This is a great question but one that it’s difficult to answer – you might as well ask ‘how long is a piece of string?’
We reckon that 25 of our washable wipes are equivalent to one pack of baby wipes. This is on the basis that you’ll wash your Cheeky Wipes every other day, so washing 25 wipes x three times weekly equals 75 wipes.
However one of the good things about Cheeky Wipes is that you’ll use less Cheeky Wipes for a nappy change than ordinary disposable wipes. That’s because Cheeky Wipes are made from bamboo or terry towelling which grip the poo and swipe it away quickly, unlike disposable wipes which have a tendency to just smear it around. In addition you can wipe, then fold, wipe and fold again and wipe once more – so one Cheeky Wipe is more like 3 disposable wipes.
Here are the questions I ask which can impact your wipe usage:
How often does your baby poo?
Most wet nappy changes will just use one Cheeky Wipe (wipe, fold, wipe fold gives a good all round freshen up). Even the worst dirty nappy changes will use three (or four if it’s an ‘up the back’ one). But how often your baby poo’s depends on so much. For example some breast-fed babies only poo once every two to three weeks because the milk is so well nutritionally balanced.
How often do you change their nappy?
You might change a nappy every two – three hours religiously, or you might only change their nappy after meals or a poo. Everyone is different and what works for one family won’t work for another.
Is your baby weaning?
Once you start weaning you’ll probably find you use more Cheeky Wipes as they’re great for cleaning mucky faces, hands and eating areas. This continues right up until they’re at school when they gradually can eat a little more cleanly, but my 6 year old still often needs a Cheeky Wipe post mealtimes.
How often will you wash your wipes?
We work on the assumption that you’ll wash your Cheeky Wipes every other day. That’s because in most family households, you’ll have a wash going on at least every other day and you can pop your wipes in the wash at the same time. If you’re going to wash your wipes less frequently (with nappies for example) you’ll obviously need a few more wipes, so this is something to consider.
To give you an indication of wipe usage from personal experience, I made up 50 Cheeky Wipes last Friday morning as we were going to visit friends in the Cotswolds. They were used in the car en-route for the 6 year old, 3 year old and 18 month old to clean up after snacks. Plus they then cleaned up my little girl when she was sick all over herself just before we got there (and boy, wasn’t I glad that I’d made up all those wipes!)
The wipes lasted through nappy changes for my little girl all weekend and as face and hand wipes for the two boys post mealtimes and candyfloss on our day out. I finally ran out of my initial batch just as we got home on Sunday which I though was pretty good going.
In summary, if this is your first child just buy one set of wipes and see how you get on with them as you can always buy some extra later. If you’ve got more than one child, buy an extra set as they’ll be invaluable for hands and faces too, even if they aren’t in nappies.
