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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to start a campaign to ban wipes?

339 replies

annandale · 26/09/2017 18:56

Wipes are an environmental disaster, a key component of fatbergs and sold as a flushable essential when they should be treated like morphine - controlled except for specific medical needs. Anyone with me?

OP posts:
Voice0fReason · 27/09/2017 23:08

just a flannel & a sink with running water in the changing room. rinse-wipe-repeat.
How do you do that if there isn't a sink?
How do you do it if the sink is across the room?
How do you clean the sink after you have finished? Water is not good enough to make it clean enough for other people to use.

IncyWincyGrownUp · 28/09/2017 00:22

Bully for you Chardonnay. My son is unlikely to come out of nappies for a long time.

We're looking at the system some hospitals use which is dry wipes with a cleaning solution in a spray. All disposable.

I recycle, I reduce water waste, I use horrid energy saver bulbs, have insulated home, wear jumpers before using heating etc.

I refuse to feel guilty for doing the best I can for my son.

existentialmoment · 28/09/2017 00:39

There are some very desperate posts going on here and I think people need to start believing in themselves more as mothers and less in the power of the wipe

Well thanks for that, but I believe in myself and my parenting abilities 100%. I'm awesome. I don't believe you would have lasted a week with my son and no wipes though, you don't sound as if you have a clue about the difficulties some people face.

AdultHumanFemale · 28/09/2017 00:50

I'd join you on the fatberg barricade -I loathe them, totally grim. They make me feel unclean, and I won't let them near my kids. Urgh. I recently discovered that DP has taken to using them for cleaning / dusting / wiping surfaces around the house; where do I even start with that?!

user1496272879 · 28/09/2017 00:50

I am with you, dear op, an environmental disaster, totally against the ones that substitute toilet paper. I am ok with the ones for face etc that people don't flush

existentialmoment · 28/09/2017 00:54

They make me feel unclean, and I won't let them near my kids. Urgh. I recently discovered that DP has taken to using them for cleaning / dusting / wiping surfaces around the house; where do I even start with that?

Therapy? For you, not him.

OhtoblazeswithElvira · 28/09/2017 06:03

There are some very desperate posts going on here and I think people need to start believing in themselves more as mothers and less in the power of the wipe

if he can't walk then he won't be going anywhere. And if you are rinsing the flannel then how can he bite and kick you?You can do it, you just don't want to.

ROFL Grin This is the thread that keeps on giving

londonrach · 28/09/2017 06:35

Baby wipes...best invention ever. Cleans everything. Dh now uses them for cleaning. What did we do prior to dd. Yabu. Hands off my wipes!!!!!!! (Who flushes them anyway)

Athrawes · 28/09/2017 06:45

They are fantastic for cleaning whiteboards too. I used flannel in a zip lock with DS. We do use them now but never flush because have a complicated septic system. I will (wo)man the barricades with you to get NOT FLUSHABLE on each and every packet though.

hazeyjane · 28/09/2017 06:47

IncyWincy - we tried the large dry wipes with a cleaning foam, the foam works brilliantly, but we found it worked better and was less upsetting for ds on a standard baby wipe.

It is very easy to assume that because you have been in a difficult situation and managed, that everyone else's difficult situation is of a similar nature to yours, and that they too should be able to do what you do (this seems to be some sort of irrefutable AIBU law).

PeaceAndLove1 · 28/09/2017 07:27

They are fantastic for cleaning whiteboards too Are the proper wiper pads washable?

PickAChew · 28/09/2017 07:34

DS1 managed to destroy a biro, the other day and the only thing that went anywhere near the black disaster area that was his hands and everything he touched was some good old pampers wipes. Destroyed a microfibre cloth trying to clean the bathroom up.

PeaceAndLove1 · 28/09/2017 07:34

*I've just had a look, don't think they are. Wouldn't be any money in making long lasting reusable ones. Hmm

shouldnthavesaid · 28/09/2017 08:27

Purple been to see a doctor and told its quite normal to have heavy bleeding , although I'm on list for investigations anyway.

I was just thinking that I used to work for the NHS - disposable wipes were used every day , all the time. We used detergent wipes for basic cleaning (wiping down tables first thing and after meals or spillages) and we used hygiene wipes before and after every meal for hands and faces. Hygiene wipes were also used for stoma care and several other scenarios . We had special wipes that were heated for bed baths . I'm guessing most hospitals are the same - often they are a very convenient solution where one doesn't have the time to be running about with hot water. In terms of cleaning too we were told a wipe is the safest convinient option - no chance of cross contamination as they're single use. Chances of getting the NHS to change that is very slim , their use is widespread although not flushed (generally) . Would be on a scale far beyond a mum's use - we used to get a delivery of 100 packs of hot wipes, 100 wet wipes and about 30/40 packs of detergent wipes each week - and they would be used.

shouldnthavesaid · 28/09/2017 08:31

The foam spray and a dry wipe is fantastic for cleaning up poo in my experience. Would always use that first - plain warm wipe for sorer skin , stoma hygiene or on skin where poo shouldn't be (face for example!!!)

NameChange30 · 28/09/2017 08:38

I've said before that washable wipes are actually more effective than disposables for cleaning up poo. You can get a double wet bag to keep a load of clean, damp wipes in one pocket, and store the dirty ones in the other. (It's the Cheeky Wipes system, we didn't get that brand, but it's the same idea.)

I do also carry a packet of Water Wipes in the changing bag, but that's in case I run out of washables or don't have access to water. Water Wipes are still disposable!! They may have fewer nasty ingredients but they still have to go somewhere when you throw them away.

Speakeasy22 · 28/09/2017 08:50

I don't use them. No need. Call me an old cynic, but I bet people flush them when not in their house and there's no bin handy... and don't get me started on dog poo bags that are dropped when no one's looking... Anyone going to confess?

Spikeyball · 28/09/2017 08:54

Nope, never flushed them. There is usually a bin in the toilet (otherwise where does the nappy go?) and when he was young enough to be changed in other places, we took everything with us.

hazeyjane · 28/09/2017 09:20

No, I've never flushed them either, they go in the nappy bag with the nappy and in the bin.

I know that reusable wipes can be fine in lots of situations, I used pretty much nothing else with the dds and ds when he was little. But they are a massive fail, for us, at this moment.

I can't see them being possible at work either (in a preschool) where we would have to find somewhere to store the dirty wipes, and then someone willing to take on the job of taking home multiple day old poo covered wipes to wash, and bring back in.

mamatobabes · 28/09/2017 09:52

@hazeyjane oh god you don't use a nappy bag as well as evil disposable nappies and wipes do you? Tut tut Grin

Honestly. Some people on this thread obviously have very limited experiences if they think that a parent or care person is going to fart around sticking babies/toddlers/older children with additional needs under a tap, or trying to pin them to an elevated changing unit with one hand while leaning a few metres over to a sink (go go gadget arms?) or carrying around a bag full of stinking flannels when they don't need to.

Really, with everything else in this world that's bad for the environment isn't there bigger things to worry about?!

Uokbing · 28/09/2017 10:11

People who buy water wipes are a marketers dream and have been totally suckered into paying through the nose to protect their PFB's middle class bums. They are double the price of normal wipes.....for water! 😂

Why not just buy a roll of Plenty and stick it under the tap? Or is the 'grapefuit extract' that is the important bit?

existentialmoment · 28/09/2017 10:13

No, it's the ease of wipe without the ballache of shitty flannels in your bag.
They haven't been suckered at all.

ArcheryAnnie · 28/09/2017 10:34

But maybe us mums with babies should just stay home, like mums did in the good old days?

mamatobabes you are aware that you are on mumsnet, right? And that many of us - most of us? - also have kids?

Have you every heard of this magical invention - flushable, biogegradeable - called "loo paper"?

I was out every day with mine. Managed not to leave a trail of shit-covered one-use cloths behind me. Miraculous, eh?

Thinkingofausername1 · 28/09/2017 10:35

No. Wipes are useful in all sorts of ways. Especially if you end up in a toilet with no toilet roll! However, it is the people that flush it down the loo that causes an issue. I don't flush them.

ArcheryAnnie · 28/09/2017 10:35

And on whiteboards - I have one sitting next to me as I type. I wipe it perfectly clean either with a dampened cloth, or a bit of dampened kitchen roll when the cloth is in the wash. It doesn't need a goddamn baby wipe.