Yes you heard me correctly, reusable wipes! Although cloth nappies don’t seem to be popular among the people I meet, they at least know they exist. Reusable wipes are another story entirely! I didn’t know they existed either until we went to The Baby Show and happened upon some at one of the stalls. We had the same reaction there that most people have when I tell them we use reusable wipes – pure amazement that such a thing even exists. I had already decided to stockpile wipes during my pregnancy. I was going to buy one pack of wipes at each weekly supermarket shop. I figured then by the time Tulip was born we’d have about 30 packs already so would hopefully not run out for a while. Luckily at this point I’d only been doing that for 3 weeks so I hadn’t wasted a lot of money on disposable wipes. The stall we found selling these reusable wipes were a company called Cheeky Wipes. The woman there explained to us how they worked and we bought them immediately! We got the all in one baby wipes kit (from about £40 on their website depending on what kind of fabric wipes you opt for, like the nappies we got a bit of a discount for being at the baby show). In the kit you get 25 wipes (we have the terry cloth ones), a clean wipes box, a mucky wipes box, a clean wipes bag and a mucky wipes bag for when you’re out and bottles of essential oils for the clean wipes and the mucky wipes. The way they work is you fill up the clean wipes box with water and add a few drops of the essential oils (we’ve got lavender and chamomile, smells lovely!) then put the wipes in. Yes this takes a few extra seconds than just grabbing a new pack of wipes but it really doesn’t take that long in the grand scheme of things. When you’ve used a wipe you are then meant to put it in the mucky wipes box which is filled with water and a few drops of tea tree oil. It also has a mesh bag in it so you can pop them straight in the wash like the nappies. I have to admit though we’ve ended up just chucking the wipes in the dirty nappy bucket and washing with them so haven’t actually tried the tea tree oil soak! I did however use the tea tree oil in my bath after having an episiotomy and it was great! I think I really should try using the mucky wipes box to see what kind of difference it makes, watch this space! The wipes do sometimes come out a bit stained if there’s been a lot of poo (maybe this is down to me not using the mucky wipes box, we’ll see) but wash out after a couple washes (I don’t wash them multiple times before using them again, I just use them stained because I’m just using them to wipe poo again anyway!). When you go out you just grab a few pre-prepared wipes from the box and put them in the clean wipes bag. Bonus: they make my changing bag smell amazing! These wipes have worked out great and are again saving us a lot of money. We usually just use one wipe each nappy change unless there’s a particularly bad poo! The only thing you have to keep buying is the essential oils. Our first bottle which was 10mls lasted about 2 months. These are £4.99 from the website. You can also get a 50ml bottle for £14.49 or a 100ml bottle for £21.99. I’m so glad we discovered these wipes, something I possibly never would have found if we hadn’t gone to The Baby Show! Make sure you check out the Cheeky Wipes website for their other products. I haven’t tried them but they also sell reusable breast pads and sanitary pads.
Mum Without Wheels 
I don’t use cloth nappies, but I do use reusable wipes… not for bum changes, but everything else that I use to grab a wet wipe for especially great for weaning mess! I love lennylamb ones. I just have a stack of clean, dry ones on the dinning table and run them under the tap when needed. Then chuck them straight in the machine so they get washed when I do the next load!! Obviously haven’t saved as much money as if I used them exclusively but it helps. I also use washable breast pads from the start so saved loads on breast oads! They are so much comfier than dispossibles too and don’t look bulky under thin fabrics! Most people are a bit all or nothing with this kind of thing it really dosn’t need to be like that 🙂
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Yes it certainly doesn’t have to be all or nothing, whatever works best! I personally used disposable breast pads. Mostly because, funnily enough, it didn’t occur to me to use reusable! I also found I didn’t need them past about 5 weeks anyway. The disposable ones can be annoying, they get bunched up. I’ll probably go for reusable next time!
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I only came across both whilst looking into cloth nappies lol! My husband unfortunatly was not on board so I decided to give up on those 😦 I have only just stopped using breast pads at 6months so they were a god send!
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I only came across both whilst looking into cloth nappies lol! My husband unfortunatly was not on board so I decided to give up on those sadly! I have only just stopped using breast pads at 6months so they were a god send!
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