wipes… I use the soft and high quality Viva paper towels.  Even though they are one of the most expensive paper towels on the market, you will still be able to make baby wipes for much less than the name brands! So invest in nice paper towels!

Now before I share the steps, I wanted to talk about Lavender Essential Oil as it relates to using it on baby’s skin!  Lavender Essential Oil as many health benefits including:

• Antiseptic
• Cellular renewal (which is why it is often used on burns, cuts, scrapes)
• Anti-inflammatory
• Helps to calm
• Helps with sleep
• Relieves pain

It is also on my list of the 7 Best Essential Oils for Cleaning.  A 15ml bottle contains about 300 drops of oil, so it will last you a long time.

Here’s the simple steps to make my Homemade Natural Baby Wipes:

• Cut the paper towels in half.  The best way to do this is by using a serrated knife.  The sharper the knife the easier too!

• Then set aside one half for a future batch of baby wipes and keep one for this batch.
• Place your half roll in a container.  I am using a Glad storage container, but anything will work including baby wipes tubs.

• Then add your 15 drops of Lavender Essential Oil to the 2 cups of water.

• Pour the water/oil mixture over the paper towels, turning the roll to cover it all in water.

• Let it sit and let the water soak in for several minutes.
• Then identify “dry” spots to pour just a bit more water in.  Most often, these will be on the ends.

• Add a bit more water to your measuring cup and just pour little bits over the dry spots.
• Let it soak for another minute or two.

• Then pull the middle cardboard roll out of your wipes.
• And then they are ready to use!

A few tips on usage and storage:

I use a Glad container and keep the wipes on their side.  Then when I change baby, I just unroll the roll and take off the wipes I need.  If we go somewhere, I have pull several of these off the roll and put them in a sandwich size ziploc baggie for diaper bag storage.

If you have any container tall enough and wide enough, you can pull your new baby wipes from the middle (sorta like we show on our Homemade Natural Antibacterial Wipes!).

If you are using an old baby wipes container, you will not be able to pull them from the middle (as you have manually unroll them to get them off), but BEFORE you pour water on them, you can unroll the entire roll and (keeping them all connected at the perforation) stack the towels going back and forth.  Then add the water.  With this method, it will be easier to pull them from the middle of the container opening.

I personally don’t mind unrolling as I go and being able to whip up a batch in just a few minutes, but it’s all up to you!

So now it’s time to discuss the cost!

Walmart sells 3 rolls of Viva paper towels for $4.97.

There are 63 sheets per roll and this will make 6 rolls.  Most wipes that come in the tub are 64 ct. so it is going to be about the same number of wipes that you are probably use to!

• 1/2 roll of Viva paper towels for .83 ($4.97/6 = .83)
• Essential Oils – I estimate them to be around .01 a drop at the MOST, so in total, you are probably maybe using .15 worth

TOTAL per tub of wipes  = .97 per 63 ct. of wipes!  If we told you that you can get a tub of wipes for .97, most of us would run to the store and stock-up!

If you get any of the items on sale, it would be even less!

Here’s a printable recipe that you can put in your home binder:

We also HIGHLY recommend that you put this in your home binder along with many more things we will be sharing! See all of the information on this in our previous post HERE about Put Together Your Home Binder with Free Downloads.

If you want even more ideas too, be sure to visit these links!

• Shopping list to be able to make 23 natural homemade cleaning products for a very low price tag of $12.
• And then if you wanted to make them anti-bacterial and anti-viral, we also shared the natural but effective add-ins for much less HERE.