Whoopsie Wipes for diaper changes

A diaper change with a Whoopsie Wipes square goes like this. Take two from the pack. Wet the first, from the tap or the spray bottle, and clean; front to back, a clean fold of the square for each pass, and an eight-inch sheet has four folds in it. Use the second square dry to take the water off, because the dermatologists’ advice on preventing a rash is dry skin under the diaper, and a wet wipe on its own leaves the skin wet. Then the cream: cotton does not react with zinc oxide or petrolatum, and it does not leave a film of its own under them the way a wipe carrying lotion does.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says to choose wipes free of alcohol and fragrance, or to use water with a gentle non-soap cleanser, which may hurt less than wiping when the skin is already sore. The American Academy of Dermatology goes further on a bad rash: a squirt bottle of water rather than wiping at all, then air. A dry cotton square sits inside both instructions, because you decide how much water it carries and how hard it works. Twelve squares a day is the honest rate for a young baby; the six-pack is about fifty days at that rate and the twelve-pack a hundred.