Homemade Saline Wipes

You want me to pay how much for saline wipes?
Jane caught her first cold when we went to the mall last week. She had the time of her life playing in the soft kids area, but she was no match for all the kids' germs. There weren't any (visibly) sick kids with us while she was playing but something was around because she was a snotty mess by that evening.

A seemingly gimmicky kids' cold product is Boogie Wipes -- these saline wipes that are supposed to be softer on the nose and help de-crust things (affiliate link). Sounds good and they do work, BUT they are expensive and mostly scented (I did find a pack of unscented at a Target and the Amazon affiliate link above is to unscented, but it's hit and miss what's available).

I decided to try to make my own saline wipes at home and see how they work. I couldn't find a how to for homemade saline wipes or homemade boogie wipes, although there is a tutorial for cloth boogie wipes and she actually makes her saline solution herself. But being the ultimate lazy mom this is what I did:

How To Make Saline Wipes at Home

1 roll Viva paper towels (these are very soft and cloth-like)
1 new spray bottle of saline spray (the stuff that says safe for infants -- not nose spray, which has some kind of drug in it)
  1. I washed my hands -- because what's the point of making saline wipes covered in mama germs?
  2. I tore off a few paper towels, cut them in half (that's another gripe about boogie wipes -- they're way too big for me and leave a lot of valuable real estate clean and trashed).
  3. I stacked them in a sandwich size Tupperware container (although you could probably do it in a zip top bag or anything sealable -- maybe even an old boogie wipes container!)
  4. Then I squirted the saline solution until they were damp.
My fake-out saline wipes seem to work just as well as the name brand, and Jane wiggles/fusses just as much when getting her nose wiped so I know they don't hurt her nose any more than the boogie wipes (she does NOT like dry tissue).

I'm not sure if they keep well (someone in the comments of the One Good Thing post mentioned cloth diaper wipes molding if you leave them in the diaper bag too long), so probably just make as many as you think you'll need for the next few days.

PS Be glad I didn't go with the snotty nose shot to illustrate this post...

PPS If anyone can tell me this is a BAD idea let me know. I don't want Jane to get any sicker (although she's almost all mended now).

5 comments:

Tim and Randi Weigle said...

I'm glad I found this! Thank you! I found another "recipe" for them, but it included things I didn't have on hand and didn't want to leave the house to get them with two sick kids. This will definitely work. I can't imagine it's bad, but like you said, they probably won't keep for more than a week without getting moldy.

Katie said...

Two thoughts, depending on how fussy you want to be about it. You could add a little vegetable glycerin to make them more moisturizing. This would also prevent them from drying out so fast. You could also add 1-2 drops of lavender essential oil to the liquid ingredients before adding the paper towels, as this would be both soothing and antibacterial. You'd want to avoid eyes though.

Mari said...

I never want to be fussy. I'd have to buy the glycerin ... which might make the cost go higher than the name brand boogie wipes -- although i'm sure i could make a lot more wipes so eventually i'd break even. i do use the wipes to clean jane's eyes because of her tear duct. i also only made them once and then went back to using up the boogie wipes i'd already bought. will try again once the next cold hits!

Toni Kay said...

I am trying this! My little guy has a runny nose from teething. I am adding Vitamin E though!

Toni Kay said...

I am trying this! My little guy has a runny nose from teething. I am adding Vitamin E though!

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