I'm not a "crunchy mom," or an "environmentalist." But when I find that a reusable product that works better for me than the disposable version, you betcha I'll use it! For example, flannel washcloths or baby wipes.
My babies are born with really sensitive skin. For their first several months of life, it doesn't matter how quickly I change their diapers after they poop, they will end up with a bleeding rash. We've found that disposable wipes make the problem worse. With my first several babies, we used regular terry washcloths with plain water on their little bums. Terry washcloths are rough and irritating, but it beat disposable wipes.
With my last baby, his skin was so sensitive that even the chemicals in disposable diapers would cause blisters, so we switched to cloth for a time. And that is what lead me to the discovery of flannel wipes. I saw them recommended everywhere with cloth diapers, and for good reason! So I learned to make them.
Flannel wipes have been a game-changer for diaper changes in this house, and I feel pretty silly that I didn't know about them 6 babies previously. They're grippy enough to get baby clean, but soft enough to not cause further irritation to baby's already sore bottom. They're also great for loads of other uses. They're good for cleaning little hands and faces. They're great for makeup removal. Lots of reusable-product-types use them as a toilet paper alternative, or larger versions of the same thing as un-paper towels. For women who like reusable menstrual products, they can be used as a trifold liner in a "pocket and liner" or "base and liner" pad. Really, these little guys can be used for all kinds of things. And they're also super cheap to make. (Flannel can be purchased for $2.75 a yard around here.)
I was recently asked by a new mom for more information about them, and after hearing more, she wanted to give them a try. So I decided to make a video explaining how to make them. They are so dang easy!! Of course, I am as awesome at videos as I am at photography, so I couldn't figure out how to upload it all in one video, and had to split it up. But for anyone interested, here are the videos. I like to make lots of them in an 8" square size to have on hand with new babies, and they make great gifts for other new moms.
Now, I am no fan of laundry. So I have a system for laundering the reusable wipes that keeps the work to a minimum for me. I like to keep the clean wipes in a mesh laundry bag by my changing area or sink, so that I can just grab one or two out of the bag and wet it down just with plain water for cleaning the baby. Once used, I put the dirty wipes into a second mesh bag. When I'm running low on wipes, I zip up the bag of dirties and toss it in the wash with my regular laundry. I wash and dry them in the zipped bag in a whatever load I'm washing at the time. Then, when the load is dry, I can just grab the bag of clean and dry wipes, already collected in one place, and I don't have to do any additional sorting or folding. The bag of wipes fresh from the dryer becomes my new "clean" bag, and the other bag that I'd been taking clean wipes from now becomes the new "dirty" bag. I don't bother with pretty folding and stacking. I have more important things to do.
Mesh laundry bags like those pictured here can be found for cheap on Amazon.com or at stores like WalMart, Target, etc. in the laundry section. They're also frequently called "lingerie bags." If I'm giving a new mom any of the wipes as a gift, I like to include at least one mesh bag with the gift, so it's a double bonus that the wipes and mesh bags are so inexpensive.
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