Posted on Jun-15-05 at 12:52 PM (Eastern) by 69.169.155.158There were a couple in here I didn't know (ie mineral oil, vinegar, olive oil).
quoted from another site:
Clean white cloths, or rags cut from just about any old thing, makes more sense than buying or even making baby wipes... those special throwaway bits that can irritate baby's skin with soaps and perfumes. Wash the cloths with bleach and detergent, rinse with a quarter cup of vinegar in the rinse water, and hang them in the sun to dry. (You have my permission to throw away the yuckiest!) They'll be safer than a box of wipes that set, wet and warm, after your bacteria covered hands have touched them.
Juice especially for baby (at three times the cost)? Where does it come from? Baby apples? Gentle peaches? If regular apple juice is too strong for baby, dilute it. If it needs pasteurizing, boil it.
By the same token, where does that baby food come from? I'd venture to say it starts out as the same food you eat! Just don't use salt or any form or fat - butter, vegetable oil, shortening are all no-no's at this point. (Although my daughter cut her first tooth on fried bacon.)
When feeding your baby real food, be sure it's mashed completely. Remove even very small lumps or strings of food which can choke a baby. His digestive system isn't ready to handle it yet, either.
It's not necessary to sew your own diapers, but it is necessary to use cloth diapers unless you have more money than you know what to do with. Do the math, as they say. A dozen cloth diapers cost around twelve to fifteen dollars and they last until the baby is potty trained. So what if it takes four dozen or more? How many times could you reuse a disposable diaper?
Wash diapers like you do the rags, in bleach and detergent, then use vinegar in the rinse to neutralize the bleach. Hang diapers in the sun to dry. Ultraviolet rays from the sun kills bacteria efficiently. Don't believe the myth that the heat from your dryer will do the same. If anything, bacteria will thrive in that warm dark environment.
Mother's milk is not only cheaper, it's preventative medicine. Babies raised on it are more easily weaned and sooner. They don't have digestive problems that plague bottle fed babies (constipation, etc) and they're generally healthier, according to most studies.
Did you know that baby oil is nothing more than mineral oil with fragrance added? Fragrance that could irritate your babies' skin at twice the price?
Or that corn starch is preferable to baby powder, money wise and purity wise? Baby powder is talcum powder, again with added fragrance which can irritate baby's skin. Corn starch is pure enough for food.
Baby lotion is more water than anything else. The 'anything else' is what sometimes hurts your baby's skin more than it helps. Normally, baby skin doesn't need lotion, but if it does occasionally, use pure olive oil instead. It's not especially frugal cost wise, but used sparingly and only when it's needed, one small bottle should last longer than your baby is a baby, which is more than you can say for baby lotion.
~~ Val ~~
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_1X_What_is_Hodgkins_disease_20.asp