Baby wipes

Disclaimer--I'm really up on my soapbox today and got a little preachy about topics that are dear to my heart. This will probably be a long-winded post, but I'm all revved up...

My amazing friend Tara (maid of honor in our wedding and one of the best friends a girl could ever want) brought up a wonderful topic--she asked me what "green" mamas use for baby wipes! She found a kind of wipe that's supposed to be very gentle on the earth, but of course, products like that tend to be very expensive.

With wipes (and a plethora of other baby products) in mind, we went to Babies R Us to update our registry. Many people have asked what we want/need, and I'm never quite sure how to answer, so I figure one of the best things to do is to keep our registry current with a variety of products that we know we're going to use. (For things I know we're going to use a lot, like laundry detergent, baby wash, etc..., I'm just registering for 10 of each so people know that duplicates are more than welcome!) We found two types of wipes that looked pretty green, and are from companies that express their commitment to the environment: Earth's Best and Seventh Generation. But you know me, right? So you know I'm not going to just accept what I see on the box! I'm going to research it. (Conscious consumerism is SOOO important! Every dollar you spend is a vote, so don't you want your votes to count for something?)

I pulled up the web sites for Seventh Generation and Earth's Best baby wipes. With a little digging on the Seventh Generation site, I was able to find out that although the wipes are free of fragrances, dyes, and chlorine, they are made with a combination of rayon and polyester--definitely NOT biodegradable. However, I do like that they have a strict policy against animal testing (click to read their policy). Animal testing is probably my #1 issue, and most of the products out there ARE tested on animals. Next time you buy mainstream products, take a look at the label...unless it specifically says that it's not tested on animals, then it WAS tested on animals, and you are supporting the suffering of innocent animals. (Sorry to be so blunt, but it's true, and animals don't have voices, so it's up to us to speak up for them!)

Side note: Some cleaning products, such as Method (available at Target) are readily available, cost about the same as the other products, work as well as the other products, and are produced humanely.

As for Earth's Best, they're also chlorine free, but their web site's lack of information about what exactly the products are made out of and whether or not they test on animals makes me wonder what the deal is. I e-mailed them and will blog when I hear back from them. (I'm sure you'll be on the edge of your seat until then, won't you? ;) (Yes, I'm being facetious!)

Tara was kind enough to share a web site with me: http://www.elementsnaturals.com/. They appear to make an environmentally friendly baby wipe. They're advertised as being renewable, compostable, and free of chemicals, fragrances, and chlorine. One thing I have to research a little more is the "Inego fibers" the cloths are made of. They're described as "world's first man-made fiber from annually renewable resources". That makes them sound a little overly-manufactured, but still better than wipes made out of petroleum products.

At the diapers.com web site, I found that the Nature's Elements wipes are $5.99 for 80 wipes. While they're more expensive, I think it would be worth it to consider these over the mainstream wipes.

Anyone know of other earth friendly ways of keeping our baby's bum clean?