How to Make Your Own Baby Wipes

Baby skin is much thinner than adult skin, and the formation of the many layers of their epidermis is incomplete.¹ Therefore, any product applied to a baby’s skin can be easily absorbed. And babies can have more severe reactions to chemical substances on their skin, such as those found in store-bought baby wipes.² If you have a baby with sensitive skin or prefer not to use chemicals on your sweet babe’s perfect bottom, it is pretty easy to make your own baby wipes.

How to Make Your Own Baby Wipes

Just a few natural ingredients are all you need to make your own gentle wipes solution. The basic ingredient list looks like this:

• Distilled water (you can boil your own and let it cool if you don’t want to buy it)
• Liquid Castille soap
• Oil like olive or coconut (or aloe vera gel)
• Vitamin E oil
• Witch hazel extract, or skin-friendly essential oil like tea tree, calendula (extracted from marigolds), or lavender to make your wipes extra soothing to irritated skin

Here are a few baby wipes solution recipes to try:

Easy Baby Wipes Solution

• 1 ½ cups distilled water
• 2 tablespoons fractionated coconut, olive, grapeseed, or sunflower oil
• 2 tablespoons castile soap or baby wash

Antifungal Baby Wipes Solution

• ½ cup distilled water
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• ¼ cup 100% aloe vera gel
• 5 drops of calendula essential oil
• 5 drops of lavender essential oil
• 5 drops of tea tree essential oil

Tea Tree and Lavender Baby Wipes Solution

• 1 ½ cups distilled water
• ⅛ cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of baby shampoo
• 2 drops of tea tree essential oil
• 4 drops of lavender essential oil

Moisturizing Baby Wipes Solution

• 2 cups distilled water
• 1 tablespoon castile soap
• 1 teaspoon vitamin E oil
• 1 teaspoon fractionated coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon witch hazel extract
• 1 tablespoon 100% aloe vera gel

How to Clean Your Wipes

When you launder your reusable baby wipes, always wash them in hot water to kill any nasty bacteria or yeast they may have picked up from your baby’s bum. You may also want to add a cup of white vinegar to the wash cycle as a natural disinfectant. Never use fabric softener or a scented detergent that could coat the baby washcloth wipes with unnecessary chemical residue.

There’s no need to dry the freshly laundered wipes since you’ll just wet them with your homemade wipes solution anyway. Make sure you have enough washcloths so you can keep one batch in the warmer and another set in the wash at all times, just like you would with cloth diapers. Rotate and repeat.

While You’re At It, Make Your Own Antifungal Ointment

While making baby wipes for my youngest daughter, I made my own soothing, antifungal diaper ointment. I combined tea tree, calendula, and lavender essential oils with coconut oil. I set each DIY ointment application with a top layer of thick commercial baby cream like Boudreaux’s Butt Paste. Then I sprinkled a bit of talc-free baby powder on top of the cream so it wouldn’t immediately rub off on her diaper. (I was careful not to use the baby powder directly on her skin because the sugar in cornstarch can feed a yeast infection diaper rash.) This process really helped with my daughter’s skin reactions.

Have you tried making your own baby wipes? What was your favorite baby wipe solution recipe?