What are baby wipes？

Baby wipes are wet wipes used to cleanse the sensitive skin of infants. These are saturated with solutions anywhere from gentle cleansing ingredients to alcohol-based "cleaners". Baby wipes are typically different pack counts (ranging up to 80 or more sheets per pack), and come with dispensing mechanisms. The origin of baby wipes most likely came in the mid-1950s as more people were travelling and needed a way to clean up on the go. One of the first companies to produce these was a company called Nice-Pak. They made napkin sized paper cloth saturated with a scented skin cleanser. Rockline Industries of Sheboygan, Wisconsin (which has a large part of the private label wipe market in several segments) went on to be the first to innovate the first baby wipe refill pack and pop-up packs which have become common in the marketplace.

The first wet-wipe products specifically marketed as baby wipes, such as Kimberly-Clark's Huggies wipes and Procter & Gamble's Pampers wipes, appeared on the market in 1990. As the technology to produce wipes matured and became more affordable, smaller brands began to appear. By the 1990s, most super stores like Kmart and Wal-Mart had their own private label brand of wipes made by other manufacturers. After this period there was a boom in the industry and many local brands started manufacturing because of low entry barriers.

Some green-minded parents, or those looking to save extra money, use washable baby wipes, typically small squares of material (such as cotton, bamboo or fleece) that can be pre-soaked ready to use, or wet as required. The cloths are wetted with either just water, commercial wipe solution or homemade solutions. Some parents prefer to use only water or their own homemade solutions as they can more directly control the ingredients used on the child’s skin. Some parents feel that cloth wipes are more effective at removing solids from the skin than commercial one-use wipes because of their textured nature.