While we’ve never escaped nappies, with a toilet averse toddler, we’re about to embark on the journey all over again. While I’m really keen to try part time Elimination Communication down the line, I know that our lives and our life styles, and the fact that I don’t actually have ‘maternity leave’ (I work part time so it’s not a crises) are not conducive to ECing a newborn. So, we’re back to nappies and setting up our supply to suit a newborn too.
While we made the switch from standard wet wipes to Jackson Reece Herbal and biodegradable wipes a long time ago, it’s still an expense, even if we only use them for dirty nappies. But we’ve slowly been making a change to cloth wipes for wet nappies and dirty hands and faces.
Now, I know it’s entirely possible to make your own wipes out of old cloths, flannels and so on, I’ve just never got that far. I did, however, find something called Cheeky Wipes, and I absolutely love them.
For £40, the all-in-one kit includes 25 gorgeously soft 15x15cm terry towelling cloth baby wipes, which are now available in white, pink and blue, a Fresh Baby Wipes container, a Mucky Baby Wipes container with a mesh bag insert, a Fresh Baby Wipes waterproof travel bag, a Mucky Baby Wipes waterproof travel bag with a mesh bag insert, a 10ml bottle of Lavender and Chamomile oil blend for your fresh wipes and a Tea Tree and Tea Tree Lemon essential oil blend for your mucky container.
(Bits and pieces can be bought separately too.)
Cheeky Wipes are now on the 3rd version of their containers, which is a good thing because I really struggled with the lid on the 2nd version, but the clip on the new ones is much easier to use and operate one handed while holding on to a squirmy child.
So here’s what makes these wipes great:
You have two containers filled with water and essential oil. One has clean wipes in, the other dirty. In the dirty wipes container you have a mesh bag which you can pull out and pop your wipes into the washing machine, and dispose of the dirty water down the toilet. If you’re using it at home, we don’t even do that – we just leave dirty wipes in the washing basket with the dirty nappies ready to be washed.
The same goes for the ‘out and about’ kit – they’re waterproof – we’ve had no leaks, and when you get home you separate the mesh inside from the waterproof outside, wipe out the outside and put the mesh bag in your washing machine, so there’s no need to fiddle about with dirty wipes.
Out the machine you don’t have to wait for the Cheeky Wipes to dry as they just go in fresh water back in the clean wipes container and you’re set to start again.
So for us, Cheeky Wipes are a huge saving.While £40 seems like a big outlay initially, especially when we still use wipes for dirty toddler nappies, the saving on wipes is astronomical. We could easily go through a bag of wipes in just a few days – say five days, and while they’re sometimes on sale, they’re often up to £2 a bag… that means we can easily spend £40 in just three to four months. We’ve been in nappies for two years… that means we could easily have spent £240 on wipes so far. (My child has a very sensitive skin, so I can’t use the chemical-laden cheaper brands either.)
Competition
Cheeky Wipes have offered one Diary of a First Child reader the chance to win a set of Cheeky Wipes. In order to enter the competition, leave a comment below telling me which colour wipes and which essential oil combination you would prefer.
For an additional entry, (which is not compulsory, and is not sponsored by Facebook and which has nothing to do with Facebook or its employees) you can like Cheeky Wipes on Facebook, and leave a message on their wall saying I’ve sent you.
This competition finishes at 23:59 on 5 March and the winner will be randomly drawn. Winners will be announced here and on the Diary of a First Child Facebook Page. Please check these to find out who won.
Please read the competition rules.
You do not have to tweet or share this competition to enter, and doing so does not give you additional entries unless otherwise stated, but doing so helps ensure that I can keep bringing you competitions! You can subscribe to Diary of a First Child by RSS or to our competitions onlyRSS feed or email. You can also follow us on Facebook or on Twitter. We hope to see you back again soon!