If my post on Calpol, my ritual ranting about Sodium Lauryl Sulphate or my reasons for choosing cloth nappies hadn’t made it clear enough yet, I’ll spell it out for you: I don’t like a lot of the products that come with a smiling little baby on the packaging.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times. Just because there’s a happy baby on the cover does not mean it’s actually good for your baby. And one of my main bugbears is baby wipes. For the most part, they contain SLS, the product found in many baby products and most bath products since it causes the foam we all love. What really puts me off SLS is the fact that it was designed in the 1800’s as an industrial engine cleaner. How can that not be too harsh for a baby’s delicate skin?

What really got me going on the whole SLS thing was the fact that my daughter would break out in a rash every time I tried to Jackson Reece BabyWipeswipe her face with baby wipes. I know many people use reusable wipes, and that was looking more and more like our future, when I was given a pack of Jackson Reece Natural Herbal Baby Wipes.

Sceptical at first, I was pleased to see the ‘No alcohol, parabens, SLS or SLES’ announcement on the packaging. I was reserving excitement for the list of ingredients, and wasn’t disappointed. Not only do they list all the components, but also provide an explanation of what they are. Although the list is still a little longer than I would like to see, you can’t have convenience and completely chemical free in the same package, it seems, and these are definitely better than mainstream alternatives.

Not only are Jackson Reece’s wipes free from harmful chemicals, but they also have added aloe ( a natural healer), lavender (a natural disinfectant) and tea tree oil – also a natural disinfectant and a very useful cleaning agent. Taking an individual look at each of the ingredients, I am happy to report that with a slight caution for the Sodium Levulinate that can cause skin and eye irritation in anyone allergic to it, I did not find anything that made me uncomfortable.

So then it was on to the acid test: using it. I opened the packet to be met by a very distinct tea tree smell, and a definite hint of lavender – much preferable to the chemical smell of many other wipes. I wiped my daughter’s face with it, and it cleaned perfectly and most importantly, even after a week of usage has not once caused her a rash.

Jackson Reece FlushableWipesFor dirty bums they work perfectly too. By using Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside – derived from cane sugar and coconut – instead of SLS they still get the foamy/soapy kind of cleaner. Although the wipes do feel quite soapy, they do not leave a residue, but cut through dirt as well as any chemical cleaner, leaving the bum soft and clean and cared for.

The Jackson Reece wipes I sampled are bio-degradable, and they also now sell a flushable wipe, which breaks down in water within eight days.

As with all things natural and good for you, these are slightly more expensive than the major brands you might find in your local supermarket, coming in at RRP £1.99 for 72 wipes. That said, I find myself using one or two wipes at a time instead of the usual three or four. Factor this into the equation and natural wipes actually work out cheaper than many of the mainstream brands.

The wipes are available from the likes of Sainsbury’s and Superdrug and some Mothercare stores, and a list of web retailers can be found on Jackson Reece’s website.

Give them a try when you next buy baby wipes – they come highly recommended.

In the meantime, I have five packs of wipes and five packs of flushable wipes to give to five lovely readers. To enter leave a comment below saying why you would like these natural wipes, and I will randomly draw 5 winners using random.org on the 14th of June.

Competition closes at 12 noon and is open to UK residents only.

If you are also interested in natural parenting, natural child health and all those things that pertain to life with child, subscribe to this blog for RSS or email updates or follow me on Google Friend Connect or Twitter (click the appropriate button in the sidebar)

And the winners are: Jackson Reece Winners
Please contact me with your address as soon as possible!

21 Comments

Jackson Reece – Kinder by Nature Baby Wipes

  1. It is so difficult getting natural, chemical-free wipes these days (not to mention they cost more too)…but for my baby’s sake I would love to get my hands on some!

  2. Natural personal care products are for everyone, not only the babies… My eight year old daughter would love to try these and so would I.

  3. Thank you so much for sending out these fantastic wipes as my prize. I received them a while back so have used most of them up. I can honestly say (and no I’m not just sucking up!!) that even without the added undoubted benefits of their green credentials, these are the best wipes I’ve used! They smell lovely and fresh, they are extremely thick, bigger than most so you use fewer wipes, and incredibly moist. In fact I had them on the arm of my sofa and was inadvertently leaning my elbow on them, until I realised that both I and the sofa were soaked! You can literally wring the ‘wet’ out of the wipe.

    So thanks once again for the opportuntiy to try them, now I’m off to hunt down where I can buy them locally. x

  4. Didn’t even realize wips had SLS. It’s something that I look out for and avoid in soaps, shampoos and toothpastes. Will think about redoing my baby wipe situation ASAP.

  5. Hi we would love to try the wipes, at the moment we’re using cotton wool and warm water when at home and reusable wipes when out and about. I’m finding the reusable wipes are getting a little bit stained so would live to try some flushable wipes. My local Sainsburys doesn’t stock them so i’ve sent an email to their customer services department to ask them to start stocking the wipes.

  6. I would love to try the flushable wipes with Henry. As we are potty-training, I haven’t found anything that I am comfortable using while we are out (apart from our good ol’ standby wipes but they aren’t flushable). Thanks for a great post!!

  7. I would love them to try out when my little one arrives. We’ve got so much we need to buy in preparation that anything would help. Plus, we really do want to try and pick the most natural things too.
    .-= LifeOfBairn´s last blog ..What’s in a name? =-.

  8. I’m using washable wipes with my five month old baby boy, but it’s a bit of a faff taking them out with me so I’d love to try out some of these wipes in my changing bag!

  9. Would love to try these Keegan suffers with very dry Skin and will only use natural products
    @easydee on Twitter

  10. I would love to try the flushable wipes with Henry. As we are potty-training, I haven’t found anything that I am comfortable using while we are out (apart from our good ol’ standby wipes but they aren’t flushable). Thanks for a great post!!

  11. I would like to try them out of curosity! I’ve never really given any thought about the amount of chemicals in these things I use on Oli , Your blog definitly does make me think about these things! 🙂
    .-= Emma´s last blog ..Are You Born A Writer? =-.

  12. Would love to give these a try. We use naturecare wipes at the moment. Its so hard to find chemical free flushable wipes, these would be great for potty training. Thanks for the giveaway!

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