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...

Thoughts on parenting from a new mom

I have been a mom for almost 8 weeks and have learned a lot. In my pre-baby life, I tried to make environmentally responsible decisions and considered the impact that my choices would have on the environment.  I have also always been a believer that less is more, especially when it comes to chemicals and additives in products, which can be harmful to our health and to the environment.  I knew that having a baby and maintaining the integrity of my environmental conscience would be tough, but there were many things that I did not consider. 

• Many environmentally friendly choices take more time, e.g. making your own baby wipes
• Many environmentally friendly products cost more money, e.g. seventh generation diapers
• Parents don't have a lot of time
• Parents don't have a lot of energy
• Ecomonic times are hard
• Deciding to become a one income family, even if temporarily, means cutting costs wherever possible

I am hoping to use this blog to share some of the environmental efforts that I am making with my daughter, myself, and my family, but I am also planning to analyze the economics behind them; are they comparable to the less eco-friendly options, and the true environmental impact that the choices are having; does it make a difference?

I hope that this information will be helpful to others and that it will motivate me, and you, to put the little energy that you have where it counts. 

I am going to start this week with some experimentation on making my own disposable baby wipes... we will see how it goes.