Frugal Living

Homemade Baby Wipes

I was pushing Amelia down the 'Special Offers' aisle in the supermarket when I caught a display filled with baby products. Huggies nappies, Johnsons toiletries and baby wipes were all there, tempting me with their discounted prices. I grabbed the double pack of disposibles for £5 - yeah I know, she could be in washables. Better for the environment, better for my purse, etc. but they aren't better for me. Washable nappies means more laundry, and with a family of 7 plus an incontinent dog I have enough laundry already! - Anyway, back to the point...

I noticed on the shelf that the Johnsons baby wipes were better than half price, only £1 a packet. I felt quite pleased at that as they are my preferred brand of baby wipe, especially the Aloe Vera ones. I picked up three packets (one for the changing bag, one for the bathroom, one for the bedroom) and was just about to put them in the trolley when I paused. Usually, I would be congratulating myself on a good find, having saved in the region of £4 on the weekly shopping bill, but not this week. This week I thought "£3 just to wipe a bum? That's stupid. I should be making my own wipes again, or use baby lotion."

I must admit my previous experience making homemade baby wipes was not too successful. I used the method of sawing a kitchen roll in half, removing the cardboard tube from the middle and then letting it soak up some boiling water which I'd added a little baby bath too. Don't get me wrong the wipes worked, initially, but the damp kitchen paper used to stick to my hands and the babies bum as it seemed to break down after being damp for a few days. Maybe I needed a better quality paper to start with, I'm not sure, I might experiment with that later on!

I'm not too keen on using baby lotion and cotton wool for the same reason. The cotton wool fibres get clagged up with the baby lotion and then you end up having to pick bits of sticky fluff off your clothes, fingers and babies bum. There has to be another way.

Then I remembered The Basket in the bathroom. It's filled with goodies from my Mum; sample sized soaps, scented disposal bags and gauze wipes. to name a few. The gauze wipes are actually from a relative, every month they are given a set of supplies from the hospital. The kit they are given always contain gauze wipes which are often surplus to requirements but as it is part of their monthly kit they get given them anyway, lucky for me! I figured that if I could use the gauze wipes with the baby lotion the residual fluff on the bum problem would be solved.

With that thought in mind I reached out for the discount (only £1) bottle of Johnsons Baby Lotion, then that little voice piped up inside my head, "Bet the own brand baby lotion is cheaper". With my hands firmly on the trolley we set off for the baby toiletries section. Not only was the own brand cheaper, they even produced their own Value baby lotion at 10p per bottle. At that price I figured it had to be worth a go, and if it wasn't any good I probably still had a part bottle of Johnsons Baby Lotion courtesy of my Mum in The Basket in the bathroom.

From the previous experience with home made wipes I know that the container the wipes are kept in is important. It needs to be easy to fill, easy to open when you need a wipe in a hurry and relatively airtight so that the wipes don't dry out once made, an old baby wipe tub or one from toilet wipes is ideal. Someone was definitely smiling down on me today, the old Kandoo tub turned out to be the exact same size as the folded gauze wipes!

So armed with my old tub, free gauze wipes and 10p bottle of baby lotion I set to work.

How To Make Home Made Baby Wipes

First gather together everything you will need.

1. Empty Tub
2. Gauze Wipes
3. Baby Lotion

1. Open up the gauze and place a fairly generous squirt of baby lotion at regular intervals throughout the stack. This is where I noticed that the Value baby lotion is actually superior, because it is runnier it is absorbed by the gauze much more readily.
   
2. Press down on the gauze stack so that it absorbs the lotion.
   
3. Repeat the first couple of steps until the gauze pack is pretty much saturated with baby lotion (but not so much as it's dripping wet!)
4. You will probably notice that the edges of the gauze are dry. Fan through the gauze with your thumb whilst dripping baby lotion onto the dry edges.
   
5. Press down on the gauze again, so that it absorbs the lotion.
6. Repeat the dripping of lotion and pressing of the gauze for the other three sides of the stack of gauze.
7. Once the gauze wipes are all saturated with lotion they are ready to be placed in the tub - I used approximately one third of the bottle (about 3p worth!).
   
8. Close the tub up and the wipes are ready to use straight away.

Braided Soother / Toy Holder

I recently taught my older two girls how to make friendship bracelets. I found the act of making them somewhat therapeutic and relaxing but couldn't think what to do with a load completed bracelets. I then came up with an idea of how to use the techniques need for a basic V pattern friendship bracelet and utilise that to make a cloth soother (dummy) holder for my youngest.

The holder is made from cotton yarn and features a loop to attach to the soother handle at one end and a button hole at the other, so you can attach to the little ones clothing. You will need to be able to make a 4 thread plait and a V patterened friendship bracelet to complete this project.

Instructions.

1. Find 4 different coloured embroidery threads and something to hold the top of the braid whilst you are working on it - either a clipboard or a safety pin.
    
2. Cut a 125cm (50") length from each thread, and lay them together.
   
3. With the four threads held together tie a knot about 5cm (2") from the centre of the threads.
   
4. Using the longer threads, plait the 4 threads for 10cm (4") and tie another knot. This will form the loop of the holder.
   
5. Place the 2 knots side by side, and hold down the loop in whichever way you prefer for making your friendship bracelets - I usually pin the loop to my jeans!
   
6. Arrange the colour threads so that they mirror each other, in this case red, lilac, blue, pink on the left, pink, blue, lilac, red on the right. Start to braid all 8 threads in a V patterned friendship bracelet and continue for approximately 20cm (8").
    
7. The button hole is formed by continuing the pattern with the left hand 4 threads only for 6 rows.
   
8. And then work the V pattern on the right hand 4 threads for the same number of rows.
    
9. Join the two middle threads together as you would when completing a whole row.
    
10. Continue braiding another 5 rows
     
11. Take each two threads in turn, hold them together and knot them.
     
12. Trim the loose threads to about 3cm (1.5") long and brush them to fluff them out.
     

Attaching the dummy to the holder

1. Put the braid through the dummy handle.
   
2. Thread the button hole end of the braid through the loop at the other end.
    
3. Pull the button hole end of the braid so that the dummy handle is secured in the loop.
    
4. Use the button hole around a button on the little ones clothes.