Momma Crafts; Green Baby – Reducing the Carbon Footprint for the Love of Tiny Feet May 18, 2011

A while ago I wrote about how we thought we were going to be such awesome parents that even planet earth would recognize our efforts. In a fit of optimism before the baby came we created a blog called Carbon Neutral Baby – the idea of doing anything more than keeping everyone alive and fed some days never occurred to me. The battles we choose and decide not to choose constantly impress and humor me. Housekeeping – that had to go. So today, while the baby naps and I blog and craft, there are blueberry smears all over the dining room floor, Cheerios – so many of them and in so many places – I don’t even know how it happened. It didn’t seem like I put that many of them in the bowl to begin with, and who knew the dogs would turn their nose at them? Two piles of laundry sit on the couch, (clean, at least), I’m pretty sure I brushed my teeth today, but beyond that I can’t be sure since today started before the birds even got up, and I don’t know what the kitchen looks like because I know better than to go in there if I want to stay in the art room for her whole nap…

Having said all that, I am very pleased to finally have time to make my favorite homemade wipes wash. One of the “green baby” things we felt so sure was within our bandwidth was homemade wipes and cloth diapers, but we never got a handle on the wipes. The whole green baby commercial movement is kind of frustrating to me because:

A. Everything is over-priced

B. You can’t be sure that their product is going to fit your life style or baby.

Then I started taking classes at Rebecca’s  Apothecary with Faith Goguen. Faith is a Certified Clinical Herbalist, and from the sound of it, she’s had some similar frustrations with finding and making toxin-free baby products that really work. She’s taking matters into her own hands and has created an entire line of herbal baby care products, and so far I love them all.

Here are some of the roadblocks I hit in the past with reusable wipes – they sell them made of 4×4 inch organic cotton flannel for about a dollar a piece. Having 10 or 20 on hand is fine when the baby is still nursing exclusively and if you’re in a situation where you can do laundry every day. I also have a friend who makes her own, and they are really, really cute; which also makes them affordable. She cuts them in perfect 6×6 or 8×8 inch squares and then hems them evenly on all four sides. They are really lovely.

Neither $100 in pieces of tiny organic flannel or four evenly cut and hemmed squares is my world right now, but cutting up an old pair of pajama bottoms in shapes loosely resembling squares and rectangles is:

I even left a pair for shorts for summer PJs, and you can see how the flannel wipes fit right into a wipes box. I fold them in thirds to make them easy to grab.

Here are two wipes wash recipes you can try, and feel free to explore with various ratios of the ingredients depending on what feels best to you and if your baby has any skin reactions. One thing Faith does that I like is that she stores the wash in  a spritzer bottle instead of soaking all the wipes at once. The wash gets funky when it sits in the fabric after a few days, so if you want to wet a whole bunch at once be sure to use them up in a day or two. I also put some soaked flannel cuts in a ziplock if I just need a hand-full for being out and about for a day.

Bum Wash – by Faith Goguen

4 & 1/2 oz water

2 oz aloe

1 oz witch hazel

2 tbsp apricot kernel oil

8 drops rose geranium essential oil

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Wipes Water – (my variation on different recipes I’ve found online)

5 oz water

3 oz witch hazel

3 oz aloe juice

1 oz rose water (or skip this and just use 6 oz water)

1 tsp of almond oil (or jojoba oil)

3 drops of tea tree essential oil

3 drops of lavender essential oil

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