How Many Baby Wipes Do You Need?

If you have a baby on the way you most probably already have a stockpile of things that you’ll need. Diapers, pacifiers, baby clothes, and so on.

Most new parents are confused about the number of things they should buy in advance before the baby comes. As a mother of three, I often get asked how many baby wipes do I need.

How Many Will I Need?

Most parents that have a newborn baby will need from 750 to 850 wipes per month. From my experience, the number decreased significantly when my baby got older. To put it in other words, you’ll need from seven up to fifteen packs of wipes per month.

As a parent to a newborn, baby wipes will be your new best friend. You can use them on everything. From wiping your baby after and during a diaper change to cleaning out the changing station.

You also want to make sure your hands are clean all the time when taking care of your baby, and given that most baby wipes are anti-bacterial, they serve as a cleaning agent.

Are baby wipes safe for newborns?

Baby wipes are meant to be used on babies, obviously. However, when your baby is born its skin is very sensitive. Most brands of baby wipes contain ingredients that can cause an allergic reaction or a skin rash in newborns. This is why some doctors recommend that you wait a week or two before you start using baby wipes on your newborn.

Some doctors even recommend that you wait for a month just to be safe. Instead of baby wipes, in the first weeks, you can use a soft paper towel or a damp cloth.

I personally started using baby wipes from day one on all three of my children and I’ve had no problems. I would usually try to go for Pampers baby wipes, but to be honest, anything that was on sale would also do the trick.

An Overview Based On The Period

I can’t even tell you how many soon-to-be parents have asked me how many baby wipes do I need. Honestly, the only answer that I give every time is “a lot”. Jokes aside babies are very messy and you have to clean up after them all the time.

Depending on how old your baby is you’ll probably need a different number of baby wipes per day. You never stop needing wet wipes, but as your baby gets older there is less and less need for them.

In the first few weeks

Newborns go through a lot of baby wipes, a lot! They usually need their diapers changed around 10 times a day. Let’s say that you are skilled a wiping and you only need 3 wipes per diaper change. That’s 30 wipes in one day. Standard baby wipe packages have around 60 wipes.

That’s an entire pack in two days. This means that in a month you’ll need around 15 packs of baby wipes. This number will vary depending on the size of the package and how many baby wipes you’ll use in a day but it’s around the standard quantity.

With my firstborn, I was using way more than 3 baby wipes per change, as I learned how to manage a clean-up the number went down.

One to six months

After a month or so you’ll notice that the number of diaper changes per day usually goes down to around 8. This is not a significant change, but in this case, if you’re still using 3 wipes per change, you’ll go through 24 wipes a day, which will be fewer packages per month.

Six months to one year

Once your baby is getting closer to turning one they start eating more solid food which lessens the need for a diaper change so often. Around this time the diaper changes will go down to around 5 a day, meaning 15 wipes per day or 7.5 a month which is half compared to the first weeks.

How Long Can I Use Baby Wipes?

Baby wipes have a long shelf life of around two years, this is of course if they stay sealed. Once you open the baby wipes you can use them for as long as they do the job. You’ll notice that once you leave them opened for a long time they start to dry up and the scent goes away.

With a newborn you won’t have to worry about expiration dates on baby wipes, you’ll use them up before you even read the date on the packaging.

Make sure that you leave them in a dark and cool place though. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve left my baby wipes in the glove compartment of my car and in a few days they dry up because of the heat.

Should I stack up on baby wipes?

You should definitely stack up on baby wipes. I already mentioned that in the first few weeks you need a ton of baby wipes. I would recommend that you get around 15 packages of baby wipes just to make sure that you have some on hand.

Trust me, you don’t want to leave yourself without them. After a while, you will start to wipe down everything, the changing station, the stroller, the walls of the crib, and just about anything that your baby touches.

How do I save up on baby wipes?

And yes, the cost. There are so many different brands of baby wipes that it’s impossible to give the exact number you are going to spend on baby wipes. But I can give you some general tips that might help in the long run.

Discounts

Always keep an eye out for discounts, buy one get one free, and for coupons when it comes to baby wipes. Grocery stores are well aware of just how much this item is needed in every household so they tend to have sales frequently.

Brand

Different brands have different prices. Sometimes you are paying more for the name of the brand than the actual product. It’s okay to buy cheaper baby wipes if you like the brand. Also, some stores carry their own brand of baby wipes and those tend to be cheaper.

Reuse

No, I’m not talking about reusing your regular baby wipes. After spending a fortune on baby wipes with my first kid I decided to get reusable baby wipes. I use them for both my second and third child and honestly, I cannot recommend them enough.

This doesn’t mean that I never used regular baby wipes, but the number was significantly lower and my budget was thankful.

Conclusion

Babies, especially newborns go through a lot of baby wipes, a lot. If you constantly ask yourself exactly how many baby wipes do I need, the answer is not so simple.

The number of baby wipes used per day will depend on how old your baby is and how skilled are you in wiping. Remember, always have spare baby wipes in the house and keep an eye out for sales.