Wipes on hold

I will be waiting a while before I try to make wipes out of paper towels as I want to use up the napkin wipes that I made first.  They do not pop up so I have to open the container and peel them apart each time I want one, and they are so thin that I often need many for each diaper change, which means peeling apart thin delicate paper towels many times, but that is okay.... waste not want not, right?  I did swipe a few paper towels from the dispenser in the Macy's bathroom to measure them against the wipes dispensers.  (On a side note, thank you to Katrina for introducing me to the lovely women's lounge at Macy's.  Perfect for nursing in comfort.)  The towels are about 1 inch too long for the dispenser, but I am going to try it out anyway and just cut that 1 inch off the end.  I wonder if I can come up with something clever to do with the little scraps that I will cut off... suggestions?

Restaurant Napkins; day 2

Well... something that I seem to have overlooked is that the napkins in restaurant napkin dispensers do not pop out.  So they are useless in a dispenser or warmer, although they do fit.  Unfortunately the roll towels are still a better plan.  Next I will try with a pack of commercial paper towels, but will need to cut off about an inch in order for them to fit.  Not sure how feasible this will be.  I am also going to do my best to find a commercial establishment that will give me a single package so I don't have to buy a whole case, as that would be frustrating if they don't work.  I am feeling a bit defeated and frustrated. 

Restaurant Napkins as baby wips: day 1.

Okay, so I should outline what I have already done in the vein of making my own baby wipes. I found great directions for making baby wipes on the homemade mamas website.  The recipe that they use calls for;

• 2 cups of water
• 2 Tablespoons of baby wash
• 2 tablespoons of baby oil

I used olive oil instead of baby oil and burt's bees fragrance free baby wash for the wipes .
They make their wipes using traditional roll paper towels and cut he roll in half.  When you remove the cardboard tube in the center you can then pull the wiped up individually... sort of.  The wipes were great!  Baby's bottom was soft and I loved that I knew exactly what I was rubbing on her skin.

So, you ask, why not just stick with the paper towels? Why try to make wipes out of napkins?  Well, I really like the pop up containers for wipes, and I REALLY like the wipes warmer.  I want to make homemade wipes that will work in the wipes warmer.  I came up with two possibilities; napkins that fit in napkin dispensers at restaurants, or the paper towels that pull down in commercial bathrooms.  I think that the paper towels will be more feasible as they would be sturdier, but I could only find them for sale by the case.  I was not quite ready for that commitment, but they DO have recycled paper options, which the napkins do not as far as I can tell.  I will not bother with the price comparisons yet, as there is no point if the napkins and towels don't work.

 Today I made my first set of wipes with napkins.  I found these napkins at Smart and Final.  I am sure anywhere that has any restaurant supplies would carry them.

 












They come with three pre-wraped packs of napkins. Each pack has 250 napkins, so there are potentially 750 wipes per container. 














I put two of these packs in a big tupperware and added the ingredients.















I had to double the recipe in order to fully saturate both of the napkin packs.  They look a bit yellow from the olive oil. 

   This is where we are now.  I will put them in the wipes dispenser tonight.  I think that, if it works well, in future I will just make one and have it on standby in a tupperware so that I do not have such a big container sitting around, but am still prepared for when the wipes run out...