What are the Pros and Cons of Reusable Wipes?

I remember offering to babysit for a mom that had just had her first baby. She told me that if I was to watch her baby, I was required to use usable wipes and Cloth diapers. I was disgusted. There's no way I would use a wipe repeatedly to clean a baby's bum!

Three kids later, I was talking to my sister about cloth diapers. She convinced me to try them out. I quickly fell in love with them. The only thing I found annoying was throwing away the used wipes in the garbage after changing a stinky diaper. Seeing a bunch of poopy wipes in the garbage can was gross. The other option was taking the trash out every time I changed a diaper. To my surprise, I decided to try reusable wipes and found it saved time and waste.

Here are a few of the pros and cons of reusable wipes.

Pros of Reusable Wipes

1. If you are using cloth diapers, it is so much easier to use reusable wipes. You do double the work if you don't use reusable cloth wipes. You must first change the baby's diaper, pull all the used wipes out of the cloth diaper, and throw them in the trash. After this, you must take the trash out. It's just a lot more work.
2. Reusable wipes are a little more eco-friendly. You throw them in the wash when your diaper pail is full. Wipes don't take up a whole bunch of space in the landfill. But after having three kids, I have gone through at least 6 to 10 large boxes of wipes. That is still a lot of waste.
3. They are super easy to make or buy. I had some extra fabric which I cut out, doubled, and sewed pieces together. After this, I placed them in a container with a cup of water, two tablespoons of baby soap, and some coconut oil. They smell so good and work amazingly. If you decide not to make your own, you can easily find reusable baby wipes on Amazon or other websites.
4. Have you ever had a nightmare about running out of wipes with a large poopy diaper? This is a panicking time. You never have to worry about running out of baby wipes when you have reusable ones. You will never have that fear again because you have baby wipes around.
5. There is not much of a difference between washing a poopy diaper and a poopy wipe. The wipes and diapers are poopy and smell bad until washed. Simple enough!
6. In case of an emergency, you are a little bit more self-reliant. I have always worried a little about what would happen if a natural disaster occurred and I could no longer get wipes and diapers. I don't even know what I would've done in that case. But now, I am a little more prepared for a natural disaster to occur if I had a baby.
7. Ultimately you save a ton of money! For a large box of off-brand wipes, you pay $15-$20 easily. With baby wipes, you use them over and over again until they are 100% worn out. Especially if you make your own, you almost put no money into it. At first, I wasn't sure how many wipes I would need. I think I have 15 to 20 wipes that I cycle through. I didn't want to make too many because I feared them sitting in the wipe liquid too long and molding. In my experience, the wipes last in baby oil and water for about four days. Do you know how many wipes your child goes through in one day? Now times it by three.
8. You're protecting your baby from diaper rash when putting coconut oil in the homemade baby wipes. My kids have never had terrible diaper rash, but their little rashes have improved since applying coconut oil to the wipes.

Cons of Reusable Wipes

1. You have to rinse out the wipes after using them. It isn't much worse than a diaper, but it is another thing to rinse.
2. I often wash diapers every other day, if not daily. It isn't much different from everything I have to do. Throwing in a load of diapers and wipes is a routine. But then, when it comes to expenses, I often wonder how much money we are spending on Oxi clean, laundry detergent, water, and electricity. You might pay more money for washing machine expenses and all of that fun stuff.
3. Some people think that you're disgusting. Cloth diapers are something to brag about. Cloth wipes are something you will get a lot of weird looks from. I honestly don't care what other people think about my cloth wipes. It saves me time and a little money, so I'm all in.
4. It takes time to make the wipes. Having chosen to use reusable wipes, I think I spend an extra 20 minutes a week prepping the wipes to use. That includes washing, drying, and rinsing them; all that preparation does not have to happen when using disposable wipes.
5. When buying them brand new, they can be kind of expensive. I think I looked it up, and for ten wipes, it was at least $12. Remember that you only need about 10 to 15 wipes at once. But $12 for ten wipes seems a little much.

"Our goal is to help the world make decisions with a list of Pros and Cons. We invite all to add to our lists to help others make the most educated decision possible. We are all in this world together to help each other and learn from what others have learned from their lives journey."

- Pros and Cons Team

Written By: Sarah