Can you really stop buying baby wipes?

I'm getting alarmingly concerned about just how much rubbish we generate as a household with a little in the crew. So many products, so many nappies...

I always said I would use reusable nappies. To be honest, at the beginning, I felt like it was running a marathon before I could walk.. Disposable nappies were everywhere, affordable and easy. I didn't really have to research what or which ones to buy, I just went with a very famous new born brand, and stayed with them until I found a really viable and affordable alternative. Same with baby wipes. In fairness, I didn't even think about reusable wipes.

I do feel a certain guilt about throwing something in the bin that will barely degrade in years to come. I do think that's wasteful.

Anyway, having researched all the different brands of reusable nappies, it's another minefield. The same minefield you hit when you are buying a pram, car seat, cot...so much choice, so many mixed reviews, and quite a cost.

Also, say I chose the right ones, it's a different management system. Will I actually be able to cope with the extra washing and regime that goes with reusing nappies? Someone gave me some great advice - try reusable wipes. If you can cope with washing and storing wipes, you can cope with reusable nappies.

It's great advice - and a great starting point. Not only do reusable wipes come at a much cheaper cost, they are handy for, what feels like will be, a lifetime. I have a set of reusable cloths I can wash and use purely for mucky hands, feet and all kinds of mess littles get into. I feel their use will extend past the tiny little nappy days.

So, can you really do without disposable baby wipes?

My product of choice - Cheeky Wipes, the full kit. (they had me at this - "Cheeky Baby Wipes saving money, the planet and your baby's bottom") www.cheekywipes.com

How do they work?

The kits comes in a neat box, inside a box, inside a pack, inside a bag...but as you unfold it it all starts to make sense by itself. You have two boxes - fresh and mucky, and two travel bags - fresh and mucky. You have a number of cloths. You have two little jars of essential oil.

Each box has a fill level, which you fill with cold water and add in a few drops of essential oil.

In the fresh box you add the cloths. Close it. Give it a shake. Wipes ready to go. If you are going out you put a handful in your waterproof travel bag which says "fresh".

You use a wipe, you put it in the mucky box, or the mucky travel bag. Both are lined with a wash bag, so you can easily remove them and throw them in the wash when you need to.

You refresh the water in the fresh tub every other day. You clean out the mucky tub every time you empty it.

This is their claim, Cheeky Wipes will:

• SAVE YOU MONEY - at least £250 against disposable baby wipes

• Be Eco Friendly - do your bit for the planet - less landfill.

• Be gentle on your baby's bottom - just water and 0.16% essential oils!

• Come in an "All-In-One Kit" - convenient and no extra washloads, no drying required.

Is that true?

Yes. My doubts are pretty much all been proved to be silly. I've not touched a baby wipe since I had them.

I doubted they would not wash well and create a load of hassle - they are no more inconvinient that washing a pair of socks, really. Just add them to your next load. It's an extra bonus they don't need to dry, but they dry easily.

I doubted they would be a pain to carry around, they took up less space than a packet of baby wipes

I thought i'd be carrying around a bag of stinky wipes, you can't smell them once inside the travel bag.

I'm sat on about 10 packs of baby wipes I've stocked up on that i'm wondering whether I'll ever use again. That's £6.00 just going spare. If the wipes prove to be super useful, I can see a £250 saving being completely possible.

What's really great about using them?

The smell. I feel like i'm really giving my little a bit of wash, instead of wiping away the badness. The smell is so much nicer than any baby wipe I've ever smelled.

They are so great for before and after meals, quick wipes to just clean up and carry on.

When I first had my little I was convinced of the power of water wipes, mostly because I thought I'd be scalded in hospital for using anything but cotton wool and water to clean little. But after time these really added up. These are the same principle - 99% water. I don't like the horror stories of what the chemicals in baby wipes can do, I don't really think about all the things they can contain.

One cloth has abit more to it than a wipe so probably has the power of three or four baby wipes. That's so much less phaff. Especially for a little who is past the stage of sitting still at bum change time.

How can they be improved?

There's one thing disposable wipes have the edge of, and that's that when you are cleaning up a big brown explosion, the nappy can hold your dirty wipes, or you can open a nappy bag and throw it away as you go. If you need multiple cloths for particularly big clean up, where do you put the wipe? You're not throwing it away.

In public, this is easy if you have the travel bag with you, but I don't want to use the travel bag at home - that's ready to go if we need to go out or being washed anyway.

Also, I don't change my little neatly on a change table anymore. I don't really like carrying the wipes to the box, good or bad clean up, because they are a little damp.

I don't want to carry mucky box of water to where we are, little will want to play with it. So I feel there's a missing product in the kit.

Maybe a mucky cloth trug? Mouldable mat? Perhaps this could be a minature version of a top and tail bowl, kind of top and tail dish. In one side you put your clean cloths ready for the change, and in the other you can put your dirty wipes ready to tip into the mucky tub. Would make them easy to carry about, and make for certain you don't have to touch a mucky cloth for longer than you have to.

Just a suggestion.

Otherwise, I love them.

Cheeky Wipes - Thank you for such a great product. I look forward to my continued use of Cheeky Wipes for years to come.